Sunday, March 9, 2008

Rococo at Cooper-Hewitt

The nice folks at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, invited me to the opening of "Rococo: the Continuing Curve, 1730-2008" (http://www.cooperhewitt.org/EXHIBITIONS/rococo/). The ground floor is devoted to rococo in the 18th century while the upstairs galleries explore rococo revivals and influences in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. There are magnificent things on the ground floor, beautifully installed and the ceramics, silver, furniture, bookbindings, etc. (LOTS of wonderful etc.) are brilliantly integrated. Same goes for upstairs however it seems a bit of a stretch to include some of the choices under the umbrella of rococo, such as molded chairs by Charles and Ray Eames and Frank Ghery's Easy Edges. Some fun pics of the crowd below, but I couldn't get too many of the exhibition itself as photos were prohibited: you must go see it yourself in any case! Seen at the opening were David Barquist of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Stephen Harrison of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Joan K. Davidson, Zang Toi with Ling (see below), Craig Kellogg, lots more. When you go to the Cooper-Hewitt don't miss the small but beautifully packed exhibition "Multiple Choice," of sample and swatch books from the 16th century to the 20th century: http://www.cooperhewitt.org/EXHIBITIONS/multiple_choice/site/