Design Milestones Celebrating 40-50 Years in 2017
1. Moshe Safdie’s Habitat ’67 began as his 1961 architecture thesis at McGill University, but then was made a reality as the main pavilion for Montreal’s 1967 International and Universal Exposition—and the 354 concrete-box units still house residents today.
2. Lisson Gallery celebrates its 50th with a publication recapping all 150 artists who have had solo exhibitions at its London location, including Pedro Reyes, whose volcanic stone Totem (Aleph) is on display through April 15 at the gallery’s year-old New York location.
3. It was June 1967 when tens of thousands of counter-culturalists converged in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury neighborhood for peaceful demonstrations, a free clinic, and concerts by the likes of the Doors, for which Bonnie Maclean created a poster that’s appearing, along with over 300 other artifacts, in “Summer of Love Experience: Art, Fashion, and Rock & Roll” at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, DeYoung, until August 20.
4. Fiskars pioneered left-handed and child-specific versions, but the company is best known for its iconic orange-handled scissors, now 50 years old.
5. Founded in 1972, Pentagram Design has grown to become the world’s largest independent design consultancy, going beyond graphics to branding and architecture for such clients as Marimekko, Microsoft, and Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group.
6. “Commercial Break,” the 40th-anniversary exhibition of New York’s Public Art Fund, was not only its largest group exhibition to date but also its first time presenting work in all five boroughs, including Hannah Whitaker’s Step 1.
7. Since bowing in 1977 in Paris, the Centre Pompidou has expanded into an art empire, and is such being honored over the next two years in 40 cities across France, but it will be the one to host “Mutations-Créations/Ross Lovegrove” and his 3-D printed Ilabo shoes, through July 3.
