Design

A new survey of the life, creative spirit, and career of Robert W. Ebendorf, one of America's most important artists in the field of found-object jewelry and metalwork.

Robert Ebendorf (b. 1938) has been one of the most influential artists in the studio jewelry movement from its beginning in the 1960s to today. His work combines exceptional craftsmanship, acquired through traditional training in gold- and silversmithing, with the inventive use of found objects and other alternative materials such as acrylic and ColorCore. Objects of Affection traces his development from the Scandinavian modernism of his early work to his first use of found objects such as tintype photographs in the 1960s; juxtapositions of colored acrylic and precious metals in the 1970s; use of found newspaper and other textual elements in the 1980s; his pivotal incorporation of animal parts in the 1990s; and the remixing and further development of many of these approaches in the twenty-first century.

Unique features of this highly collectable volume are its special focus on Ebendorf’s work of the last two decades, his friendship with collectors Ron Porter and Joe Price, and his activities during his time in North Carolina. Also of note are the inclusion of selected works by graduates and faculty of East Carolina University (ECU) jewelry program that Ebendorf led from 1997 to 2016; preparatory sketches by Ebendorf; and collages included by him in many of the letters and postcards he has written over the course of his career. Many of these letters feature printed ephemera, in addition to sketches. And it is this ephemeral and archival aspect of the PorterˑPrice Collection which sets it apart from other publications on Ebendorf’s work.

This brand-new publication explores the life and career of one of America’s most experimental and forward-looking twentieth-century fashion designers, Elizabeth Hawes.

"The World, showing what American designers could do, . . . has enabled me to help decide what you will wear today—and tomorrow!"—Elizabeth Hawes

Elizabeth Hawes opened her couture salon in New York City in 1928. Working through the 1930s she not only created elegant clothing but wrote several books including her best seller Fashion is Spinach in 1938. She was a marketing trailblazer, a union activist during WWII, and anticipated fashion trends that would not become a reality until the 1960s and beyond (she showed trousers with suspenders as womenswear in her fall/winter 1939–40 show.)

This new publication, and accompanying exhibition at the Cincinnati Art Museum, highlights Hawes’s work, her influences, and her role in promoting a new generation of female designers like Claire McCardell, Bonnie Cashin, and Vera Maxwell. The authors look variously at Hawes’ importance and influence on future female designers, her life, the women she dressed, her menswear and ready-to-wear lines, her work in the context of other American designers, her choice of colors, fabrics and construction techniques, and her politics, illustrated throughout with color plates of pieces, ensembles and accoutrements, plus additional archival materials, including working sketches, letters, information on her politics and prolific writing output.

The Cincinnati Art Museum’s fashion collection includes thirty examples of her work, most of which were worn by one of her most devoted clients, Cincinnati socialite Dorette Kruse Fleischmann.

A fascinating, beautifully illustrated narrative of a neglected group of artist designers and their impact on American visual culture in the nineteenth century.

Written by former Victoria Mansion curator Arlene Palmer, this volume is the result of many years of research of Giuseppe Guidicini, the previously unknown Bolognese artist who in 1860 was responsible for the design and decoration of the extraordinary wall and ceiling paintings that fill Victoria Mansion in Portland, Maine. Palmer’s meticulous pursuit of Guidicini’s history, from his training in Italy to his accomplishments in such cities as New York, Cincinnati, and Richmond, led to the discovery of a small but highly influential network of Italian immigrant decorative painters and scenic artists who made exceptional contributions to the artistic, architectural, and theatrical heritage of the United States between 1820 and 1880.

Drawing on a colorful and rich vocabulary inspired by the paintings of ancient Rome and the Italian Renaissance, Guidicini and his compatriots elevated the interiors of many structures with their “fresco painting,” It was chiefly through their spectacular ornamentation of theatres and opera houses, starting in the 1820s, that the fashion for sophisticated Italianate design began to spread and become an integral part of the visual experience of nineteenth-century Americans.

A dynamic, bold, exploration of the breadth of the Kuba design aesthetic and its lasting impact on early twentieth-century modernism through to the present day.

The textiles of the historic, multi-ethnic Kuba kingdom, (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), represent the most intact and cohesive tradition in the region, and are exceptional for their artistic caliber, graphic sophistication, and complexity of style. The written story of Kuba cloth begins with encounters in the early sixteenth century between the coastal Congo kingdoms and European explorers who were impressed by the elegance and intricacy of Congo weaving. In the early twentieth century the Kuba improvisational abstract aesthetic captivated the Western avant-garde, influencing fashion, fabric design, and the decorative arts.

