BAC exhibits at Collective Design 2015

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For the third installment of the Collective Design fair, BAC exhibited a selection of pieces by Jean-Michel Frank and Jean Royère, While both are undisputed masters of French 20th century design, their work is not frequently exhibited in tandem, but the combination was both dynamic and elegant.

BAC lends pieces for Brunschwig & Fils’s latest campaign

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The new ad campaign from Brunschwig & Fils announcing the launch of their “Hommage” and “Trésors de Jouy” collections, created in collaboration with designer Michael Smith, features pieces loaned by BAC for the creative. Left: table lamp in iron and occasional table in parchment-covered oak, both by Jean-Michel Frank; Center: side table in birch and macassar ebony by Axel Einar Hjorth for Nordiska Kompaniet; Right: campaign-style benches in oak and leather by Jean-Michel Frank…all from BAC (Photography courtesy of Brunschwig & Fils)

2013 VERANDA Designer Visions
Showcase features pieces from BAC

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Hearst Magazines just unveiled its seventh Designer Visions showcase with a gala celebration last night. For the annual program Elle Decor, House Beautiful and VERANDA each selected a designer to appoint an apartment that reflects both the magazine and their own unique vision. This year, the event takes place in the historic Walker Tower, an Art Deco gem by architect Ralph Thomas Walker, completed in 1929, that was just converted into luxury condominiums by JDS Development Group and Property Markets Group. The apartments are the site for a number of exclusive gatherings hosted by Hearst throughout the fall season.

This year, Carlos Aparicio, owner and principal of Aparicio + Associates, as well as BAC, was chosen to represent VERANDA. The designers are encouraged to derive inspiration from an imagined client, and Aparicio, appropriately, opted to create a home for a collector of 20th century antiques, allowing for the exploration of how one might live with a collection of fine design and art in a dynamic and personal way.BAC lent a number of its most treasured pieces for the interiors, including Andre Arbus’s iconic parchment-covered bateau daybed of 1937 and a spectacular one-off chandelier designed by Swedish Arts and Crafts master Carl Westman for his brother. VERANDA, with Editor in Chief Clinton Smith now at the helm, will publish the apartment as a feature in the January-February 2014 issue.

You can take a virtual tour of the space right now with Aparicio and VERANDA editor Carolyn Englefield by clicking though the following link, or entering the URL into your browser: www.veranda.com/designervisions

In photo banner above: Designer Visions Journal, a promotional publication distributed to visitors; Carlos Aparicio; master bedroom with important Jules Leleu bed from BAC

Just published on the Näfveqvarns Bruk

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Copies of a groundbreaking new history of the artistic production of the Näfveqvarns Foundry, published by Orosdi-Back, are now available at BAC. (Näfveqvarns Bruk Konstnärer och Arkitekter Till Industrin, limited copies at BAC for $40.00) Copies are also available on Amazon.com) The beautifully conceived hard-cover volume is the first to treat this work in an in-depth fashion, and includes many photographs that will be unfamiliar, even to collectors. The author is Christian Björk, one of the scholars behind the 2009 monograph on Axel Einar Hjörth (Signums).

By the early 20th century, cast iron was generally considered an old-fashioned medium best relegated to mundane applications like lamp posts. In the 1910s, the Näfveqvarns Foundry of Sweden , which had been casting iron for hundreds of years, was now headed by a dynamic new director that invigorated its production with new techniques and models that, against the odds, managed to make cast iron chic again.

In 1912, Näfveqvarns collaborated with the Swedish Society of Craft and Industrial Design (a body founded in the nineteenth century to improve design standards in Swedish industry) on a competition that opened the design of new models to outside talent. Soon a number of the era’s rising talents, such as architects Folke Bensow, Gunnar Asplund, Uno Åhrén and Carl Hörvik, and sculptors, such as Ivar Johnson, Anna Petrus, and Erik Grate, were designing furniture, decorative plaques, urns and other pieces for the Foundry.

The partnership with these artists resulted in some of the most iconic and original examples of the “Modern Classicism” aesthetic that dominated Swedish design in the 1920s. A sleek and lyrical take on the classical tradition, the style took its cues from the various forms of classical revival that had been popular in Sweden since the late 18th century, rationalizing and rearranging them for 20th century life.

Through publications and exhibitions, Näfveqvarns garnered international acclaim, with models displayed at Hemutställningen in 1917, the Jubilee Exhibition in Gothenburg in 1923, the Paris Exposition of 1925, as well as a follow-up exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in the same year.

Although the Foundry eventually ceased its artistic production, the pieces it created during the first half of the 20th century are today prized by collectors for their unique voice in the history of design.

BAC at Bergdorf Goodman

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Gallery BAC lends pair of “Persan” sconces by Jean Royère to luxury retailer Bergdorf Goodman for window displays celebrating the debut of Artistic Director Raf Simons’ Spring Collection for the House of DiorCelebrating both the venerable House of Dior and the debut of Artistic Director Raf Simons’ Spring Collection, luxury retailer Bergdorf Goodman has dedicated all of its Manhattan location’s Fifth Avenue windows to Simons’ designs (further promoting a new Dior boutique within the store). The windows are inspired by Dior’s latest ad campaign, which features surreal scenes populated by lithe models, the lyrical modernist designs of Jean Royère, and windows opening into cloudy skies, like those found in the paintings of René Magritte (a Belgian like Mr. Simons). Bergdorf Goodman’s Visual Presentation team has recreated aspects of this dreamscape, adding eighteenth-century style paneling in the shade of gray that Christian Dior originally chose for the interiors of his Paris atelier. The window displays will run through March 25th.

On view in two of the windows are gilt iron “Persan” sconces by Jean Royère (1902-1984) that were lent by Gallery BAC. Introduced by Royère circa 1950, the model was included in the designer’s display at the Salon des arts ménagers exhibit of 1954 and used in several prominent interior projects, notably in the Winter Garden Room for the Shah of Iran circa 1958.

Jean-Michel Frank in Argentina

JMF Exhibit

October 20th-November 19th 2010
The first exhibit to consider the work of ground-breaking designer Jean-Michel Frank in Argentina, focusing on his collaboration with the decoration and cabinetmaking firm Comte. Over thirty original objects are on display, with an accompanying catalog available through Amazon and at the gallery. Click here to purchase a copy on Amazon