A headshot of a man wearing a dark blue shirt.
Chris Fralic Joins Cooper Hewitt’s Board of Trustees
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum today announced the appointment of Chris Fralic to its board of trustees.
Cooper Hewitt to Present “An Atlas of Es Devlin” in Fall 2023
Cooper Hewitt will present “An Atlas of Es Devlin” from Nov. 18 through Aug. 11, 2024. The genre-defying British contemporary artist and designer Es Devlin (b. 1971) is globally renowned for her large-scale, illuminated installations and sculptures for performances. Her wide-ranging practice, which began in small-scale theater, has been experienced by millions in some of the world's most prominent museums, galleries, opera houses, arena and stadia. Her highly collaborative work is at once deeply personal and inherently collective. Devlin views the audience as a temporary society and invites public participation in communal works to encourage profound cognitive shifts.
Designing for Modern Faith
Trude Guermonprez adapted modernist design techniques to objects of spiritual contemplation.
Hector Guimard: Art Nouveau to Modernism
Delve into the life and legacy of one of France's most famous architects.
The Hewitt Sisters and the Anti-Suffrage Movement
Women's right to vote was a widely debated issue in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century. Prominent women were on both sides of the debate, which pushed against traditional views of gender and class.
A moody black-and-white photograph shows the exterior of a Southern-style mansion with tall white columns and a porch chair. On a splotch of bright orange, the title BABY DOLL appears in letters made of yellow dots. The author’s name appears at the bottom in all caps: TENNESSEE WILLIAMS.
Tennessee Williams and the Art of the Book Cover
Alvin Lustig and Elaine Lustig Cohen designed covers for many works by Tennessee Williams that employ type and image to build an emotional setting for the text.
In the center of the image is a medium-skin toned hand holding a cell phone. The cell phone displays two butterflies superimposed against the flower garden in the background of the image. One of the butterflies is bright blue with a slight iridescent quality, and the smaller one, a Monarch, contains various shades of orange and yellow with black veining on the wings.
Design Retrospective: ButtARfly
This article was written as part of a series of Design Retrospectives on the prototypes commissioned by Cooper Hewitt’s Interaction Lab for the Activating Smithsonian Open Access Challenge. It was co-authored by the ButtARfly team: Jonathan Lee, Project Lead and Animation Programmer; Rianne Trujillo, Web Developer; Lauren Addario, Audio Advisor and Content Developer; Miriam Langer,...
Trude Guermonprez: Breaking Boundaries with Design
Trude Guermonprez (1910-1979) was a highly regarded textile designer born in Germany. Guermonperz immigrated to America and began teaching weaving at the Black Mountain College in North Carolina until the weaving program there ended. Trude Guermonperz then went on to teach at the California School of Fine Arts (now the San Francisco Art Institute), and...
Spotlight On: Althea McNish
Althea McNish (British, born Trinidad, May 15, 1924 – April 6, 2020), was a textile designer who rose to prominence in London with her bright and tropical printed textiles inspired by the colors and landscape of her native Trinidad. ​She became one of the first Black British textile designers to garner international acclaim, enchanting her clients with textiles featuring vibrant palettes...