Esoteric Survey

STOOLS from the JF Chen Collection , by  Marta & JF Chen . STOOLS and its contents are artful reminders that, despite immediate recognition of form—the identification of a stool, as such—there is no single language of creation or fabrication. We know an object is for sitting because the spirit of its design invites the body to do so. Through this intuitive dialogue, the stool becomes a mirror in which the everyday is reflected, observed, and made endlessly new. - Marta The exhibition includes over 120 stools at two sites. Josef Hoffmann Isamu Noguchi and Achille & Pier Giacomo Castiglioni Yrjö Kukkapuro T.H. Robsjohn Gibbings Thonet and Phillip Lewis There are many "Attribution Unknown" which is fitting for the humble stool.  I'm a sucker for rope seats. Eames X 3 Stacy Dukes and  Tokukichi Kato Unknown but FLW-ish Isokon in the middle In addition to curating the exhibition and forthcoming catalog, Marta is hosting a portion of the exhibition at their Echo Park G...

Two Stan Hawks makes for a great weekend. Also, Evelyn Ackerman, Bill Curry, Jens Quistgaard, Peter Shire and Earthgender. Wilhelm Wagenfeld salt and Pepper shakers in a Frasier's box for that California-Bauhaus connection.  

Edith Heath: A Life in Clay  at the Oakland Museum of California Art "This is not a traditional ceramics or craft exhibition - it combines historic objects, photographs, documentary video and personal memorabilia to showcase Heath's legacy and story." Edith Kiertzner grew up on a farm in Iowa. On the left is the French porcelain china her Danish immigrant parents rarely used. In 1931 Edith attended Chicago Normal School (Chicago Teachers College) and graduated in 1934. She then went to the Art Institute of Chicago and studied with László Moholy-Nagy at his Chicago School of Design. She met Brian Heath in 1938 at a summer camp in Batavia, Illinois where they were both working. They soom married and moved to Chicago. In 1941 they moved to San Francisco.  Edith taught art at Presidio Hill School and audited classes at California School of Fine Arts. S he then enrolled in ceramics and chemistry courses at the San Francisco Art Institute and UC Berkeley. She was working dili...