The Walker Guest House, designed by Paul Rudolph and constructed in 1952 on Sanibel Island in Florida is offered for sale. This glass beach house remained where it was constructed until 2019, when it was offered for sale by Sotheby’s. I hosted a talk on that occassion which I called “Glass Houses by Design Legends,” exploring its relatonship to other glass houses of its time. It was purchased by art collector Peter Galliaert who moved it to Yucca Valley, California where it’s remained in storage until this rare appearance. Now, it is offered for sale by Basic.Space.

The house’s most distinctive feature is its system of adjustable exterior wooden panels, raised and lowered by 77-pound, red-painted cannonball counterweights sourced from its original site on Sanibel Island, Florida. When closed, they function as shutters; when opened, they form shaded canopies — allowing the structure to continuously transform in response to light, climate, and use. The Walker family and Sanibel residents nicknamed it “The Cannonball.” Rudolph believed people need both “caves” and “goldfish bowls” to live in; this house delivers both within a single architectural form. He described his earliest designs as “sketches in the sand” and the finished structure as something that “crouches like a spider in the sand” — alive to its environment in a way few buildings ever achieve.

Commissioned by Walter Walker — Harvard-trained physician, investment manager, and grandson of T.B. Walker, the Minnesota lumber baron who founded the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis — the Guest House reflects a lineage of American patronage rooted in art, architecture, and civic engagement. Since its original construction, the house has been privately acquired and relocated to California, where it will be exhibited in its entirety at the Pacific Design Center this spring. It is offered for sale with its original interior furnishings and architectural plans — an exceptionally rare distinction for a structure of this period, and a testament to the care with which it has been preserved across more than seven decades. I was surprised to see in the current images that the house was furnished in 60s pieces rather than according to a 1952 mode.

This landmark beach house, which was sold in 2019 for approximately $900K is currently exhibited at the Pacific Design Center and offered for sale at $2 million. Images credit: Matthew Kavanagh, courtesy Basic.Space.

Brazilian vintage furniture is everywhere these days and can be found at design auctions, in monographic exhibitions at galleries and museums, in the digital marketplace, in magazines and academic literature, and in interiors featured in shelter magazines. The furniture, designed in postwar Brazil by a handful of modernists, was crafted pieces in modern, chic, sculptural forms from local exotic hardwoods, imbued with a strong sense of local identity, distinct from mid-century furniture created elsewhere. These furniture pieces have a powerful, dramatic presence in the interior space and stand out from what was produced in other countries during the postwar years. As soon as Brazilian furniture entered the global market in the early 2000s, it became an instant favorite among art collectors, interior designers, and architects. Yet, with the enormous number of copies flooding the marketplace every season in recent years and the industry replete with unauthorized reproductions, replicas, and unauthentic pieces, Brazilian mid-century furniture has long moved away from the innocuous position it held when it first entered the international design market. It is no longer newly discovered, yet it is still praised as the last undiscovered piece of furniture from the mid-century era.

In the two-and-a-half decades since it was first exhibited in European and American galleries, Brazilian Modern has slowly but steadily gained connoisseurship, emerging from the shadows cast by postwar furniture from France, Italy, Scandinavia, and the US, while establishing a permanent place at the forefront of the collectible design market. Today, it is among the most desirable areas of historical design, admired by collectors, architects, interior designers, and museum curators for its unique sensibility, sensuous and unique forms, richly grained hardwoods, regional handcraft traditions, and its inherent postwar narrative of Brazil, as the country transitioned from dictatorship into democracy, marked by urbanization and modernism. From 1945 to 1964, it was known as the Fourth Republic. To illuminate the current position of Brazilian furniture in the global design market, I invited Flavio Santoro, founder of the São Paulo-based gallery, Diletante Brasil, a pioneer of this market, and one of the world’s most trusted sources for exceptional, authentic Brazilian furniture.

Like many other design dealers across the globe, Santoro started his career with a ‘second-hand shop. This was in the early 2000s, years before Brazilian furniture became collectible and long before the emergence of any English-language literature on the subject. The pioneer scholar, São-Paulo-based historian and curator Maria Cecilia Loschiavo Dos Santos, began documenting and analyzing modern Brazilian design history in the early 1980s and has since published numerous books, articles, and critiques in magazines and international academic conferences. Santoro has worked with her in cataloging some of the pieces he discovered.

His presentations at Design Miami over the past few years on museum-quality Brazilian vintage furniture have cemented Diletante’s status as one of the leading experts in the field. Lina Bo Bardi’s rare examples of the Bowl Chair, crafted in woven fiber landed from his booth at the permanent collection of the Carnegie Museum of Art; and an original tea cart, which was included in his most recent booths, and which Warsaw-born São Paulo modernist Jorge Zalszupin designed in 1959 in molded wood, is in the collection at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. My conversation with Santoro focused on the foundations of modern design in Brazil, as expressed in the work of three visionaries whose furniture has become a value-driven acquisition: Joaquim Tenreiro, José Zanine Caldas, and Zalszupin. The three adopted a variety of principles of modern design, pioneered Brazilian modernism, and created highly organic forms and ergonomics.

When Brazilian design was first rediscovered and showcased in the US in the early 2000s, the instant star was Joaquim Tenreiro (1906–1992), an immigrant from Portugal who settled in Rio in the late 1920s, and who was a pioneer of modern furniture design in Brazil, which he began creating in the early 1940s. The design quality and craftsmanship of his pieces were both superb. At the time, he supplied furniture to clients with progressive taste, including modernist architect Oscar Niemeyer. A master woodworker, Tenreiro learned his exceptional skills from his father and grandfather—both Portuguese cabinetmakers, but it was his exceptional ability to design the most visionary, elegant, refined forms of lightness, transparency, and minimalism that catapulted him to the pinnacle of the profession, and consequently to the heart of the collecting design market. Santoro calls Tenreiro’s pieces ‘craftsmanship to perfection,’ and the woods the ‘ultimate selections.’ His chairs are particularly beautiful, and he believes his best is the Cadeira Curva Chair, which is slender and airy for mid-19^th-century design, but with a strong historical reference. His dining tables are stunning, featuring painted glass tops, crafted in verre églomisé. Tenreiro had been making furniture for 20 years when he closed his business in the late 1960s to focus on fine art. His pieces are not signed, and considering the high percentage of his furniture on the market that is misattributed or forged, it is more important than ever to acquire them from a reliable source.

With a growing consciousness of sustainability in design and of a holistic, regenerative approach that minimizes environmental impact by integrating ecological factors, Tenreiro’s title as the superstar of the Brazilian Modern market has been supplanted by architect-artist José Zanine Caldas (1919–2001). The vision, philosophy, and vocabulary of the two as expressed in furniture could not have been more different. While Tenreiro designed for bourgeois homes and sophisticated modernist residences and public buildings, Caldas was a radical environmentalist who created furniture as a political statement. His most valued pieces are powerful, heavy, biomorphic, and crafted of solid tree trunks. In fact, his career falls into two phases. Caldas moved from his hometown in the state of Bahia, and launched his career in Rio, and then cofounding Fábrica Moveis Artísticos Z, a furniture company dedicated to producing moderately priced modernist designs in plywood. In the 1950s, he moved back to Bahia and, driven by a passion for forest preservation and environmental stewardship, began to sculpt charismatic, solid-wood furniture from fallen native trees. He used indigenous craft techniques to honor the natural character of the wood. It is clear that these pieces today lead the market of Brazilian modern furniture.

I concluded the talk with the work of Jorge Zalszupin (1922-2020), a Polish-born Jewish architect who emigrated to Brazil after WWII and settled in São Paulo, where he founded an architecture office and L’Atelier, a furniture design manufacturer. His collaborations with Oscar Niemeyer when producing furniture for the new capital city of Brasilia has brought him to the forefront of Brazilian modernism. His tea cart has become iconic. A staple in Brazilian households during those years, Zalszupin’s sculptural approach and the oversized wheels, inspired by baby strollers which he remembers from his youth in Poland, have become one of the most recognizable pieces of furniture of mid-19^th-century Brazil.

