Appliance--or Work of Art?
Pop a slice of whole wheat into a Michael Graves toaster and feel the power of democratic design. The architect’s witty creation for Target retail stores has just been acquired by a museum.
The $39.99 appliance is one of six Graves designs selected for the permanent collection of Richmond’s Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Representatives for Graves and the discount chain believe the museum’s move is a first.
Richmond’s consulting curator Frederick Brandt hopes that by acquiring the Graves designs now, “maybe some curator isn’t going to have to go to auction to buy one in 200 years. . . . I’m hoping I’m being perceptive enough in seeing something in these objects.”
The items, which include an ice bucket, square footed bowl, clock, candle holders and pepper mill, were donated by Target at the museum’s request (retail value, about $165). They join 150 other examples in the museum’s “good design” collection. Since 1986, Brandt has acquired Memphis furniture, Swid-Powell tableware and even Tupperware containers by Morison Cousins. He would like to add the spectacular sculptural stool that Philippe Starck designed in 1991 for the Vitra furniture company. But that would require slightly more commitment from a donor. The stool costs $2,615, retail.
But Brandt predicts: “It will have lasting appeal.”
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Not yet museum-bound but already on the cover of Time magazine is “Tykho,” the chartreuse rubber radio.
A modest symbol of the new age of design in America, it is the work of a Frenchman, Marc Berthier. Introduced in Europe a little more than a year ago, the AM/FM battery-powered model ($55) by Lexon has won awards for product design in New York and Germany.
Diane Brunschwig, a director of Zona Alta Projects, the Miami company that distributes the radio in this country, offers one explanation for its appeal. “It’s the tactile experience. For some reason, that is what attracts people.”
There’s also the belly-button effect. Some design world observers have pointed out to her that the speaker resembles a belly button. It vibrates when music is played, making Tykho “a rather sexy radio.”
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Ever more so in the newest color: hot pink.
Americans consider the height of kitchen chic to be institutional gray, a.k.a. stainless steel. But some Europeans have taken to bold color. Witness the glowing yellow retro-industrial fridge by the German manufacturer Muller, now being marketed by Sonrisa. The company has put out the word that such high-gloss enamel exteriors are “a rare commodity in the monotone American appliance market.”
Why paint rainbow colors on the wall when your fridge could come in any one of 200 luminous hues? Perhaps because this model, which is available in New York and Los Angeles, costs $3,800 ([800] 668-1020.) So far, Americans have expressed a preference for--no surprise--black and white.