Shiro Kuramata (1934-91) was a Japanese designer best known for his furniture and interior design, which gave the modern culture a creative voice. Many will identify with the chair he designed for the Vitra Design Museum in 1987 titled, How High the Moon (fig 1). The piece was inspired by an old jazz song and is part of the permanent collection at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. It is designed as a spacious armchair with woven threads of expanded metal; the piece weighs little more than a leaf, and can withstand robust use . His other works include entire storefronts designed for his friend Issey Miyake, for whom Kuramata created over 100 retail interiors . One of these works is Bergdorf Goodman in New York (fig 2.) designed in 1984 , which today sells products for Gucci, Prada, Jimmy Choo, Dolce & Gabbana, and others . Though the interiors he designed were created to be useful spaces, his focus was more on aesthetic than function . Within his individual objects of art such as chairs, tables, drawers, staircases and many others he focused more on the form of the object than on its intended use. Instead, Kuramata appeared to want the presence of the piece to surpass its function, something that is only possible when there is a symbolic value . One of the best examples of a work of art fitting these stipulations was his design of the Miss Blanche armchair (fig. 3) in 1988 . The chair is made of acrylic resin and embedded with artificial roses and aluminum . Kuramata’s title of the work, choice of materials, color contrast, process of creation and simple aesthetic combine to create a piece of work that forces the viewer to question whether or not it can even be considered a chair. This work of art allows the functionality to disapp... ... middle of paper ... ...t gave him a sense of range his own work and opened up a world outside of design . In 1965 he finished his first independent project, a restaurant named Fork, and the then set up on his own with nineteen-year-old Tomohiko Mihoya, a friend he worked with for the rest of his career . Kuramata continued to work on interiors and began testing materials for new ways of molding, such as finding out how to glue together glass with perfect bonding between two or three sheets . In 1988 Kuramata designed his Miss Blanche armchair after having watched Tennessee Williams’s play, A Streetcar Named Desire, in which Vivian Leigh acted as Miss Blanche . Kuramata was influenced by Vivian Leigh’s performance and used her as the inspiration to create a piece of work saturated in symbolism, one that asked the viewer to question the identity of the art work for its form and function.
Much of what absorbs Fairbanks interests can be seen in his making of candlesticks, casseroles, and vases. During the later part of his life he created three of his final pieces. One being the Stoneware Heart Plate, 1985, secondly the Stoneware server, 1985, and thirdly the Stoneware Vase, 1985. These were three of Fairbanks last works, which suggest the direction in which he was headed, in terms of what defined his style, before he became deathly ill.
By the late 1950s, Voulkos had established an international reputation for his muscular fired-clay sculptures, which melded Zen attitudes toward chance with the emotional fervor of Abstract Expressionist painting. Some 20 works -- including five "Stacks" (4-foot-tall sculptures) as well as giant slashed-and-gouged plates and works on paper -- recently went on view at the Frank Lloyd Gallery. This non single show is his first at a Los Angeles gallery in 13 years, although a survey of his work was seen at the Newport Harbor Art Museum (presently carries a different...
Tennessee Williams was one of the most important playwrights in the American literature. He is famous for works such as “The Glass Menagerie” (1944), “A Streetcar Named Desire” (1947) or “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955)”. As John S. Bak claims: “Streetcar remains the most intriguing and the most frequently analyzed of Williams’ plays.” In the lines that follow I am going to analyze how the identity of Blanche DuBois, the female character of his play, “A Streetcar Named Desire”, is shaped.
This essay's primary objective is to look closer at Desk Suit , 1936, by Elsa Schiaparelli and compare it to Anthropomorphic Chest of Drawers, 1936, by Salvador Dali. These two pieces of art although so different, have a lot in common. To find out more and explore the world of surrealism, it will be worth studying and reviewing each art work based on the information found in several books about Salvador Dali and Elsa Schiaparelli as well as in other sources, such as You tube, journals, articles and web sites. For this purpose, the essay will open with a review of the work of Salvador Dali followed by a research on Elsa Schiaparelli's design, before finally comparing them in relation to surrealism. During the course of this essay themes such as surrealism, motif of drawers, fashion as an art and the influence of surrealism on current days, will be explored through the views of a various art critics.
In 'A Streetcar Named Desire' we focus on three main characters. One of these characters is a lady called Blanche. As the play progresses, we gradually get to know more about Blanche and the type of person she really is in contrast to the type of person that she would like everybody else to think she is. Using four main mediums, symbolism and imagery, Blanche's action when by herself, Blanche's past and her dialogue with others such as Mitch, Stanley and the paperboy, we can draw a number of conclusions about Blanche until the end of Scene Five. Using the fore mentioned mediums we can deter that Blanche is deceptive, egotistical and seductive.
