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Carnegie Museum of Art presents exhibition on Tiffany desk
sets Distinctive Desk Sets: Useful Ornament from Tiffany Studios
October 14, 2006-April 29, 2007
October 5, 2006
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.Around 1900, Tiffany Studios, under the direction of
Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848-1933) began producing bronze desk sets in a variety
of designs and finishes for the well-appointed desks of men and women of social
standing. These sets, while exquisitely patterned, were intended as affordably
priced luxury items from the Tiffany line. Between 1900 and the early 1930s,
the Studios produced 20 patterns, which ranged in size from 6 to 25 accessories
per set. Carnegie Museum of Art presents a selection of 9 desk sets in
Distinctive Desk Sets: Useful Ornament from Tiffany Studios, an exhibition on
view in the Treasure Room gallery October 14, 2006-April 29, 2007.
The exhibition was organized by Rachel Delphia of the museum's decorative arts
department and Elisabeth Agro, the former associate curator of decorative arts
at Carnegie Museum of Art and current associate curator of modern and
contemporary decorative arts at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The nine sets highlighted here include the Heraldic (issued in the late 1920s
and Tiffany's most austere pattern); Chinese (issued c. 1911 and one of Tiffany
Studio's best-sellers); Nautical (issued in the late 1910s and the most complex
of the Studio's designs); Art Deco (issued in the early 1920s and the only desk
set pattern in this exhibition from Tiffany Furnaces rather than Tiffany
Studios); Spanish (issued in the mid 1920s); Ninth Century (issued c. 1908 and
one of the most elaborate and expensive sets with gilding and cabochon glass
jewels); American Indian (issued c. 1909 and incorporating Native American
symbols); Louis XVI (issued c. 1920 and scaled to suit a woman's desk); and
Miniature (issue date unknown, and designed for a child's desk).
From the museum's collection, featured outside the Treasure Room gallery is a
10th desk set, Tiffany Studios' Grapevine design (issued c. 1902 and the first
official desk set pattern offered).
Each desk set is made from bronze with patination, and features gilded, silver
plated, painted, or enameled finishes. The Grapevine set also includes etched
sheet copper and Tiffany glass. Among the objects on view are such outmoded
desk "staples" as the pen brush, blotting paper, inkstands, rocker blotters,
and boxes for cigarettes.
Distinctive Desk Sets complements Louis Comfort Tiffany: Artist for the Ages,
on view in the Heinz Galleries October 15, 2006-January 15, 2007.
In addition to a variety of studio classes offered in conjunction with the
Pittsburgh Glass Center, several lectures and events accompany the Tiffany
exhibitions, including:
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Curator's Talk, October 14, 2:00-3:00 p.m., with Marilynn A. Johnson, curator
of Louis Comfort Tiffany: Artist for the Ages.
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29th Annual Women's Committee Decorative Arts Symposium Tiffany: Colleagues &
Context, October 16, 9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m., $25 program, $50 program and lunch,
with Nina Gray on the role of the interior decorator at the end of the 19th
century and featuring Tiffany and his contemporaries; and Martin Eidelberg on
Tiffany's oversight of the production of Tiffany Studios, and the role of women
in the studio
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Lecture: Wendy Kaplan, What Can a Woman Do? Women of the Arts and Crafts
Movement in America, October 29, 1:00-2:00 p.m., on the contribution of women
to Tiffany Studios and the Arts and Crafts Movement
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Lecture: Gabriel Weisberg, Lighting Up: Louis Comfort Tiffany and Siegfried
Bing, Entrepreneurs in Glass, November 4, 1:00-2:00 p.m., on the relationship
between Louis Comfort Tiffany and the French art dealer Siegfried Bing
For more information, call 412.622.3288.
Photos are available on Carnegie Museum of Art's media photo website. Contact
the communications office at 412.688.8690 for the access code.
Support
Support for the museum's exhibition program is provided by The Heinz
Endowments, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and Allegheny Regional Asset
District.
Carnegie Museum of Art
Located at 4400 Forbes Avenue in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh and founded
by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in 1895, Carnegie Museum of
Art, one of the four Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, is nationally and
internationally recognized for its distinguished collection of American and
European works of art from the 16th century to the present. The Heinz
Architectural Center, part of Carnegie Museum of Art, is dedicated to the
collection, study, and exhibition of architectural drawings and models. For
more information about Carnegie Museum of Art, call 412.622.3131.
Contact:
Tey Stiteler
412.688.8690
stitelert@carnegiemuseums.org
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