While the most substantial modernist monument in postwar Brazil was the capital city of Brasilia, a futuristic city erected in the center of the country, it came to symbolize the end of a military dictatorship and the victory of democratically elected president Juscelino Kubitschek. Designed by Oscar Niemeyer, the architect of the United Nations headquarters in New York City, Brasilia remains a destination. But another true legacy of this golden age lies in its modernist design—pieces shaped by optimism and ingenuity that can still be brought into everyday life.

All images courtesy Diletante. https://diletante.com.br/

Architect Amnon Rechter and I go back a long way—a multi-generational friendship. My uncle, renowned music critic and theater director Michael Ohad, is known to have discovered Rechter’s mother, the celebrated actress Hanna Maron. Their life-long friendship grew from their mutual love for the theater and from their shared roots in Germany. Maron’s husband was Yaakov Rechter, the prominent architect and recipient of the Israel Prize who created some of Israel’s most iconic buildings, including auditoriums, hotels, medical centers, and theaters. Yaakov Rechter also designed the interior of my family’s home in Tel Aviv. Amnon Rechter, a third-generation architect who leads Israel’s oldest architectural dynasty, has shaped much of Israel’s built fabric in recent decades with prominent public architecture commissions such as court houses, hospitals, music halls, and many civic centers.

When Amnon called me last week to invite me to a private screening of a film based on his and his father’s story, I went along without knowing anything about it because I love films about architecture and I wanted to support an old friend visiting town. It was a dramatic and surprising evening, watching a film based on a fascinating and moving story about what has become the shortest-lived political monument in history. Titled Monument, the drama is based on the little-known monument by the father-and-son team of Yaakov and Amnon Rechter, played by Jon Voight and Joseph Mazzello, which they built in Lebanon to honor South Lebanese Army soldiers who were killed in the first Lebanon War of the 1980s.

It all started during one dinner party held at an elegant home in Tel-Aviv where Rechter met American filmmaker Bryan Singer. He casually told him the unbelievable story that happened during the late years of the Israel’s occupation of Lebanon, when he built a monument to honor the South Lebanon military who fought the terrorist organization Hezbollah. Singer immediately envisioned a film based on this story and Monument was born.

Just months before the turn of the millennium as the protests against the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon intensified—like the rise of the Four Mothers organization who demanded an ultimate withdrawal—Uri Lubrani, the famed consultant to the Ministry of Defense, approached the father and son architects and asked them to design the monument. It was a thank you gift for those who lost their lives in that war. He demanded that the construction should be secretive.

There are many layers to that film. It captures the escalating political conflict in Lebanon and Israel’s occupation of a “security zone” in southern Lebanon and the anti-war movement with their demand to withdraw, which was finalized in May of 1999 under the administration of Prime Minister Ehud Barak. The film reveals the relationship between the fatally ill father and his son, including the dynamics in one of Israel’s most celebrated architecture offices. However, the main focus is the architecture itself. It is the monument, the architecture, that is the most powerful and memorable aspect of the film. It allows the audience to experience the power that heroic architecture has to evoke emotions, make political statements, and impact history. The monument, which was fully constructed for the production of the film (in Greece) composed of two towers, representing Christianity and Islam, along with concrete slabs etched with the names of those killed. It stood in the raw nature of southern Lebanon like a giant, abstract statement with the charged political situation attached to it.

In 1999, Netanyahu suffered a defeat in the Israeli general election, losing the premiership to the Labor Party’s leader Ehud Barak. With the change of the administration, Israeli troops were withdrawn from Lebanon, and just 36 hours after the dedication ceremony of Rechter’s monument, Hezbollah operatives blew it up. In comparison, in 1926 the short-lived Monument to the November Revolution, the iconic brick of ideology that Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created for the leaders of the Spartakusbund and martyrs of the revolution Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht in Berlin-Friedrichsfelde, was destroyed by the Nazis nine years later. This Monument lasted 36 hours.

Join me at MAD for an illuminating evening with visionary architectural designer Bill Sofield and design historian Daniella Ohad. The conversation will focus on Studio Sofield’s influential blending of architecture and interiors: introducing artisanal handwork to architecture, crafting the ultimate elegance, and designing the interiors for the much anticipated conversion of New York’s landmark Flatiron Building into private residences.

The evening celebrates the recently released firm monograph Studio Sofield Works, which details a four-decade visual journey through historically significant buildings along with contemporary masterpieces, and on passion, transformation, and on the power of the detail. Copies of the book will be available for purchase.

Tickest are available now.

A newcomer to the strong, enduring collecting design market, Jean Touret (1916-2004) has joined the hot list of the French stars of the mid-20th century, whose furniture has achieve the status of blue-chip design. Touret was a sculptor who for 18 years designed handcrafted furniture in wood and iron, and they were exactly what was missing in the dynamic current design market. His name surfaced when the desirable, highly collectible pieces of furniture by Jean Prouve, Charlotte Perriand, and Pierre Jeanneret dried up, with the diminishing supply of rare, authentic, historically significant vintage pieces available for sale in galleries and auction houses. With fresh and exceptionally creative furniture, lighting, and objects, Touret quickly became a celebrated name among collectors, architects, and interior designers. To explore and deepen our knowledge, I have devoted to Jean Touret an entire session in the series ‘Collecting Design: History, Collections, Highlights,’ and to the atelier he established in the rural town of Marolles after the Second World War.

My guest, Banjamin Desprez, is the co-founder, with his wife Helene Breheret, of the Parisian Galerie Desprez Breheret. The duo have championed Touret and helped promote his furniture by curating exhibitions at their gallery and at monographic booths at the Design Miami and PAD fairs. They have become known as the leading experts in Touret’s furnishings, holding extensive archival materials, and assembling the largest collection of his functional work, which they began collecting 15 years before offering it for sale. Touret’s pieces have been recently seen in published interiors by some of the leading interior designers, such as Pierre Yovanovitch and Laplace (the firm of Luis Laplace and Christophe Comoy), which famously used them at the Chesa Marchetta boutique hotel in Sils Maria, founded by Iwan and Manuela Wirth, co-founders of the art gallery Hauser & Wirth. These furniture pieces are rising in value as his reputation grows and demand for his work increases, though they are rarely available in American auction houses, even though Americans make up a significant number of the collectors acquireing them. They are primarily sold in galleries, and occasionally offered by the French auction houses Piasa and Gazette Drouot.

Touret is known to the general public less as a furniture designer and more for the monumental altar he created in the 1980s for the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, visited by millions and now under restoration following the 2019 fire. But in one of several chapters of his artistic life, between 1946 and 1963, while living in the remote town of Marolles, Touret devoted his creative efforts to designing furniture in which his visual language was embedded, and which expressed his life-long passion for wood.

While his pieces have a distinctive French look, they grew from a very different vision and philosophy than the furniture designed by his French contemporaries, Perriand, Prouvé, and Jeanneret. Whereas the more famed figures in French postwar design were socialists who sought to utilize modernist design to elevate the lives of the millions through the use of new materials and machine production, developing industrial design for duplication, Touret focused on the most traditional, almost primitive crafts – wood carving, blacksmithing, basketry – creating artisanal furniture, lighting, and objects. He sought to have the artist’s hands visible, to use local materials, and to provide a source of income for local craftspeople. He was passionate about preserving the crafts, creating furniture in his own voice, free of influence of the modern movement which was developing in Paris. He formed Les Atelier de Marolles, a cooperative of craftspeople who brought his designs to life. The furniture is functional, in modernist, minimal forms, with strong marks of the craftsman’s hand that lend the pieces an expressive quality. Paradoxically, his pieces are simple yet complex. They use sustainable materials—primarily wood and iron—and are humanistic, original, and artistic.