Smith, C. Ray. Interior Design in 20th-century America: A History. New York: Harper & Row, 1987. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. .
Tennessee Williams gives insight into three ordinary lives in his play, “A Streetcar Named Desire” which is set in the mid-1930’s in New Orleans. The main characters in the play are Blanche, Stanley, and Stella. All three of these characters suffer from personalities that differentiate each of them to great extremes. Because of these dramatic contrarieties in attitudes, there are mounting conflicts between the characters throughout the play. The principal conflict lies between Blanche and Stanley, due to their conflicting ideals of happiness and the way things “ought to be”.
The arts stir emotion in audiences. Whether it is hate or humor, compassion or confusion, passion or pity, an artist's goal is to construct a particular feeling in an individual. Tennessee Williams is no different. In A Streetcar Named Desire, the audience is confronted with a blend of many unique emotions, perhaps the strongest being sympathy. Blanch Dubois is presented as the sympathetic character in Tennessee William's A Streetcar Named Desire as she battles mental anguish, depression, failure and disaster.
The Museum Of Modern Art “MOMA” was firmly established on 53rd street in 1939 in Midtown Manhattan New York, after a decade of moving due to its growth in modern art pieces. Originally Patrons Miss Lillie P. Bliss, Mrs. Cornelius J. Sullivan, and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller Jr. wanted to establish a program dedicated to modern art in the late 1920s. A. Conger Goodyear, Paul Sachs, Frank Crowninshield and Josephine Boardman Crane, whom later became trustees, created the Museum Of Modern Art in 1929. It’s founding Director, Alfred H. Barr, Jr. wanted the MOMA to be "the greatest museum of modern art in the world." Its intent was to provide ordinary blue collar individuals with a better understanding and acknowledgment of art in its era.
In Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire, main character Blanche Dubois to begin with seems to be a nearly perfect model of a classy woman whose social interaction, life and behavior are based upon her sophistication. The play revolves around her, therefore the main theme of drama concerns her directly. In Blanche is seen the misfortune of a person caught between two worlds-the world of the past and the world of the present-unwilling to let go of the past and unable, because of her character, to come to any sort of terms with the present.
Written in 1947, A Streetcar Named Desire has always been considered one of Tennessee William’s most successful plays. One way for this can be found is the way Williams makes major use of symbols and colours as a dramatic technique.
The use of materials to complement a design’s emotional reaction has stuck with the modernist movement. His implementation of these materials created a language that spoke poetically as you move through the structure. “Mies van der Rohe’s originality in the use of materials lay not so much in novelty as in the ideal of modernity they expressed through the rigour of their geometry, the precision of the pieces and the clarity of their assembly” (Lomholt). But one material has been one of the most important and most difficult to master: light. Mies was able to sculpt light and use it to his advantage.
Written in 1947, by playwright Tennessee Williams, the play A Streetcar Named Desire opens in the 1940s in the well-known city of New Orleans. Readers are presented with the young couple Stan and Stella Kowalski who live below another young couple, Eunice and Steve. While Stan and Stella manage to maintain a relationship, it is abusive. Stella reunites with her alcoholic sister Blanche, after learning that the family plantation had been lost due to bankruptcy. Blanche, a widow often finds herself in difficult and unforeseen circumstances. Blanche’s poor choices and vulnerability leads to an affair with Stan’s poker buddy Mitch. Coinciding with his abusive nature, Stanley rapes Blanche. No one believes her until the very end, causing her to get sent away to a mental institution. While the play and film were smashing, each had their similarities overall, in regards to setting, plot, and characters while differences concerned narrative technique.
“When it comes to interior design styles, give yourself the permission to think outside the box. There are so many wonderful ways to define who you are by creating a magnificent living space. Allow yourself to be creative. Be stylish. And when I say outside the box, I don’t necessarily mean go crazy, I simply suggest you take some steps to create the type of home that you really want or that your client is asking you to create” (Yule 1). Looking into interior design there are many elements that contribute to the way people view the room or area, such as the color, flooring, furniture, fabrics, and accessories in every room. Within the following research paper, interior design will be discussed by the interior design styles, the effects of color, and the trends of bathrooms.
In the past, there have been many famous artists, but few of them contributed their artistic skills to the design of the home. Michelangelo was a famous interior designer who created the most magnificent places for the richest of people. He made quantum use of his beautiful sculptures and paintings to create a rich ambiance. This is how interior design first began as a career. Years later, furniture, draperies, and wall coverings were included. Elsie de Wolfe was the first to practice interior design in the 1950s. Adam and Louis Comfort Tiffany, two American brothers, began a company to create beautiful furnishings and art, especially stained glass.