Fish Forms: Lamps by Frank Gehry

In 1983, the Formica Company initiated a competition for designers to use a new material called Colorcore. Frank Gehry thought it might make an interesting lamp and when he accidentally broke a piece of the material it reminded him of a fish scale. Fish are a personal icon for the architect who remembers live carp in the bathtub at his grandmother’s house in Toronto where they were fated to become gefilte fish for the sabbath. A representative selection of the nearly 3 dozen lamps produced by New City Editions lamps will be on view, including Fish Lamp (1990) from The Jewish Museum’s collection.

Born in 1929 in Toronto, Canada, Gehry is a celebrated architect and designer. Notable projects include the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain; the Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles, California; and the Experimental Music Project (EMP), Seattle, Washington. The recipient of numerous awards and honors, Gehry received the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1989. His architectural firm, Gehry Partners, LLP , is currently based in Los Angeles.