The recent monograph ‘Jean Touret,’ published by Les Editions, is the only source of information on the artist and his work in sculpture and design. It is based on family and magazine archival materials, initiated by his eldest son, Francois, who grew up in Marolles. He contributed an essay entitled ‘The Miracle of Marolles,’ a beautiful and nostalgicand personal tribute, that describes Marolles as an island surrounded by an ocean of wheat, at the heart of which stood the town hall, grocer’s, bakery, and tobacconist’s. The book contains a catalogue raisonné, a comprehensive list of all the known furniture typologies produced during the 18-year atelier, and is accompanied by a website devoted to the legacy of his father. It tells the life story of the kid who was born poor and who started as a bookkeeper at an insurance company in his teens, helping his mother after the death of his father, while enrolling in local night art classes. At 23, during the Second World War, Touret was taken prisoner by the Germans during the German invasion of France. While interned in the Ore Mountains, he fell in love with wood. Seeing the old lumberjacks at work, felling trees with their sons, Touret said that ‘the logger instilled in me the sense of integrity.’ It was during his five years as a prisoner that he learned to love the trees, and when he was back home, he was determined to devote his life to art. He then moved to Marolles in the rural Loire region of central France and began to paint, and his art was represented by a Parisian gallery.

In a local tobacco shop in Marolles, Touret met local craftspeople – carpenters, blacksmiths, basket makers, ceramicists – who crafted furnishings but had no sense of design, inspiring him to establish the Ateliers of Marolles. Isolated in the shop, he developed his own modern vocabulary, designing furniture, lamps, and other accessories in wood and iron, crafted by the local artisans, in addition to creating abstract sculptures in tree trunks, and reclaiming wooden beams and sheet metal. The furniture pieces were modern and artistic, sold directly from the shop to clients, but more substantially at an annual showcase in the nearby town of Blois, and on a regular basis at the Parisian department store Primavera Le Printemps, curated by its artistic director Colette Guéden. This was where Parisian clients discovered Touret’s furniture. Only 8-10 craftspeople were employed at the atelier, and according to Desprez, who met with descendants of the makers, the production was limited to 10-15 dining sets a year. Each piece was carved individually, each one unique, crafted of local red oak.

Ever since reading ‘Parson’s Pleasure,’ the famed 1958 short story by Roald Dahl about a fascinating story that happened to an antique dealer in the Enlish countryside, when I was 16, I fell in love with stories of antique dealers. Benjamin concluded our talk with a fascinating story about a man who showed up at the gallery, asked whether they bought Touret’s pieces, and invited them to his home to see the table. Benjamin had never seen that form of table before, but was reminded of a short film created in 1961 at an exhibition of Touret taken place at a Parisian library, which featured a similar table. When the owner confirmed that his table was purchased as an exhibition at a library in the 1960s, he knew that it was the right one. One more form will be added to the next edition of the book.

All images are curtesy Galerie Desprez Breheret.

Postwar Nordic design is one of the most complex and beloved segments in the current collectible design market. While it has maintained a consistent presence in the market for the past three decades, its focus and identity have noticeably shifted. With the evolution of scholarship, research, new discoveries, museum collecting, and evolving tastes, this market has become more educated, sophisticated, and discerning. than ever before. What was on the rise twenty years ago has fallen out of favor; including steel furniture by Danish designer Poul Kjærholm, laminated wood pieces by the pair Alvar Aalto and Aino Marsio-Aalto, and quirky objects by Finnish designer Tapio Wirkkala. These have since been largely replaced by masterpieces from lesser-known names, such as Danish furniture designer Grete Jalk, Finnish lighting designer Lisa Johansson-Pape, and the newly discovered Danish woodworker Peder Moos. You must know what and where to buy—expertise in today’s highly specialized, dynamic field is crucial; one must be responsive to discoveries and sensitive to idiosyncratic tastes. The charismatic objects created in the Nordic world in the mid-20^th century have been recently seen in some of the most beautiful interiors, published in the leading design magazines. To deepen our understanding of their current place in collecting, I invited Andrew Duncanson as my guest for the series ‘Collecting Design: History, Collections, Highlights.’

Since he founded the famed Modernity Gallery in central Stockholm’s design district nearly three decades ago, Duncanson has become a leading voice in collectible Nordic design. He was among a handful of pioneers who began to excavate classic Nordic design during the 90s, when it had been forgotten for decades and considered outdated and banal, excluded from the design conversation, collectintg, chic interiors, and academic and semi-academic literature. He has witnessed it rise from the ashes like the Phoenix, and was among those responsible for the renewal of interest and for injecting a new and vibrant spirit into an entire chapter in the story of modern design by those who pushed boundaries and caused people of their generation to see design in a new light, reclaiming its lost glory. He was at the forefront of that turning point—of the shifts, and the ups and downs—of Nordic design, and was thus able to analyze the current face of the market.

Do not confuse these pieces offered by Modernity with the mass-produced ‘brown furniture’ found in most American homes in the mid-20^th century, and which were mass-produced and lacked the handcraftsmanship that was the DNA of Nordic production. The objects considered collectible ‘blue chip’ today are from designers such as Pavo Tynell, Kaare Klint, and Frits Henningsen, along with unique, rare, specially commissioned furniture and lights of historical significance produced exclusively in the Nordic countries. Those have climbed to the top list of the most desirable pieces in Nordic design among international collectors and interior designers.

The world of vintage Nordic design was in its infancy when Duncanson founded Modernity Gallery in 1998. Without analytical literature, scholarly validation, and little documentation, the enormously talented designers and craftspeople who were actively creating successful designs during the postwar years were forgotten. Reframing and rediscovering, while injecting new interest and spirit into the overlooked and under-recognized designers and their narratives, was a work in progress, still being developed and added to. Bonhams London was the only international auction house dedicated to sales of Nordic design at that time, and those objects were rarely extolled by the leading interior designers of the day.

In the early 2000s, revived interest in this type of furniture was largely due to the newly established Wallpaper Magazine (established in 1996) and its founder and editorial director, Tyler Brûlé, who established it as the global periodical for architecture, industrial design, and fashion; hence, the Nordic world was introduced to its audience, helping put it on the map. Not just design, but travel, culture, and architecture. Duncanson remembers that when Wallpaper Magazine published its guide to Stockholm (including Modernity Gallery), potential clients began referring to that guide when visiting the gallery. Another boost for the popularity of Nordic furniture and lighting was their inclusion in interiors by tastemakers such as Lee Mindel and Pierre Yovanovitch. And the last factor in illuminating high-end Nordic design was the specialized auctions by Phillips held in London under the leadership of Alexander Payne, starting in 2010. The exceptional catalogues with outstanding graphics had brought Nordic design into the heart of the emerging collectible design market. It demonstrated the power of presentation and scholarly, curated sales to elevate the material to new levels and to educate the public. When selecting the right piece, the type and location of production, the year of production, rarity, and condition all play crucial roles in establishing value.

Our talk focused on three designers. Finnish lighting was late to enter the market, but the long, dark winters fostered the creation of exceptional lighting designs. The new star of the market of postwar Nordic design was Finnish lighting designer Paavo Tynell (1890-1973), nearly unknown outside of his country of origin until recently. Tynell, who first encountered metalwork as a teenager when apprenticing to become a blacksmith, devoted his career to manipulating metals into some of the most beautiful lamps of the 20^th century, produced in his own company, Taito Oy Ab, which he established in 1918. His most innovative lighting forms echo nature – the Snowflake and Snowball chandeliers, as well as leafy forms and intertwining vines. In 1947, Tynell worked with the Finland House, a design atelier in New York that showcased the work of Finnish designers and craftspeople. Tynell’s work was a hit in New York, but his lighting designs for the American market were produced by local and Canadian factories. His lightings, made in Finland, typically stayed in Finland and therefore only recently came to the market, .

