Thinking Big: Recent Design Acquisitions

Several important themes that have guided these acquisitions will be highlighted, including Brooklyn-designed objects; young designers; unusual materials and innovative methods of production; designs for children; and mid-twentieth century modernism.

The Brooklyn Museum has been actively acquiring twentieth- and twenty-first-century objects since the 1970s. Among the works featured in the exhibition are “Cinderella” Table by Jeroen Verhoeven, 2005; Chest of Drawers, Model #45, “You Can’t Lay Down Your Memories” by Tejo Remy, for Droog, 1991; “Nirvana” Armchair by Wendell Castle, 2007; Spacelander Bicycle by Benjamin Bowden, 1946; and Womb Chair by Eero Saarinen, 1947-48. Objects by Charles Eames, Cindy Sherman, Konstantin Grcic, Francois Jourdain, and Harry Allen will also be included.

Thinking Big will be the first exhibition in a gallery that has been reclaimed from nonpublic space. The gallery is part of a renovation that is the first phase in a program that will redesign and transform much of the Museum’s first floor beyond the Rubin Pavilion and Lobby, which opened in 2004.

The exhibition is organized by Barry R. Harwood, Curator of Decorative Arts, Brooklyn Museum.