31 October > 7 February 2010 Artel (1908-1935)
Czech cubism in daily life
The Wiener Werkstätte served as a source of inspiration for the Czech Artel Cooperative, artisanal workshops for ceramics, textiles, carpets, furniture and metal wares.
The founders of this movement, artists, designers and craftsmen, wished to pay more attention to the aesthetic nature of everyday utensils. They were a centre of cutting-edge design. They released their designs onto the market as a collective.
Contrary to commercial enterprises, the Artel Cooperative was chiefly driven by ideological and artistic motivational forces. The following artists were among those that made up Artel: Jaroslav Benda, Pavel Janak, Helena Johnova, Marie Teinitzerova and Otakar Vondracek. The Cooperative sold their designs through various stores. They made their mark through exhibitions.
In collaboration with UPM – Museum for the Applied Arts in Prague
31 October > 7 February 2010Siegfried De Buck
Jewellery designer and silversmith - Overview exhibition
Siegfried De Buck turned sixty years of age on 24 August 2009.
To honour this occasion Design museum Gent is presenting an overview of his work.
As a contemporary jewellery designer and silversmith, Siegfried De Buck plays an important role in the development of Belgian goldsmithing. His career, in which craftsmanship and elegance are at the heart of things, spans over 30 years and bears witness to a great personality. Due to his continuous drive for innovation, various style periods were formed in his design work.
Led by his sense of materials, the designer merges precious and non-precious materials to form unique pieces.
31 October > 7 February 2010 Disappeared from the GDR
Design from 50 years ago
In 1959 Christa Petroff-Bohne (°1934) was commissioned by the Ministry of the Interior of the GDR to design a series of crockery for the GDR gastronomy. At the time Christa Petroff-Bohne was working at the East Berlin Academy of Arts. This academy had been set up at the beginning of the 1950s under the direction of the Dutch architect/designer Mart Stam.This commission, which was actually a pioneering work, was a challenge for Christa Petroff-Bohne. She did not know any foreign designs and she was rather unfamiliar with the term ‘Bauhaus’. Walter Ulbricht, the leader of the GDR, who had been trained as a traditional furniture maker, hated the Bauhaus designs. Bauhaus was taboo to him. ...
27 february > 6 june 2010 The Scandinavian Touch in Belgian Furniture
1951-1966
The exhibition will visualize the results of the investigation into the influence of Scandinavian furniture on Belgian designers in the post-war period, and will treat the significance of Scandinavian modernism and its influence on Belgian modernism.
Based on stylistic and technical parameters, a selection of Scandinavian furniture was made which served as an inspiration for a specific Belgian furniture item within the 1951-1966 timeframe.
In a dozen cases, the Belgian furniture item is presented alongside its Scandinavian counterpart. Typical aspects in this respect are the aesthetical and qualitative qualities of the furniture item. Focus is placed on the originality and textural nature of the material. The furniture item is analyzed in its construction and detail.
The wider context of each furniture item is shown with information panels, photographic material and design drawings.
In collaboration with ism het PHL University College, Hasselt
26 february > 6 june 2010 Richard Hutten
Rotterdam-born Richard Hutten (born 1967) is one of the most well-known and most unconventional Dutch designers. He graduated in 1991 at the Design Academy in Eindhoven and fairly quickly garnered international recognition.
In his own design studio he produced designs for furniture, products, interiors and exhibitions.
Hutten is a conceptual designer but his designs are highly functional, each and every one of them. Often the object will even have multiple functions.
Design museum Gent gives Hutten the assignment to give shape to the exhibition himself. The result will certainly show this, and will be telling of the convincing and typical style of Hutten.
3 july > 24 oktober 2010Piet(er) Stockmans
A masterful dilemma. Design in porcelain
For over 40 years now Piet Stockmans (born 1940) has cherished the medium of porcelain in all its facets: he designs industrially produced dishware, he manufactures artisanal objects and he creates artistic installations.
In his work, shape and content interlace. Here, repetition plays an important role. The repetitiveness of the industrial process translates into an artistic means of expression in his work.
Owing to his original, multi-facetted and cutting-edge way of working with porcelain, Stockmans has a unique place in the Flemish design world, and he is more than deserving of the exhibition.
3 july > 24 oktober 2010Super Normal: Sensations of the ordinary
An exhibition of known and less known objects from everywhere selected by the designers Naoto Fukasawa and Jasper Morrison. Super Normal is more than a curatorial strategy. It’s a project denoting a positive
feeling of esteem for objects who, according to the exhibition curators, radiate something good. It is rooted in the designers’ shared belief that the objects we most enjoy using and looking at often seem, at first sight, quietly unremarkable because there is nothing conventionally spectacular about them.
Super Normal is about sensations of the ordinary, whose characteristics can be put into words but are best revealed through the objects themselves.
3 july > 24 oktober 2010Nilton Cunha: Good Luck!
For Sterckshof Silver Museum, Nilton Cunha produced the work Good Luck in silver and Corian. In this work, three rounded triangles, reminiscent of cloverleaves, intuitively formed a whole and were placed on a large, irregularly-shaped sheet of white Corian. For Nilton Cunha Good Luck is the emanation of two cultures, which have gradually become complicit and complementary. This symbiosis is the culmination of his joy and happiness.
20 november 2010 > 27 february 2011Chair .03 of Maarten Van Severen
The birth of a design icon
2009 saw the creation of “The Maarten Van Severen Foundation”. One of its objectives consists of stimulating initiatives and creating partnerships in order to keep the work of Van Severen alive.
The exhibition “Chair .03 of Maarten Van Severen” fits into this intention.
Using various models, prototypes, drawings and photographs, the development of the “.03”, the chair with which Maarten Van Severen gained international acclaim, is outlined.
20 november 2010 > 27 february 2011Art nouveau and art deco from the Netherlands
A selection from the collections of the Drents Museum Assen
Using objects from the collection of the Drents Museum Assen, an overview is presented of the Dutch applied arts from the 1880-1940period. A veritable period of growth in the history of the Dutch arts, the importance of which is practically equal to that of the Golden Age.
Characteristic of this period is the fact that many artists venture out into multiple areas, often driven by the desire to access a wider audience beyond the affluent elite.
28 October 2005 > end of 2010 Alonso
collection
from art nouveau to Studio Glass Movement.
Many decades ago, Mr. Alonso became fascinated by the various qualities and technical possibilities of glass. Collecting crystal and glassware has been one of his true passions ever since.
The Alonso collection is highly varied, both in forms and in techniques. It
covers the period between the end of the 19th century up to ca. 1990: from
art nouveau to Studio Glass Movement.
more about Alonso...
The details of exhibitions of the past years are available at the exhibitions
archive.
