Despite the rain, a steady stream of midcentury design fans are flocking to the Resnick Pavilion to see California Design, 1930-1945: "Living in a Modern Way" since it opened last weekend.
Don't miss the free exhibition app for iPad and iPhone. The app features more than 100 highlights from the exhibition, including furniture, graphic design, industrial design, jewelry, fashion, toys and ceramics.
Look for CADesign (iPhone) and CADesign HD (iPad) in the iTunes app store
There is also an interactive map highlighting locations key to the history of midcentury California design. And, best of all, the app includes exclusive extended video interviews with a dozen living designers included in the show. (An internet connection is required to access the extended videos.)
LACMA's own Bernard Kester is one of the designers featured in the exhibition and in the app. Bernard and his signature bow ties have been a fixture at LACMA for decades, as he's been designing exhibitions for us since 1966. But that's not all - his biography suggests a master of multitasking. He taught art and design at UCLA from 1956 to 1993. He served on the board of the Craft and Folk Art Museum here, and as a trustee of the American Craft Museum in New York. He contributed to publications, curated several groundbreaking exhibitions of craft and fiber art, and, of course, created textiles and ceramics, being equally proficient in both disciplines. Bernard also exhibited in all of the historic midcentury California Design exhibitions at the Pasadena Art Museum that helped bring visibility to California modernism, and designed three of them.
The exhibition gift shop at LACMA includes a limited-edition scarf based on another one of Bernard's designs, called the Strand textile. In the video, you'll see Bernard sitting in Ray's restaurant at LACMA, where another one of his textile designs decorates the main wall, and visiting our modern art galleries where he worked with curator Stephanie Barron to design the current installation. Here's an excerpt:
Amy Heibel