Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Barcelona Chair, designed 1929. Stainless-steel and leather, 30 7/8 x 29 x 30 in. (78.5 x 74 x 76 cm). Produced by Knoll International, New York. The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Liliane and David M. Stewart Collection, gift of Trevor F. Peck, 1963.Df.1. Photograph by Denis Farley.
I can’t say why I so much prefer the fine arts to the applied arts—maybe because I’m so hipped on meaning (even in abstraction)? But if you want a maximum of esthetics with a minimum of politics this autumn, formalism is doing very well, thanks, at two Manhattan exhibitions of interior design: “Weiner Werkstätte 1903-1932: The Luxury of Beauty,” at the Neue Galerie (through January 29, 2018) and “Partners in Design: Alfred H. Barr Jr. and Philip Johnson" at the Grey Art Gallery (through December 9). Read More