Moving pictures: MAD’s film series Midcentury Masters kicks off this month
Summertime in New York City often sees the return of many outdoor film series. From lawns and piers to rooftops with a view, it’s almost possible to catch a cinematic favourite on most nights during the week.
This year, the Museum of Arts and Design has gone in on the game with its own run entitled Midcentury Masters, with films focusing on the work and lives of Charles and Ray Eames, Buckminster Fuller, Lina Bo Bardi and Harry Bertoia, whose work is currently installed in two exhibitions at the institution.
Starting this week and continuing to the end of the month, the films include Charles and Ray Eames: The Architect and the Painter – a documentary narrated by James Franco that traces the careers and wide-ranging output of the Eames, The World of Buckminster Fuller, which offers a rare view into the thinking and creative force of Fuller and his geodesic domes, The New World of Lina Bo Bardi – a four-minute short film by architect Ouida Angelica Biddle that features hand-drawn images based on Bo Bardi’s own sketches and buildings, and Precise Poetry – an expansive set of interviews shot on the eve of Bo Bardi’s 100th birthday and chronicles her life through the eyes of friends and colleagues. There’s also Harry Bertoia: Sculpture, which is an abstract study of Bertoia’s work that’s set to a soundtrack by Bertoia himself.
'We wanted to contextualise Bertoia's interdisciplinary practice among a broader group of historical peers working through similar concerns in the mid-20th century,’ says Katerina Llanes, the museum's public programs manager, who curated the film programme. ‘Hopefully, the films will provide audiences with new ways of understanding Bertoia's work and capture the zeitgeist of that particular generation.'
INFORMATION
Midcentury Masters begins on Thursday 16 June. For more details, please visit the museum's website.
ADDRESS
Museum of Arts and Design
2 Columbus Circle
New York, New York
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
Pei-Ru Keh is a former US Editor at Wallpaper*. Born and raised in Singapore, she has been a New Yorker since 2013. Pei-Ru held various titles at Wallpaper* between 2007 and 2023. She reports on design, tech, art, architecture, fashion, beauty and lifestyle happenings in the United States, both in print and digitally. Pei-Ru took a key role in championing diversity and representation within Wallpaper's content pillars, actively seeking out stories that reflect a wide range of perspectives. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children, and is currently learning how to drive.
-
Shigeru Ban’s mini Paper Log House welcomed at The Glass House
'Shigeru Ban: The Paper Log House' is shown at The Glass House in New Canaan, USA as the house museum of American architect Philip Johnson plays host to the Japanese architect’s model temporary home concept
By Adrian Madlener Published
-
Artist Mickalene Thomas wrestles with notions of Black beauty, female empowerment and love
'Mickalene Thomas: All About Love’, a touring exhibition, considers Black female representation
By Hannah Silver Published
-
New Phaidon book celebrates the world's best designers
Designed for Life: The World’s Best Product Designers by Phaidon celebrates the rich contemporary landscape of product design
By Tianna Williams Published
-
The cosmos meets art history in Vivian Greven’s New York exhibition
Vivian Greven’s ‘When the Sun Hits the Moon’, at Perrotin in New York City, is the artist’s first solo exhibition in the USA
By Emily McDermott Published
-
Back to Black: all eyes on film-maker Sam Taylor-Johnson
Back to Black cinematographer Polly Morgan tells Wallpaper* how a shared love of French New Wave close-ups brought Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Amy Winehouse biopic to life
By Craig McLean Published
-
The Met’s ‘The Real Thing: Unpacking Product Photography’ dissects the avant-garde in early advertising
A new exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York explores the role of product photography and advertising in shaping the visual language of modernism
By Zoe Whitfield Published
-
Tony Notarberardino’s Chelsea Hotel Portraits preserve a slice of bygone New York life
‘Tony Notarberardino: Chelsea Hotel Portraits, 1994-2010’, on show at New York’s ACA Galleries, is the photographer’s ode to the storied hotel he calls home and its eclectic clientele
By Hannah Silver Published
-
‘LA Gun Club’: artist Jane Hilton on who’s shooting who
‘LA Gun Club’, an exhibition by Jane Hilton at New York’s Palo Gallery, explores American gun culture through a study of targets and shooters
By Hannah Silver Published
-
Detroit Institute of Arts celebrates Black cinema
‘Regeneration: Black Cinema 1898-1971’ at the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) brings lost or forgotten films, filmmakers and performers to a contemporary audience
By Anne Soward Published
-
From Wall Street to Studio 54: a short film celebrates Larry Fink
Celebrating Larry Fink, Fellowship presents ‘Fink’, a short film diving into the pioneering photographer’s creative mind
By Tianna Williams Published
-
How Oscar-nominated ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ made a star of the most ear-popping song of the year
Wallpaper* meets ‘Anatomy of a Fall’ favourites Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band, whose cover of 50 Cent's ‘P.I.M.P’ muscles its way into the Oscar-nominated courtroom drama
By Craig McLean Published