terra non firma

brief thoughts - arts and crafts at lacma

go to lacma now - before the arts and crafts show closes april 3rd and now that the renzo piano exhibition is open. spent a few hours there on sat and really enjoyed both shows - some brief impressions:

• thought the layout of the arts and crafts show was interesting - it was arranged by country rather than chronologically, or by medium, or conceptually. I dont know that much about the arts and crafts movement, but since the show makes the argument that national identity was an important component of the movement, arranging it by country helps to highlight some of those issues - like hungary's search for a distinct identity or the more minimal impact industrializaton had on finland and sweden's more agrarian societies.

• the show also argued that the arts and crafts movement sought to elevate the design of functional objects into art as well as into the every day lives of "common people." it struck me how similar this ideal was to Bauhaus, art nouveau, mid century modernism and probably a panoply of other art movements and manifestos. and what has come closest to capturing this ideal? arguably the mass-produced objects from mass-merchandised stores such as ikea, target, the gap and other chains. hal foster touched on this a little in his book Design and Crime.

will post about renzo later in the day...

posted by marissa @ 10:16 AM