The taste for architectural furniture has shifted the market to the pieces by Danish designer-cabinetmaker Frits Henningsen (1889-1965) and architect Kaare Klint, who is largely considered the father of modern Danish furniture design for his lasting influence, and who famously finished his architect father’s life project, the expressionist Grundtvig’s Church in Copenhagen. Both made functional, modernist, personal, and innovative forms, timeless and historically inspired, often upholstered in leather with superb craftsmanship. Their furniture pieces were regularly exhibited at the Copenhagen Cabinetmakers Guild exhibitions and are today highly sought after by collectors and interior designers. It is the right time to invest in postwar Nordic design from Denmark, Finland, and Sweden, one of the most complex and beloved segments of the current collectible design market.

In 1924, architect Kaare Klint established a department of furniture design at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen. Klint had a crucial role in the success of modern Danish furniture design. He highlighted the role of wood and craftsmanship as crucial elements in the production process. He cultivated and taught a design approach that revolved around the dimensions of the human body and everyday objects, functional purpose, and the refinement of form through studies and measurements of historical furniture types. In 1930, one of the future pillars of Danish design, the legendary School of Arts and Crafts, opened with a cabinetmaker’s day school as one of its courses—just three years after The Copenhagen Cabinetmakers Guild had held its very first furniture exhibition.

ou must know what and where to buy—expertise in today’s highly specialized, dynamic field is crucial; one must be responsive to discoveries and sensitive to idiosyncratic tastes.

All images and objects, courtesy Modernity.

One of the most compelling areas of design collecting today is American modern of the interwar period, known in its own time as Art Moderne. The movement produced exquisite objects of remarkable design quality and bold, radical aesthetics inspired by life in the modern metropolis. They were created by a group of designers, architects, artists, and photographers who emigrated from Central Europe during the first four decades of teh 20th century, and came to introduce and shape the early phase of modern design in America. Some arrived because of religious persecution, others for political reasons, and still others were drawn by curiosity about life in the bustling, rapidly modernizing metropolis of Manhattan.

To illuminate and learn more about this glamorous chapter in the story of modern design, I invited the field’s leading authority, Professor Christopher Long, who together with design historian Jewel Stern has recently published the most comprehensive and carefully researched volume on the subject, entitled The Vanguard: Central European Emigres and American Modern Design, 1910-1940. Despite being primarily trained in Europe, these pioneers sought to charge the new American design with local national identity, an extraordinary achievement. Yet, despite their lasting impact and innovative aesthetics, which revolutionized everyday life, they were rarely acknowledged by early historians of modern design.

This ambitious book, the fruit of four decades of research, published by Yale University Press, presents the story of daring, bold adventurers who challenged conventions and took risks to achieve something radical for life in the new century. Both Stern and Long have published extensively on the topic and are considered authorities, but this is the definitive publication; an indispensable addition to any library of design, architecture, and American culture. They distinguish the project by revealing the lives and careers of the émigré pioneers of American modernism. In their own voice, the two weave the improbable tales of approximately 50 figures, some known and others now largely forgotten. Many of their designs are still undervalued today, both in monetary and art historical terms, and it is time for these designers to receive their due, becuase they came to define American Modernism during the Jazz Age of the 20s and the Great Depression of the 30s, paving the way for America to become the cradle of modern design in the postwar years.

The book is dedicated to John C. Waddell, the pioneer collector and connoisseur of American modern design, whose comprehensive approach and scholarly rigor have helped to promote this important chapter in the story of modern design. His extensive collection, assembled over four decades, has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum and at the Yale University Art Gallery, to which Waddell has gifted the majority of the collection, and which has revealed the impact of international modernism on American design. When others were collecting Art Nouveau and French Art Deco during the 80s, Waddel was already delving into American material culture of the Depression years and discovering its industrial design, a territory nowhere to be found in the literature of art history. Chromium-plated furniture, cigarette caskets, Bakelite accessories, bookends, metal housewares, and cocktail shakers all found their way into his collection, which became the world’s most comprehensive collection of its kind, the result of discovering long-forgotten objects.

True to that objective, the book is arranged chronologically and thematically, tracing the evolution of modern design over the three decades leading up to the Second World War. Each of the 32 chapters is dedicated to a particular designer or to a theme in weaving the story. It illuminates each personal life journey, explaining how they forged their own daring voices within the framework of modern design. They all shared a passion for modernity and for moving design production beyond handicraft, demonstrating the commitment to fuse design and industry.

The book opens with the association established by those pioneers, called The American Union of Decorative Artists and Craftsmen, modeled after similar European organizations—the Deutscher Werkbund, Vienna Secession, and Munich Secession. The association’s monthly meetings became iconic, held at the elegant and renowned restaurant and nightclub, Central Park Casino, New York’s hottest spot during the Jazz Age. They were attended by some of New York’s most influential citizens, including America’s leading architects: Frank Lloyd Wright, George Howe, Raymond Hood. As the hub of American modernism, it was the foremost professional organization committed to elevating contemporary standards, protecting copyright, and advancing modern design.

Austrian designers typically sold their work in elegant specialty shops that catered to Vienna’s wealthy industrial and intellectual elite. German modernists championed modern industrial design, but their efforts remained largely tied to Germany’s public housing programs and were abruptly cut short with the rise of the Third Reich. In contrast, designers working in the United States brought modern design into department stores, making it accessible, popular, and part of the everyday lives of millions. They established themselves with prolific careers, primarily in New York and in Southern California, and created some of the most memorable objects in modern design: Ashtrays, dressing tables, office accessories, kitchen gadgets, modern cars and bicycles, designed as glamorous as The Great Gatsby, as streamlined as life in the metropolis, as exciting as the new skyscrapers of Rosario Candella, all defined by their new American identity, which they forged tabula rasa. It was designed for the zeitgeist, for a new way of living the American modern life.

The book illustrates the personal biographies of each designer, demonstrating the rich background of American modernism. Paul Frankl, who emigrated from Vienna, began creating bookcases in the form of skyscrapers at his weekend cabin in Woodstock, emulating the setback silhouette of Manhattan, and calling them Skyscraper Furniture, symbolizing American modernity. Kem Weber, who came to San Fransico on a work mission of the German pavilion at the Panama-Pacific Internationals Exposition of 1915, got caught up in the outset of the First World War and remained in California, establishing a successful design studio in Hollywood and famously working for Walt Disney Studios. Rudolph Schindler, whom Christopher Long calls ‘the best architect in Southern California at this time,’ had emigrated from Vienna and worked for Frank Lloyd Wright on the Tokyo Imperial Hotel, launching a lifelong love affair with Japanese aesthetics; and dozens more Central European émigrés who pioneered modern design in America, weaving a chapter in modern design.

The recent sustained interest in modern design in academic circles, collecting, and culture makes this book a most satisfying read. It should be enjoyed as a story, as it recalibrates our understanding of the origin of American modern design. And, yes, it is still the most affordable segment in the world of global collectible design.

The eccentric work of French architect Jacques Couelle (1902-1996) has come to capture the imagination and attention of the design community in recent years. While the self-taught architect never entered the pantheon of design history, his cave-like residences, with their plaster walls and organic volumes, which he built in the sixties and seventies embodied the intersection of space-age design and the French art de vivre movement, which came to inject artistic practice in interiors and furniture design. The homes he designed in Côte d’Azur were sculptural and bespoke, where he collaborated with contemporary artists on murals, custom built-in furniture, and other features in interior decoration, and one-of-a-kind, commissioned and lived by creatives and art collectors who sought for jewels, for artistic, out-of-the-ordinary homes. In fact, Couelle began his career in the art world as a dealer in medieval antiquities. His fascination with the natural world and with the work of Antoni Gaudí were evident in his distinctive vocabulary.

