The Biggest Thing at Modernism+Art20

December 1st, 2009 at 02:25pm Nurit

One of the best parts of being a curator, other than all the curating, is attending really gorgeous art and design fairs for research.  Last month the Modernism + Art20 fair was on at the Armory on the Upper East Side.  Each of the curators involved in our exhibition went to take a look.  It was a really good year for us with a number of people we are considering for Making It Real represented including: Paul Evans, James Prestini, Wharton Esherick, Harry Bertoia and the Natzlers to name a few. We all agreed, however, that a big star, really literally big, of the show was this Phillip Lloyd Powell cabinet at the LAMA booth.  For those of you unfamiliar with Powell, he is a great example of the organic woodwork and cabinetry coming out of Bucks County PA during the mid-twentieth century, George Nakashima is perhaps the best known of this group, but I love Powell for his over-the-top style.

We learned from the LAMA staff that they’d only just received the cabinet from the original owner who had commissioned the piece from Powell himself. Because it’s so large, my estimate is maybe nine/ten feet, and the original owner was a lady of shorter stature, Powell included a number of unique design features.

My favorite are the built-in stairs that pull out from the bottom and allow for easy access to the top of the cabinet.  We’re very excited to be including Phillip Lloyd Powell in our show, though unfortunately not in the form of this enormous cabinet, it’s just too big to travel with the exhibition.  So if anyone knows about any nice, small, but really special Phillip Lloyd Powells, please send the info our way!

Entry Filed under: crafting modernism