In addition to presenting full colour plates of up to fifty pieces, Designing Dynamism features illustrations of modern European textiles, contemporary woven Wesley Mancini fabrics and an illustrated introduction to Kuba textiles. The volume also includes an essay on Kuba design and its influence on modern and contemporary designers, and an essay by the only African American to have won the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award in Product Design. A brief illustrated section focuses on the embroidery techniques of prestige cloths.

Accompanies an exhibition at The Mint Museum, NC.

An introduction to sixty unknown treasures, wonderful objets d'art made by world-renowned jeweler André Chervin, founder of the premiere New York atelier, Carvin French.

André Chervin (b. 1927) is a world-renowned jeweler and founder of the premiere New York atelier, Carvin French. Recognized today as masters of fine jewelry-making whose dazzling creations have been sold by top retail houses such as Tiffany, Van Cleef & Arpels, Verdura, Cartier, and Bulgari, Chervin and his firm enjoy a stellar reputation among the clients who wear their refined jewelry. Unbeknownst to his many fans, Chervin also created a collection of precious objets d’art, dating from 1957 through 2013. Expressive of his artistic imagination, passion for raw materials and bygone techniques, and inimitable sense of style, these captivating treasures have never been shown to the public. Until now.

Enchanting Imagination: The Objets d’Art of André Chervin and Carvin French Jewelers introduces Chervin’s miniature masterpieces—one-of-a-kind lamps, clocks, boxes, personal accessories, and table decorations fashioned from gold, silver, gems, and minerals, like rubies, diamonds, sapphires, jade, lapis lazuli, amethyst, and quartz. Conceived by Chervin and fabricated under his watchful eye, each object evolved over the course of many years, taking five, ten, even twenty-five years, to complete to perfection.

A fascinating, profusely illustrated, study of the impact of Austrian-born architect and designer Joseph Urban (1872–1933), on the development and acceptance of American Modernism through the story of one of his last commissions.

Designed in 1929 and completed in 1930, this rare, bespoke bedroom, created for the seventeen-year-old Elaine Wormser, embodies the skillful blend of Viennese artistic influences, sleek modern finishes, daring color and pattern that marked all of the artist’s greatest achievements. The interior, whose elements are held by the Cincinnati Art Museum, has never been fully researched, published or displayed before now. Five essays, accompanied by nearly 90 full-color illustrations, unlock the narratives and significance of this important historic interior.

Joseph Urban arrived in Boston in 1911; he lived and worked in the United States for the rest of his life. Over the next twenty-two years, he would become one of the nation’s most important and celebrated designers, at the forefront of American modernism, doing as much as anyone to shape its distinctive face. His iconic designs include the Tulip Room, Central Park Casino, New York, 1929; Park Avenue Restaurant, 128 East 58th Street, New York, 1931; and the bedroom for Nedenia Hutton, daughter of E. F. Hutton and Marjorie Merriweather Post , Mar-a-Lago Palm Beach, Florida, 1926. When Urban arrived in the United States, the new architecture and design were just beginning to make their appearance; by the time he died in 1933, they were already starting to assert their dominance

A fascinating look at the unexpected juxtapositions between twenty-first-century fashion design and historical garments.

Fashion Reimagined features fifty outstanding examples of fashionable dress drawn entirely from the superb collection of the Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC. Organized to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Mint’s costume collection in 1972, the checklist includes men’s and women’s fashions from 1760 to 2022. The book is divided into three sections that reflect three aspects of historicism: Minimalism, Pattern and Decoration, and The Body Reimagined. Each catalogue entry addresses a theme and provides information and insights about the individual designers, fabric and construction details, and globalization that is embedded in both the textiles and fashions 1760 to the present.

The Mint’s fashion collection features a wide range of historical garments, together with significant pieces by major contemporary designers, including Oscar de la Renta, Gianni Versace, and Miuccia Prada. Ranging from court suits to street wear, highlights include an English eighteenth-century sack back dress, two English men’s court suits, early nineteenth-century printed cotton dresses, wedding dresses from the mid and last quarter of the nineteenth century, as well as a rare 1920s wedding ensemble by Roman fashion artist Maria Monaci Gallenga, a very rare early twentieth-century Ispahan mantle by Paul Poiret, an unusual mid twentieth century Black Narcissus dress by American designer James Galanos, several examples of 1960s and 70s mod and hippie chic style, and innovative contemporary fashions by Giorgio Armani, Romeo Gigli, Zandra Rhodes, Anna Sui, Yoji Yamamoto, Walé Oyéjidé for Ikiré Jones, Anamika Khanna, and Iris van Herpen, among others. 