Now, London-based interior designer Miriam Frowein renovated one of Couelle’s biomorphic artisanal masterpieces. Nestled in Le domaine de Castellaras, the house, originally conceived in the 1960s. Frowein sought to bring the home to its original allure. “Designing within Couelle’s architecture,” she told me, “means entering into a dialogue with history,” describing her quest to preserve the radical vision and at the same time, bring the house to a contemporary comfort. The powerful sculpted walls have come to provide the perfect backdrop for collectible pieces of furniture. With this project, Miriam Frowein Interiors not only preserves the architectural heritage of Jacques Couelle, but also demonstrates how historical houses of the 20th-century can be lived and reimagined today.

Photography by Benedicte Drummond; style by Laurence Dougier.

Fragility and vulnerability, impermanence and transformation stand at the core of Tel-Aviv-based ceramicist Iris Nesher’s oeuvre. Whereas it is cracks, cuts, or fragmented elements, her pieces reflect a broken continuity, fragmented memories, and her narrative tell the delicate story of her personal experience in the most delicate material – white porcelain. While Nesher’s work is highly personal, at the same time, she is allowing her audience to make their own interpretations by connecting to their memory and by evoking their own personal or collective recollections and stirring a strong emotional response. Challenges, joy, pain, tensions, fear, and the transition between life and death, between the presence and the absence are embedded in her beautiful functional sculptures. In celebrating her first solo show at Les Ateliers Courbet, she created functional sculptures.

‘When we are born, we arrive whole—not yet touched by experience, unfragmented,’ she illuminates the narrative of her artwork. ‘But as we grow and face life’s challenges, a chasm begins to form within us. I have always been drawn to this inner fracture and the way it shapes us.’ Her pieces come to reflect and reveal the complexity of life experience in the most direct way, but also to suggest ways to overcome pain and difficulties, and to find comfort within them. ‘We mourn ourselves; we mourn the way we were. The way we are no longer. The way we will one day no longer be,’ she says.

Nesher’s sculptures are crafted exclusively in porcelain excavated in the French town of Limoges, famously discovered during the Golden Age of European porcelain of the 18^th century. The malleable clay of Limoges has been praised for its whiteness, purity, and strength, and for her, it has been the perfect tool to achieve the plasticity and delicacy, allowing her to form her signature forms – their expressiveness, damaged, fractured, and broken charisma, reflecting melancholy and loss on the way to discovering ways of healing. The imperfection is the first thing you notice in Nesher’s objects, celebrating authenticity, impermanence, and the incomplete, as mirroring the human experience, but they also embody freshness, cleanness, harmony, and uniformity, as the monochromatic helps her to express the powerful narratives.

Nesher presents her design objects here for the first time. Emerging from her art photography and her fine art projects into design has been natural to her, as her objects fuse the functional with the emotional, the expected with the unexpected, the minimalist and the expressive, the mysterious and the clear, the quite and the dramatic. Her dynamic compositions stir a strong emotional response, capturing tensions, excitement, and powerful visual storytelling, which are the central values in contemporary design.

Her solo show will be on view at Ateliers Courbet through May 1st, 2026.

The landmark design collection of Jean and Terry de Gunzburg is coming up for sale at Sotheby’s on April 22nd, and it is certainly going to shape the current state of the market for collectible design, as well as cement the notion that living with design is an exercise in intellectual taste and curiosity, an art form in its own right.

Their home captures the concetp of the curated interior of the 21st century in the most ultimate way. It is a seminal representation of what interior design is about today, different from anything from the past. It is the artistic ability to create a dialogue between objects while achieving harmonious and creative environments, representing the presonal taste of the dwellers rather than that of the decorator.

“Collecting,” they say, “has been one of the great privileges of our lives, a journey guided entirely by instinct, curiosity, and the pleasure of living with works that moved us deeply.” Their New York home represents the philosophy and life journey that demonstrates how our home is our self-portrait.

This exquisite and dynamic collection is one of the best offered in the market in recent years, and it has been shaped around and within their NY home, decorated by legendary French decorator Jacques Grange. Together, this husband-and-wife team approached collecting with the same intellectual curiosity and instinct for discovery that defined their successful professional lives.

The choice of rare design masterpieces of radical creativity, which will be revealed in the weeks to come, is what made their collection visionary and of the highest quality. The most anticipated of all lots in the collection is certainly the extraordinary ensemble of mirrors by Claude Lalanne, created for the Music Room of Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé (below). When these mirrors fetched €900 thousand in the Saint Laurent’s 2009 benchmark sale at Christie’s Paris, it was a record price for Les Lalanne, who have since become the stars of the collectible design market. They are estimated today at $10 million to $15 million.

Read the interview by Julia H. Montanez in the Design Release.

Whenever I see a single-owner collection belonging to an art dealer coming up for sale at an auction, I always feel excited. Each dealer has a narrative and an eye that they have developed and refined throughout their career that has shaped their unique collections. Now that the design collection of Evan Lobel is coming up for sale at Bonhams, it is a great opportunity to get a view of the niched design in which he has been specialized and carved out his name — American design from the ‘60s through the ‘80s, created by, and for interior decorators. The title of the sale New York Modern is not surprising as these decorators who created the furniture in the collection, which has become highly collectible in recent decades, were based in the Big Apple and had come to shape the interiors of their time.

Since founding his gallery Lobel Modern in 1998, Lobel has become known for dealing with American design from the postwar years—particularly objects (furniture, lighting, glass) by the members of the studio movement. “I opened Lobel Modern,” he explains, “with a focus on works from the 1960s through the 1980s—a period of design opulence and originality unsurpassed to this day—feeling drawn to a handful of designers and other makers whose pieces were unique and crossed over into art.”

His gallery became the hub for studio glass and the works of Kelvin LaVerne, Karl Springer, Vladimir Kagan, and John Dickinson, among others Over the decades that followed, Lobel refined the gallery’s vision through deep, scholarly research into the most innovative American designers, participating in the growing interest in the field. His relationships with artisans, estates, and archives paired with his commitment to restoring each piece to its original brilliance helped to reintroduce these rare, sculptural works to a new generation of collectors.

Amassed over nearly three decades, Lobel’s collection brings together a refined group of New York artists and designers who helped shape the city’s post war design identity, many of whom once maintained influential Midtown Manhattan showrooms and several of whom he came into direct contact with throughout his career. The exhibition of the Lobel Collection opens at Bonhams’ new headquarters at the Steinway Building on February 27th, and the sale is scheduled for March 4th.

Verner Panton (1926-1998) is everywhere this season. Two weeks after the celebration of his 100th birthday, the prolific Danish designer is experiencing a resurgence of interest, as his products return to production with renewed focus. Louis Poulsen and Verpan are reissuing Panton’s lamps, while &Tradition is producing his flower lamps and metal furniture. Vitra, with whom Panton forged a lifelong partnership that helped shift the company toward experimental design, is launching previously unproduced fabrics and leathers, along with limited editions, in addition to its ongoing production of furniture, textiles, and the iconic Panton Chair. Panton’s formative monograph has also been reissued in a second edition by Strandberg Publishing, and the Vitra Design Museum, which maintains his archives, will open a comprehensive retrospective of the legendary designer this summer.

His daughter, Carin Panton von Halem—seen in the famed family portrait taken inside her father’s Living Tower—has worked closely with manufacturers and institutions to curate exhibitions, develop new interpretations, and ensure that his daring work remains relevant. With the prolific presence in the industrial design world, the question of how to collect Panton’s work, who had famously collaborated with a vast range of manufacturers during his career, in addition to the vibrant interiors where he regularly installed his furnishings, is becoming trickier than the design work of the past, crafted by hand. How to navigate the market with the wealth of current reproductions? How to ‘read’ Panton’s work, and how to recognize greatness in the vintage pieces? I invited Zesty Meyers as my first guest in the current series ‘Collecting Design: History, Collections, Highlights,’ in marking Panton’s 100th birthday. Meyers helped pioneer the secondary market, rediscovered Panton’s significance in the 1990s, and has since become a leading voice in the field of collectible design.

