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Form Follows Function: Celebrating 10 Years of the American Institute of Architects Design Collection at the MFAH

Presented by Museum of Fine Arts, Houston at Museum of Fine Arts - Caroline Wiess Law Building

August 8, 2010-January 30, 2011

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The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston presents the exhibition Form Follows Function: Celebrating 10 Years of the American Institute of Architects Design Collection at the MFAH. On view Sunday, August 8, 2010 - Sunday, January 30, 2011 at the Caroline Wiess Law Building.

For the past decade, the Houston chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has assisted the MFAH in building a collection of architect-designed objects in all media. The AIA Houston Design Collection at the MFAH will be showcased in an exhibition celebrating this unique partnership; Form Follows Function: Celebrating 10 Years of the American Institute of Architects Design Collection at the MFAH opens August 8, 2010 and runs through January 30, 2011. The collaboration is the only one of its kind in the United States and has evolved over the years from an early endeavor to simply acquire architect-designed objects into its current form, in which the AIA Houston chapter annually honors the lifetime achievements of a prominent Houston architect and the museum acquires a major work that reflects the honoree´s interests. The partnership and exhibition brings public attention to objects designed by architects and allows local architects to connect with the museum.

On December 7, 2010, more than 300 Houston architects will gather at the museum´s Caroline Wiess Law Building, where the 2010 AIA honoree will be celebrated. Guests will also view the exhibition and see the unveiling of this year´s acquisition.

"Art and architecture have long gone hand-in-hand and the unique collaboration between the MFAH and the Houston chapter of the AIA allows architect-designed objects to be showcased and celebrated in the context of the museum´s rich collections," said MFAH director Dr. Peter C. Marzio.

Form Follows Function showcases the diversity of objects designed by architects over the past century and highlights how architects have contributed to the evolution of style and to technical innovation in design.

"Architects involved in the design of objects are not a new phenomenon, but there has been a renewed focus in the modern and contemporary period," said Cindi Strauss, MFAH curator of modern and contemporary decorative arts and design. "In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, architects designed total environments, from the building itself to its interior furnishings. Today, architects are often hired by firms to design objects that stand alone."

"The MFAH´s collection has led to a growing recognition of the diverse talents of architects within the public realms, and it has brought our members an increasing awareness of the museum," said AIA Houston executive director Barry Scardino. "For the past five years, attendance at the annual December gathering has increased every year, as have donations towards the acquisition of more significant pieces. We expect that this interest and enthusiasm will continue and that the collection will grow in influence not just in Houston but throughout the country."

To date, the partnership has raised more than $250,000 toward the acquisition of more than 25 objects for the collection, including furniture, metalwork, and industrial design. In addition, the museum has received numerous gifts for the collection from Houston-based architect design firms, including furniture by Frank Gehry and Sally Walsh and objects by John Pawson and Ettore Sottsass. Six Houston-based architects have been honored during the last decade: Martha Murphree, former AIA executive director; S.I. Morris, founder of Morris Architects; Anderson Todd, professor at the Rice University School of Architecture; John Chase, the first African-American to be licensed as an architect in the state of Texas; Preston Bolton, founder of his own firm and previous partner at Barnstone and Bolton; and William Pena, architect and author from CRS.

From the beginning, the MFAH and AIA Houston sought to acquire objects dating from 1890 to the present that were international and reflected a range of aesthetic styles and technical innovations. As a result, the collection now contains objects from Italy, Holland, Belgium, Brazil, Hungary, Denmark, England, and the United States, designed by renowned architects such as Gae Aulenti, Peter Behrens, Andrea Branzi, Marcel Breuer, Sir Norman Foster, William Lescaze, Michele de Lucchi, and Gerrit Rietveld.

Form Follows Function highlights include:

• A rare Manhattan Cocktail Set (1937) by industrial design visionary Norman Bel Geddes alludes to the iconic skyscraper and was designed for Americans swept up in the cosmopolitan lifestyle of Nick and Nora Charles. The set was one of the first AIA purchases for the MFAH, entering the collection in 2001.

• Belgian furniture designer Maarten van Severen achieved recognition with minimal, lightweight furniture designs, and his LCP Chair (Low Plastic Chair) (2003) was made from flexible PMMA plastic that folds onto itself and is attached by springs. The neon yellow chair is lightweight and transparent, and evokes the style of both the 1970s and today.

• Sitzmaschine, Model 670 (c. 1905) was the first object that the MFAH purchased in recognition of an AIA honoree. Designed by Austrian architect and designer Josef Hoffmann, renowned as a founding member of the Wiener Werkstätte, this architectonic, reclining armchair was commissioned to seat ailing patients at a nursing home near Vienna. It originally had cushions for both the seat and back, and both the geometric square cutouts and the wooden balls found at the feet and joints are hallmarks of Hoffmann´s designs. Only a small number of chairs were made in two-toned finish.

• Tea and Coffee Piazza Service (1985), designed by legendary Italian architect and designer Aldo Rossi, was manufactured by Alessi. Rossi was one of the founders of the Neo-Rationalist movement and is widely considered to be the greatest Italian architect of the second half of the 20th century. Working in a severe language of primary shapes and geometric patterns, the service mirrors his architectural style and acts as a landscape for the table. The coffeepot, teapot, creamer, sugar bowl, and teaspoon can all be housed under a "piazza," or colonnaded porch, complete with whimsical flag mounted atop the roof.

Public Programs
The AIA will host its annual, private holiday party December 7, 2010, at the MFAH. Guests celebrate a year of achievements and select objects to add to the AIA Houston Design Collection at the MFAH; the museum also accepts contributions from firms and individuals. MFAH curator Cindi Strauss will introduce the selected object during the event. City Kitchen will cater the event.

MFAH Collections
Founded in 1900, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is the largest art museum in America south of Chicago, west of Washington, D.C., and east of Los Angeles. The encyclopedic collection of the MFAH numbers nearly 63,000 works and embraces the art of antiquity to the present. Featured are the finest artistic examples of the major civilizations of Europe, Asia, North and South America, and Africa. Italian Renaissance paintings, French Impressionist works, photographs, American and European decorative arts, African and Pre-Columbian gold, American art, and European and American paintings and sculpture from post-1945 are particularly strong holdings. Recent additions to the collections include Rembrandt van Rijn´s Portrait of a Young Woman (1633), the Heiting Collection of Photography, a major suite of Gerhard Richter paintings, an array of important works by Jasper Johns, a rare, second-century Hellenistic bronze Head of Poseidon/Antigonos Doson, major canvases by 19th-century painters Gustave Courbet and J.M.W. Turner, Albert Bierstadt´s Indians Spear Fishing (1862), distinguished work by the leading 20th- and 21st-century Latin American artists, and The Adolpho Leirner Collection of Brazilian Constructive Art.

Pictured:  Aldo Rossi, Manufactured by Alessi, Tea and Coffee Piazza, 1983, 2008.4. The MFAH, the American Institute of Architects Houston Design Collection, gift of the American Institute of Architects Houston and friends of John Chase in his honor.