Betty Cooke has been called variously ‘an icon within the tradition of modernist jewelry’, and ‘a seminal figure in American Modernist studio jewelry’. Her pieces have been shown nationally and internationally and are included in a number of museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and Museum of Arts & Design (MAD) in New York. She is regarded as an important role model for other artists and craftspeople. Her jewelry style is influenced by Bauhaus and modernism, very simple and pure, both geometric and minimalist; although given her early aspirations to become a sculptor, it is not be surprising that she thinks of her jewelry as "sculpture in motion". Her pieces have been sold through museums such as the Museum of Modern Art and the Hirshhorn Museum and contemporary designers such as Keegs in Seattle. Cooke has designed jewelry for Kirk Stieff and for Geoffrey Beene's shows in New York and Milan. Fred Lazarus, former director of Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), where Cooke trained and taught for many years, has said of Cooke’s work, ‘There is an enduring timelessness about her work, and today, as she did 50 years ago, she continues to create work that is extraordinary in its clean, spare architectural line and stunning simplicity.’ The volume features 160 pieces by Cooke, a fully-illustrated checklist, illustrated essay, “Reflections” by leading patrons and collectors of Cooke’s jewelry, illustrated time-line, a selected bibliography, and exhibition history & list of collections containing pieces by Betty Cooke.

Disrupting Craft: Renwick Invitational 2018 features four remarkable artists who challenge the conventional definitions of craft, imbuing it with a renewed sense of emotional purpose, inclusiveness, and activism. Tanya Aguiñiga transforms natural materials into textiles, furniture, and more that reveal raw personal narratives and universal feelings of vulnerability, often using collaborative ways to connect communities and provoke dialogue. Sharif Bey, who is constantly reinventing his artistic process to interweave his roles as educator, father, and ceramicist, explores complex cultural identities with works ranging from the utilitarian to the sculptural and purely abstract. Dustin Farnsworth manipulates wood into haunting storylines that inhabit intricately detailed portraits of today’s youth, shedding light on those inheriting societal and economic decay. Stephanie Syjuco uses social practice and the tropes of craft to challenge our perceptions of “types” in contemporary America, uncovering complicated and contradictory ways we understand our identity and nationhood. Throughout the essays, authors Abraham Thomas, Annie Carlano, and Sarah Archer examine how each artist has used their chosen media to contribute beyond the confines of the art world. Begun in 2000, the Renwick Invitational is a biennial series designed to celebrate artists deserving of wider recognition. Disrupting Craft is the eighth installment in the series. Other titles in the Renwick Invitational series include Visions and Revisions (2016), (2011), and Staged Stories (2009).

Simply Brilliant presents 110 pieces by 50 leading makers of jewelry in the 1960s and ‘70s, all of which come for the private collection of Kimberly Klosterman. Most, if not all, of the individual makers of this era thought of themselves as artists first, jewelers second, and this magnificent new volume is full of stunning one of a kind pieces which reflect the inventive, ground-breaking attitudes of the era.

The book explores the 1961 Goldsmiths Hall exhibition in London and its influence on contemporary jewelry designers such as John Donald, Arthur King, Andrew Grima and Gilbert Albert. The 1961 exhibition brought a new direction in jewelry design to the fore, influencing others—including the major jewelry houses such as Cartier, Bulgari, Chopard and Van Cleef and Arpels—paving the way for an international movement in fashion and design. These jewelry designers created unique pieces, often for individual clients, using non-traditional materials and unusual forms.

This is the first in-depth exploration of the art and history of the kimono in Japan, told from the perspective of one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious kimono houses still in operation today – the 460-year old House of Chiso. Kimono Couture highlights Chiso’s textile and design innovations and unwavering commitment to beauty over the centuries, with over thirteen exquisite kimonos drawn entirely from Chiso’s collection, including a specially-commissioned wedding kimono. The authors contextualize and illuminate the importance and continuing role of kimonos in contemporary Japan, and discuss, variously, Chiso’s network of artisans and the survival of endangered techniques and textile crafts in the 21st century; the current “culture of kimono” in Japan; Chiso’s patronage and collaboration with the famous Kyoto nihonga artist, Kishi Chikudo (1826-1897); and finally an interview with Chiso designer, Mr. IMAI Atsuhiro, on the process of commission, and reflections on Chiso’s endeavour for capturing timeless style and fleeting fashion in contemporary times.