Together with his partner Evan Snyderman, Meyers had pioneered the market, rediscovered Panton in the 1990s, and became the leading voice in the collectible market. Given Panton’s prolific presence in industrial design—and his collaborations with a vast range of manufacturers, as well as the immersive interiors in which he installed his furnishings—collecting his work today is more complex than acquiring the hand-crafted designs of earlier eras. How does one navigate a market saturated with current reproductions? How should Panton’s work be “read,” and how can true vintage pieces be distinguished from later editions?

When Meyers and Snyderman, opened the first monographic exhibition dedicated to Verner Panton at their New York–based gallery, R & Company, in 2001—shortly after the Danish designer’s death—he was largely forgotten. His legacy was overlooked during the 1990s, and his postmodernist aesthetic fell out of favor as design tastes shifted towards a minimalist ethos, and was certainly not considered collectors’ material. The 60s were very different for Panton, the rockstar of design, who, with distorted, vibrant, surreal work, brilliantly applied the principles of Op Art and Pop Art to design interiors and products. He was to design what Yayoi Kusama and Claes Oldenburg were to art, what Mary Quant was to fashion, what Steve McQueen was to film—a rebellious dreamer who challenged design conventions, experimenting with immersive environments that were radical and psychedelic.

Panton was born in Denmark and graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Art in 1951. He began his career at the Copenhagen office of his mentor, architect Arne Jacobsen, during the heyday of Danish modern. When establishing his own practice, he departed from the ethos of modernist Danish design and began to create a personal avant-garde. He loved color, texture, patterns, drama, and creating personally. His design was sensual, non-modernist, sexy, and extreme. ‘What is most important, form or color?’ he famously asked and replied: ‘Color!’ “Panton,” Meyers says, “created objects meant to make people happy—design rooted in pleasure, relaxation, and leisure.”

It was during the early days of the newly founded design galleries that Meyers and Snyderman rediscovered Panton’s fresh and unexpected work. During their travels in Europe in the 1990s, the two gradually discovered pieces rescued from old restaurants, hotels, offices, and from Panton’s iconic exhibition pavilions. The two gradually learned his oeuvre and acquired it as they followed in the footsteps of Panton’s prolific career, traveling to Scandinavia, Germany, Switzerland, France, and Belgium. No other designer had shifted away from modernism with as much success as Panton, Meyers says. The Italian radicals were contemporaries, but they experimented with conceptual pieces which never exceeded the limit of the handwork; a handful of Americans tried to infuse design with Pop contents, which resulted in playful design that never gained popularity; and in France, a handful of designers like Andrée Putman practiced postmodernism in high-end interiors. But Verner Panton paved the way for Postmodernism.

When the exhibition at R & Company opened, it was sensational, with material that had never been seen before, and became an event that sparked interest in 60s design. In this show, I purchased a three-tier seashell chandelier, which has been a central piece in my home ever since. Living with the Panton piece, what I find interesting—and what has ultimately turned his work timeless and relevant—is the power of his pieces to transform and resonate within contemporary spaces. While they bring a sense of sensuality, playfulness, and optimism, they also have the power to remain neutral, thereby feeling at home in the 21st-century interior. It is hard to believe how the extraction of his pieces from the vibrant, colorful, dramatic, and radical interiors that he created can result in entirely new interpretations.

Verner Panton’s work remains among the most affordable forms of collectible design available to today’s collectors. It is a museum-quality material that should be on every collector’s radar. Moreover, since production today is expensive, vintage pieces are often sold for less than new editions, while preserving their value. The Cone Chair, Panton’s first radical piece of furniture, which he created in 1958, is priced at $4,110, while a vintage example recently fetched $924 at Wright auctions. Similarly, a new edition of the Fun Chandelier, produced by Danish company Verpan ApS, is priced similarly to the vintage model.

But the most sought-after collectible items according to Meyers are not the pieces produced today or those produced in the millions, but rather prototypes that never went into production: unreleased designs, rare pieces, and experimental objects, rugs, and textiles, which can be found at auction houses across the globe. Twenty-five years after the pioneering exhibition assembled by R & Company, Verner Panton’s legacy is more vital now than at any point since his passing. His work is seen as a great entry point for building a blue-chip, true design collection. Panton is seen as a true legend who was influential in shaping the story of modern design.

All images courtesy R & Company.

There is a moment for Korean design. It is thriving everywhere as Korean culture has grown to be immensely popular across the globe. Korea has been recognized as one of the only countries where traditional crafts are utilized to create an intriguing body of contemporary design on a national level, similar to Japan. The recent and first edition of Design Miami in Seoul, held at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza designed by Zaha Hadid, has brought to the world’s stage the fascinating and innovative work done by Korean craftspeople and designers who have turned their ancestors’ traditions and the DNA of daily wares into contemporary expressions.

While Korean contemporary design has a strong presence at design galleries and gift shops, the profound discourse surrounding it has yet to receive a formal analysis, at least in English. Now that Hyo Jung Lee, a London-based Korean graphic designer and the founder of the Korean Craft and Design platform, published a comprehensive volume on Korean design in English, so that the spirit of Korean craft and design can finally be explored. Entitled Jeong: The Spirit of Korean Craft and Design, the volume, published by Phaidon, is a valuable resource on the subject, demonstrating how the Korean identity is embedded in the featured objects.

Crafts have a central role in Korean life, as suggested by Teo Yang. In his essay, he stated that the crafts are “not only a way of making, but also a way of thinking.” It is a part of the culture in a way we find hard to understand in America, because Korean people have an emotional connection and a sense of attachment to the crafts. Its role in popular culture dates back to the Joseon Era, Korea’s last and longest living imperial dynasty which began in the 14th century. This influence is still deeply embedded in contemporary Korean culture and the crafts.

We learn that ‘Jeong, the title of the book, means a deep sense of connection and attention to detail, and the profound connection between maker, object, and user. It is unique to Korea as it captures the emotion that shapes relationships, behaviors, and artistic expressions. The objects in this book are organized according to their use, highlighting the utilitarian nature of Korean design while exploring the significance of jeong, tracing the history of Korean craft and placing Korean design in the context of the wider international design scene.

The book covers not only collectible design by celebrated artists, but also everyday objects by anonymous artisans. While flipping through the pages, the reader is made aware of Korean lifestyle, demonstrated across 175 objects crafted in lacquer, clay, wood, fiber, and basketry. The book itself is printed on tactile craft paper and stitch-bound in traditional Korean style, creating a stunning object that invites exploration. Design-obsessed readers will also enjoy finding in-depth essays by contemporary Korean design prodigy Teo Yang, curator Beth McKillop, and the Chairperson of the Arumjigi Foundation in Seoul, J. Kathryn Hong. I have to admit that reading this book is greatly contributing to my desire to go to Korea. As it transitions into a worldwide phenomenon, it has come to be known as the Korean Wave. Currently it dominates film, fashion, and cuisine, even taking over the New York City fine dining scene with a record high of 12 Korean restaurants earning Michelin stars in the 2025 guide, Korean contempoary design is the new player in the global market.

The upcoming first public opening of Villa Beer since it was completed nearly a century ago is certainly the most anticipated design event of this spring. Scheduled for March 8th, the opening of the Viennese icon follows fundamental research and an extensive €10 million restoration led by architect Christian Prasser in collaboration with the Federal Monuments Office. The white villa, completed in approximately the same year as the more famous, but equally futuristic and radical Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye and Mies van der Rohe’s Villa Tugendhat, was designed by Viennese architect partners Josef Frank (1885-1967) and Oskar Wlach (1881-1963). Despite their enormous success and influence, the two did not enter the pantheon of modern design when it was established by the early architecture historians in the 1930s. Not because they did not create significant work, but only because they did it differently and outside what became known as the mainstream of orthodox modernism.

