Tunga

PIRANESI AS DESIGNER

Sep. 14, 2007 - Jan. 20, 2008

Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum

Giovanni Battista Piranesi's full range and prestige as a designer of architecture, interiors, and furnishings is the focus at this landmark exhibition, featuring an extensive selection of eighteenth-century etchings, drawings and decorative objects. GBP is widely admired as a graphic artist, best known for is celebrated etched views of Rome and its antiquities, but a lesser-known fact is that he was also a highly trained architect. His influence as a radical reformer of design gives him contemporary relevance.

This exhibition demonstrates Piranesi's eclectic aesthetic--mixing Etruscan, Egyptian, Greek, and Roman tastes--and the far-reaching impact he had on a remarkable range of architects and designers, such as Robert Adam, Francois-Joseph Belanger, Etienne-Louis Boulee, Michael Graves, Daniel Libeskind, Peter Eisenman, and Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown.

Some of the exceptional treasures on display include: the Rezzonico gilt side table, one of Piranesi's only surviving pieces of furniture: the Doncaster Race Cup of 1828, manufactured by Rebecca Emes and Edward Barnard; a clock by Thomas Hope, and a marble chimneypiece commissioned by collector John Hope. These and other objects will be displayed in the context of Piranesi's designs for architecture, interiors, mantles, commodes, tables, chairs, candle stands, mirrors, sconces, vases, urns, tea and coffee pots, as well as several coaches and sedan chairs.

STAR POWER: The Body Electric

Last week of September/first week of October 2007

Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver

The MCA, Denver will open their new building,