Exhibition Press Release

SFMOMA Highlights Holdings With The Art Of Design: Selections From The Permanent Collection Of Architecture And Design

Exhibition dates: April 19, 2003 - July 29, 2007

Release date: March 26, 2003

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The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) will highlight its outstanding permanent collection of architecture and design with a newly installed, ongoing exhibition of works that will open on April 19, 2003, and remain on view with periodic rotations. The Art of Design: Selections from the Permanent Collection of Architecture and Design features more than 100 objects of architecture, graphic design and industrial design from a collection that numbers more than 4,000 works. The presentation will range from well-known classics to works by up-and-coming designers, and will highlight special strengths in the collection including experimental architecture and digital design. Curator of the exhibition is Joseph Rosa, SFMOMA Helen Hilton Raiser Curator of Architecture and Design.

SFMOMA has provided an active forum for examining issues of architecture and design in relation to modern art since the Museum was founded in 1935. When the Museum officially established the department of architecture and design in 1983, it was the first museum on the West Coast—and one of very few nationally—to do so. It was also the first to officially collect Web design. Since then, the department has presented important exhibitions of experimental design with a special emphasis on design from California. Comments Rosa: "SFMOMA's collection contains works by leaders in progressive modes of thought and traces the trajectory of visionary thinking in architecture and design in the past century. We're proud to serve as a destination whose collection inspires the next generation of experimental artists in these fields."

The Art of Design: Selections from the Permanent Collection of Architecture and Design includes Marcel Breuer's Lounge Model B 35, 1930; Kem Weber's Airline Chair, 1934–35; Gerrit Rietveld's Zig-Zag Chair, 1934; Charles and Ray Eames's Eames Storage Unit, ca. 1950; Verner Panton's Stacking Chair, 1959–60; Gaetano Pesce's Feltri High Chair, 1987; Frank O. Gehry's Easy Edges Lounge Chair, 1972; and John Maeda's digital Calendars, 1997. Also on view are Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe's Court-House Perspective, ca. 1931–40; John Hedjuk's drawing and model of 13 Watchtowers of Cannaregio, 1979; Bernard Tschumi's exploded-view drawing of his built project in Paris, Parc de la Villette, 1984; two drawings from Lebbeus Woods's Centricity series, 1988; two models and three drawings of Greg Lynn's Embryologic House, 1998; and Zaha Hadid's Silver Tea and Coffee Service, 1996/2000. Outstanding examples of graphic design include Paul Rand's No Way Out Poster, 1950; Jennifer Morla's California College of Arts & Crafts: New Building Poster, 1995; and a poster and postcards for the 2001 Sundance Film Festival by Martin Venezky.

Media Contacts

  • Robyn Wise, 415.357.4172,
  • Sandra Farish Sloan, 415.357.4174,
  • Libby Garrison, 415.357.4177,

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