Villa Beer could have become completely lost and forgotten as it stood vacant for decades, if not for a Viennese businessman Lothar Trierenberg, who became interested in Josef Frank when moving into an office space in Frank’s former home. When Villa Beer was on the market for sale, he established a family foundation and acquired it, entering the restoration projects and making Frank’s most ambitious and large house available for the public to experience and visit. Now, thanks to him, visitors can experience this special and obscure stream of modern design as well as the extraordinary lives lived within those walls and those who built the house, the life of members of the wealthy, intellectual, Jewish upper-middle class in Vienna during the early decades of the 20th century.

Julius Beer was a successful Jewish rubber manufacturer and entrepreneur who, along with his wife Margarete, commissioned the house on a plot of land in the Hietzing neighborhood of Vienna. Like other patrons of modern art such as Bloch-Bauer, Lederer, Primavesi, Zuckerkandl, and Wittgenstein families, they enjoyed cultural Vienna. Like many prominent Viennese Jewish financiers and industrialists who patronized modern design, Beer chose to live in a modern house as to construct a new and contemporary Jewish identity. However, following the rise in antisemitism, they were forced to lose their home and eventually emigrated to the USA in 1940. The Beer’s daughter Elisabeth was deported and murdered in Maly Trostinez in 1941. Their daughter Elisabeth was deported and murdered in Maly Trostinez in 1941. V It is unfortunate that he was only able to live in his dream house for 10 years before the ascent of Nazism forced the family to emigrate to the US.

Frank was a modernist whose career flourished in the interwar years and created some of the most memorable modernist houses in Vienna in what has become known as the ‘second wave of Viennese modernism.’ In his famed public housings, Frank made a pavilion in the famed Weissenhof Estate, curated by Mies van der Rohe. His architecture was informed by the principles of orthodox modernism, but when it came to interiors, he formulated a different language than his contemporaries, and preferred to create livable interiors rather than statements. In 1925, Frank and Wlach founded a decorating firm called Haus und Garten & Co. in Vienna, introducing this informal approach. They broke down the connection between architecture and interiors, including oriental carpets, wooden furniture, and floral upholstery and curtains, all produced through their joint company Haus & Garten. Their signature style in interiors included oriental rugs, colorful floral curtains, wooden furniture, and a lot of textiles, which came to be called ‘Alternative Modernism’: a concept explored in a 1996 monographic exhibition of Frank at the Bard Graduate Center, which analyzed Frank’s reaction to the stark, minimalist version of Viennese modern design. After emigrating in 1933 to his wife’s native Stockholm, Frank developed a second but no less successful career as a designer for the Swedish textile company Svenskt Tenn. Then, with the continued rise of antisemitism in Vienna, Frank lived in Manhattan during the early 1940s. Villa Beer was his most ambitious achievement, and the largest of all private residences he designed.

When visiting Vienna, I always prefer to see the monuments of modern design rather than its baroque legacy or its 19th-century historic Ringstrasse. Among my favorite buildings are Otto Wagner’s Steinhoff Church, Postsparkasse, Majolika House, his own houses, and his spectacular train stations. Now that Villa Beer is open to the public, you are free to walk through its terraces, balconies, and attics as well as stroll through the garden with its replanted black locust trees, and develop an understanding of Viennese modernism. It will be a tremendous addition to the design experience of Vienna, and an opportunity to see the second wave of Viennese residential culture, to better understand what it meant to live modern in flourishing Vienna. Unlike much historical architecture which relies on ornamentation and decorative facades, Modernist architecture must be experienced firsthand in order to fully understand it because volumes cannot be captured in photography. I am sorry that much of the house was left unfurnished, and wish that in the future, it will be furnished just as it was when the Beers left their dream house to never come back. All images courtesy Villa Beer.

I was recnetly interviewd by Julia Haney Montanez from the Design Release about the upcoming acclaimed series Collecting Design: History, Collections, Highlights, of which spring 2026 opens on February 18th. I started collecting design at 25 and have spent the past two decades teaching collectors and curious observers how to look at objects and the power of living with good design. In the conversation, Julia spoke to me about why this course feels especially meaningful now, how I define “collectible design” in a market saturated with the term, and what it means to develop an educated eye in an era driven by trends. We also touch on the market vs tastes, rediscoveries, and how institutions, scholarship, and the market shape the objects we value. I want to thank Julia and the Design Release for devoting so much of its attention to this topic.

TDR: You’ve been teaching Collecting Design: History, Collections, Highlights in various forms for over a decade. What felt important to rethink for this season?

DO: I started teaching ‘Collecting Design: History, Collections, Highlights’ with Phillips in 2014 and taught it continuously until three years ago, as the only program devoted to this territory. I recently moved my virtual program to other themes, but it feels that now it is time to go back to it.

I am a collector and have lived with collectible design since I was 25, before the term was coined. I have grown together with the market and have witnessed closely the evolution of the field and the shaping of design connoisseurship in recent years, as my interest is twofold - as a collector and as a design historian.

The world’s best interior designers work exclusively with collectible design, and today the field of interiors is largely divided into two camps: those who create curated, sophisticated interiors at the forefront of contemporary practice, the kind that appear in shelter magazines for their personal and distinctive concepts, and those who rely on furniture produced industrially and sold through shops.

While the market is becoming increasingly educated, there remain important issues that are not fully illuminated by galleries or auction houses, and therefore remain less known to collectors. These are precisely the areas that need to be revealed, discussed, and critically analyzed.

The market itself is constantly evolving, shaped by shifting tastes, new scholarship, economic changes, discoveries, museum exhibitions, and collectors’ engagement. It is also essential to remember that the design market differs fundamentally from the art market: it is rooted in interior design and architecture, in enhancing how people live. Design is acquired to be lived with - not stored away.

TDR: The design market feels both more visible than ever. How did the current moment shape the way you structured this course?

DO: You are correct. Auction results and design fairs are now widely covered by headlines and social media. Collecting Design addresses themes at the forefront of the design market, with content closely connected to recent events, exhibitions, and auction results. At the same time, we study design history because it is impossible to understand design or evaluate contemporary work without a solid historical foundation. And while the market is highly visible, there are still many grey areas that are rarely discussed and need to be made more transparent and critically illuminated.

Brazilian mid-century furniture is a good example. It is one of the hottest areas in the market today, yet authenticity remains a major issue due to the flood of forgeries, fakes, copies, re-editions, and frequent misrepresentation. Brazilian design first came to the attention of American collectors nearly twenty years ago, when R & Company began bringing vintage pieces from Brazil to New York. At the time, it felt fresh and undiscovered - often described as the last overlooked mid-century movement, following American, French, Italian, and Scandinavian design.

Since then, the market has evolved, been reshaped, and prices have risen, introducing new challenges that must be addressed. Some dealers now offer Brazilian design without sufficient knowledge, while changes in tastes continue to affect value. Whereas Joaquim Tenreiro initially emerged as the star for his elegant, classical designs, attention has more recently shifted to Zenine Caldas, valued for a bold aesthetic and its sustainable approach to wood. Every segment of the market deserves this kind of analytical discussion.

TDR: This season brings together a wide range of topics, from Japanese ceramics to American interwar design. What connects these seemingly different areas under the idea of collectibility?

DO: What connects all of the topics covered in the program is that they stand at the forefront of the world of collecting design today, none of them is outdated. The course is also sensitive to current events. For example, our discussion of Verner Panton coincides with the centenary of his birth on February 16, 1926, with many related events and publications taking place this year. Not everything I include is a blue-chip category; in fact, I prefer to focus on themes that are more accessible to my audience rather than those that feel less approachable, although there is certainly much to say about blue-chip design.

TDR: You talk about learning to “read” objects. What does that mean in practice, and why is it such a crucial skill for collectors today?

DO: “Reading” objects means learning to look at them with a trained, knowledgeable eye. It is the only way to develop a critical eye and, honestly, the only way to fully enjoy design at its highest level by distinguishing between greatness and mediocrity. This skill is what makes someone confident and proficient in design. Like any skill, it has to be learned and practiced, and developing it is a lifelong journey that requires real investment of time and attention.

