The Philadelphia Museum of Art Shows Product Designs by Zaha Hadid

Written by Chuck Flowers Friday, 16 September 2011 02:11

Philadelphia, PA.- The Philadelphia Museum of Art is proud to present "Zaha Hadid: Form in Motion" on view from September 17th through March 25th 2012. Zaha Hadid, one of the most innovative architects of the twenty-first century and the first woman to receive the renowned Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004, has advanced the language of contemporary architecture and design, exploring complex fluid geometries and using cutting-edge digital design and fabrication technologies. For "Form in Motion", Hadid will create an all-encompassing environment to display examples of the furniture, objects, and footwear she has designed in recent years as well as the prototype for her Z-Car I (2005). This exhibition will be the first in this country to feature Hadid’s product designs in a setting of her own creation. On November 19th, Zaha Hadid will be honored with the Design Excellence Award given by Collab, a volunteer committee of design professionals and enthusiasts supporting the modern and contemporary design collection at the Museum.

Combining architecture and design, "Zaha Hadid: Form in Motion" will display an undulating environment of finished polystyrene and vinyl structures based on curvilinear geometries. Exploiting a formal language of fluid movement, Hadid’s exhibition design emphasizes the continuous nature of her work, and how the fields of architecture, urbanism, and design are closely interrelated in her practice. Sleekly curving sofas, tables, and chairs made of materials ranging from steel and aluminum to polyurethane will inhabit the gallery, while jewelry, shoes, and tableware installed together in small groups along a rippling wall represent the wide variety of new and unusual shapes Hadid has introduced into the language of design. The Mesa Table is supported by branching, lofted connectors, more void than solid, while a table made of polished aluminum appears to hover close to the floor supported only by the same invisible forces that generate the craters on its surface. The striated video wall, sinuous floor and wall graphics will transform the gallery and its contents into a singular, fluid, dynamic composition.


Some works are disguised as micro-architecture, such as the Coffee & Tea Set (1997), nearly unidentifiable as a set of containers for tea, coffee, milk, and sugar. Others, including WMF Flatware and Crevasse Vases, are more transparent in function. Among the highlights are a collection of Swarovski crystal-encrusted necklaces and bracelets, and spiraling, strappy shoes made for Lacoste and Melissa. Hadid’s three-wheeled Z-Car I, an aerodynamic prototype mimicking several of Hadid’s sculptural forms, will be on view in the Perelman Atrium. In the nearby Collab Gallery, also located in the Perelman Building and named in recognition of a leadership gift from Lisa Roberts and David Seltzer, a selection of works of contemporary design from the Museum’s collection will be on view. Collab: Four Decades of Giving commemorates the 40th anniversary of this support group and the many contributions it has made to the Museum’s collections of modern and contemporary design.

Zaha Hadid, founding director of Zaha Hadid Architects, has more than 30 years of revolutionary experimentation and research in the interrelated fields of urbanism, architecture and design. Born in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1950, Zaha Hadid studied in Lebanon, Switzerland, and in England. Today, Hadid, a British citizen, is based in London and works on projects throughout the world. Recently completed projects include the Guangzhou Opera House in China; MAXXI: National Museum of 21st Century Art in Rome; and the Riverside Museum of Transport in Glasgow. Currently, Hadid and her firm are working on a multitude of projects including the Aquatics Centre for the London 2012 Olympic Games. In conjunction with "Zaha Hadid: Form in Motion", Collab will present the 2011 Design Excellence Award to Zaha Hadid on the evening of November 19, 2011. The Design Excellence Award honors a renowned designer or manufacturer who has enriched the world with his or her unique creative vision. The award ceremony will take place in the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Van Pelt Auditorium, and will include an illustrated lecture by Ms. Hadid.


Rising majestically at the end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the Philadelphia Museum of Art stands as one of the great art institutions of the world. In the over 125 years since its founding, it has grown far beyond the limits originally set for it. Today, the Museum houses over 225,000 works of art encompassing some of the greatest achievements of human creativity, and offers a wealth of exhibitions and educational programs for a public of all ages. Historically, the Museum was a legacy of the great Centennial Exposition of 1876 held in Fairmount Park. The Museum's 225,000 objects span the creative achievements of the Western world since the first century AD and those of Asia since the third millennium BC. The European collections, dating from the medieval era to the present, encompass Italian and Flemish early-Renaissance masterworks including strong representations of later European paintings, featuring French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, sculpture (with a special concentration in the works of Auguste Rodin), decorative arts, tapestries, furniture and the second-largest collection of arms and armor in the United States. The museum's American collections, surveying three centuries of painting, sculpture, and decorative arts, are among the finest in the United States, with outstanding strengths in 18th- and 19th-century Philadelphia furniture and silver, rural Pennsylvania furniture and ceramics, and the paintings of Thomas Eakins. Modern artwork includes extraordinary concentrations of work by such artists as Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, and Constantin Brâncusi, as well as American modernists, making the museum one of the best in the world in which to see modern art. The expanding collection of contemporary art includes major works by Cy Twombly, Jasper Johns, and Sol LeWitt, among many others. In addition to these collections, the museum houses encyclopedic holdings of costume and textiles, as well as prints, drawings, and photographs that are displayed in rotation for reasons of preservation. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.philamuseum.org

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