At the end of 2017 MoMA will open an exhibition titled Items: Is Fashion Modern? As a way of announcing the preliminary scope and research of this exhibition, and to begin dialogue around some of the works that will become part of a larger exhibition checklist, we will hold a launch event in May 2016.
Posts by Paola Antonelli
July 8, 2015
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Collection & Exhibitions,
Design
“If Not Museums, Then Where?” Adding Ancient Algorithms and New Biological Futures to MoMA’s Collection
Revital Cohen (Israeli, b. 1981), Tuur van Balen (Belgian, b. 1981). Still from Kingyo Kingdom. 2013. HD digital video, 19:23 min. Gift of the designers
Like any artifact of culture, design objects are often much more than the sum of their parts. Their forms and materials crystallize thought processes, tools, desires, and imagined futures, both near and far. Indeed, a group of design works that were added to MoMA’s collection in early June far transcend their materials—and in doing so, help us shape individual and collective perspectives on the changing world around us all.
June 17, 2015
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Collection & Exhibitions,
Design
MoMA Acquires the Rainbow Flag
The Rainbow Flag waving in the wind at San Francisco’s Castro District. Photo: Benson Kua. Image used through Wikimedia Commons
We’re thrilled to announce that MoMA has acquired the iconic Rainbow Flag into its design collection, where it joins similarly universal symbols such as the @ symbol, the Creative Commons logo, and the recycling symbol. Artist Gilbert Baker created the Rainbow Flag in 1978 in San Francisco. Just a few days ago, he met Michelle Millar Fisher in MoMA’s offices to record an interview for the MoMA Archives, part of which is transcribed here.
Actions Speak Louder than Words? Debating the Internet, Open Wide
In the fall of 2010, close to 4.8 million articles were downloaded from the password-protected, subscriber-only, nonprofit online academic journal repository JSTOR in an extended cyber hack that used the campus network at MIT. The articles represented roughly 80% of JSTOR’s total cache.
March 4, 2015
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Collection & Exhibitions,
Design
Is This for Everyone? New Design Acquisitions at MoMA
What do Susan Kare’s graphic designs for user interface icons, The Living’s mycelium bricks, and Formafantasma’s speculative Botanica series of vessels have in common? Apart from each being compelling contemporary design experiments in their own right, they’re also part of the newest crop of acquisitions welcomed into The Museum of Modern Art’s collection, and all are now on public display in the recently opened exhibition This Is for Everyone: Design Experiments for the Common Good.
February 12, 2015
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Design,
Events & Programs
Museums as the R&D of Society
“Judging of the Competition Entries: Two Jurors, Catherine Bauer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, discussing an entry. Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., Competition Director standing in background.” Publicity photograph released in connection with the exhibition, “Prize Design for Modern Furniture.” 1948
Historically, museums have played an active role in civic life by cultivating dialogue and prompting action around critical issues, at times creating impossible diplomatic bridges even in the midst of long-standing international conflicts.
Designing Life: Synthetic Biology and Design
Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg. The Synthetic Kingdom, a proposal for a new branch of the tree of life to accommodate our “new nature.” From the project The Synthetic Kingdom: A Natural History of the Synthetic Future. 2009. Image courtesy of the designer
What happens when biology—specifically, the core materials and processes that underpin the life cycle of all living beings—birth, existence, disease, and death—becomes synthetically replicable by humans and, consequently, a building block for design?
November 5, 2014
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Design
Welcoming New Humble Masterpieces into MoMA’s Collection
Technology Will Save Us. DIY Gamer Kit. 2013. Electronic components, dimensions variable. Gift of the designers
When thinking about the masterpieces in MoMA’s collection, one might be forgiven for visualizing Picasso’s Demoiselles (1907) or Jackson Pollock’s One (1950). The canon of visual art and design—a force that has shaped popular opinion—has, for centuries, held large-scale painting in high regard. Even the Oxford Dictionary entry for “masterpiece”—(noun): A work of outstanding artistry, skill, or workmanship”—uses Picasso as its defining example.
October 2, 2014
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Collection & Exhibitions,
Design
Design and Violence: One Year Later
“From the branches of a mango tree, in its spreading shade on a hot May morning in a north Indian village, the bodies of two teenaged women hang”—Nivedita Menon
“Every three seconds, somewhere on this planet, a person is forced to flee his or her home”—António Guterres
“Violence begets violence”—Judge Shira Scheindlin
Design and Violence, an online curatorial experiment that explores the manifestations of violence in contemporary society, is a year old.
June 23, 2014
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Artists,
Collection & Exhibitions
The Subway and the City: Massimo Vignelli, 1931–2014
Massimo and Lella Vignelli. Photo: Barry McKinley. Courtesy AIGA
When Massimo Vignelli, one of the greatest graphic designers of the 20th century, was close to death in mid-May, his son Luca informed the whole design community—at Vignelli’s request—so we could say goodbye with our thoughts and with a letter.
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