If you are serious about understanding design, about developing passion and personal taste, even if you do not live with design, you must be able to analyze and interpret objects by looking beyond appearance, understanding context and meaning, and cultivating objective observation. As a collector, the experience of living with design becomes far more substantial, interesting, and real when you can truly “read” objects. You have to look, and look, and look, but you also have to study.

TDR: There’s a lot of conversation right now around what actually counts as collectible design. From your perspective, what truly qualifies an object as collectible? Or do you feel its meaning has expanded?

DO: It is a super important question. The term ‘collectible design’ has been misused and overused, becoming a ‘brand’ name and a tool of sale. But a lot of what I see in the press and elsewhere which is termed ‘collectible design’ is in fact far from this definition. What makes a design object ‘collectible’?

One thing that we have to remember is that objects enter the prestigious pantheon of collectible design for a reason and the reason is that they are historically significant, that they represent vision, originality, the spirit of their time, and they were forefront of design when created. They represent technological advancements, political ideas, lifestyle of their time, and something new and fresh. Objects of the past do not become collectible if they were not among the greatest of their time. Same with contemporary design. The fact that a fair is called itself ‘collectible’ or artists presented their design objects as ‘collectible,’ or that an object is offered at a gallery – all of these cannot turn object ‘collectible.’

TDR: Today, design is often judged by taste, trends, or market value. When you evaluate an object, what factors matter most to you beyond whether you simply like it?

DO: You are correct about the central role of taste and trends in determining market value. However, there is a common misconception about collectible design, and it relates directly to your question. The single most important quality of any collectible object is that it represents the best design of its time. It must be born from an original vision, that of its designer or architect, and embody not only a personal philosophy, but also the spirit of its era.

Design does not become collectible if it is derivative or created outside the values of its time. For this reason, one of the most beautiful aspects of collectible design is its quality, the fact that it represented the highest level of design when it was created. When I advise interior designers or collectors, I always consider budget, but I never compromise on quality. Good design has inherent value, and even if its market value is low at a given moment, it has the potential to grow precisely because of that quality. A design object may fall out of fashion, but it should still be considered collectible if it possesses these traits. Rarity, of course, is also extremely important.

Let me give you an example. The steel furniture pieces by Danish modernist Poul Kjærholm were once highly prized, attracting global collectors and commanding very high prices. Today, they fetch significantly less. Why? First, the taste for pure modernist forms is no longer what it once was. Second, it later emerged that two years after Kjærholm’s death in 1980, his trustees entrusted Fritz Hansen with the production and sale of The Kjærholm Collection - designs originally created between 1951 and 1967. Pieces from the original postwar production will always remain prized, and truly collectible.

TDR: For people starting to collect now, what are the most common misunderstandings you see about historical or cultural significance?

DO: The most common mistake I see, again and again, is collectors or interior designers entering auctions or galleries without the guidance of a professional advisor. There are many factors to consider before acquiring a piece of furniture or lighting, and making a purchase without proper expertise is often a recipe for disaster. While the advice offered by gallery staff is legitimate, it does not necessarily represent the client’s best interests.

This is equally true in the realm of contemporary design. When visiting a solo exhibition by a designer or artist, one needs a trained eye to identify the strongest work - something that cannot be expected from the dealer. I frequently see acquisitions that are simply wrong: pieces that have been improperly restored, lack proper provenance, or are missing original parts, all of which significantly diminish their value. The same principle applies to designers creating contemporary collectible design, who should also be supported by professional advisors throughout the process.

TDR: How should collectors think about re-editions today? Are they a useful point of entry?

DO: Re-editions are a no-no. Under any circumstances. When you buy a re-edition, you do not bring authenticity into your home. Furthermore, the piece will never hold its value; it is no different from buying a piece of furniture in a store, which loses value the moment it leaves. But re-editions have many more faults.

In many cases, re-editions are actually more expensive than the originals, simply because furniture is more costly to produce today. There is also something immoral about re-editions - and I am fully aware of the enormous industry behind them - because they interrupt the natural flow of design evolution. Manufacturers prefer to buy rights from estates rather than hire designers to create new and innovative work. Why? Because it is cheaper and safer. The result is a lack of visionary furniture in the industry.

We also have to remember that the entire re-edition industry is a byproduct of the thriving market for collectible design. It is the popularity of mid-century design - Scandinavian, French, American, Brazilian - that has encouraged companies to reproduce furniture from the past. The final and perhaps most damaging consequence is that re-editions distort public taste. Many people no longer understand what is truly contemporary in design and mistake a mid-century look for something current.

I always say that if you want to buy a new piece of furniture of today, buy an original and not a copy of something done in the past because it is no longer relevant, no longer connected to the spirit of the age as it was when it was first designed.

TDR: You mention the rising interest in the work of newly-discovered stars, notably Judy Kensley McKie, Line Vautrin, and Shiro Kuramata, which weren’t always the market’s focus. What does their rise tell us about how taste evolves?

DO: Judy Kensley McKie is the new star of the collectible design market, particularly for her bronze furniture from the 1980s and 1990s, which is now fetching up to half a million dollars. She is an American designer, and her market is almost entirely based in the US. Although McKie is still alive, her work is considered “vintage” because she is no longer producing. Trained as a painter and sculptor, she began creating her art furniture in the 1970s, producing highly sculptural pieces often shaped as real or imagined animals.

The rediscovery of McKie’s work is a strong indicator of today’s taste, and of the growing desire for furniture that can truly transform a space. Collectors are drawn to pieces that are unique, crafted, and expressive, but also institutionally recognized; McKie’s work, for example, can be found in numerous museum collections. At the same time, we are seeing less furniture rooted strictly in the ethos of the Modern Movement, following Mies van der Rohe’s mantra of “less is more.”

Line Vautrin is not new to the market, but the rising value of her work, particularly her mirrors, crafted in her Marais atelier and sold through her boutique on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris, points in the same direction. Collectors today are looking for objects that are personal, dramatic, and original: pieces that are crafted, expressive, and unmistakably non-derivative.

TDR: What role do auction houses, galleries, and fairs play in shaping - or sometimes confusing - the idea of collectible design

DO: The auction houses, galleries, and the design fairs act today as the tastemakers of the collecting design world. They are the curators.

TDR: Looking five to ten years ahead, do you think the category of collectible design will become more precise or more diffuse?

DO: Collectible design is a relatively new territory and like anything new, it is evolving, changing, and constantly reshaping itself. I can say that it is dynamic and will keep moving.

TDR: What’s one grounding principle you hope students take away from this course?

DO: I would be happy if those taking my programs became more confident in their knowledge and taste, because the knowledge they gain through my programs is the foundation of true confidence. Taste is not something we are born with, but a cultivated skill that you have to work hard to define and perfect over time. It is developed through exposure, critical thinking, and the ability to judge aesthetic quality.

TDR: What still excites you about teaching and collecting design today?

DO: Living with collectible design excites me every day. Seeing my kids living with collectible design because this is how they were brought up fills me with joy. It is an unparalleled design experience to be surrounded with good design and with objects I love. In terms of teaching, I always tailor new contents according to the spirit of the moment. The content is based on my research and my constant presence in the marketplace.

TDR: Are there regions, materials, or typologies you think are currently undervalued or misunderstood?

DO: Absolutely. Japan is currently one of the world’s most important and intriguing centers for the production of cutting-edge crafted contemporary design. Across the country and particularly along its west coast are dozens brilliant artists of all generations, who have turned traditional craft materials– clay, lacquer, bamboo, fiber, wood, metal – into new and innovative, daring, and fearless design expressions. By achieving the highest level of originality and by introducing new perspectives to the crafts, while at the same time referring to and respecting historical precedents, these artists have made an immense contribution to the design culture of the 21st century.

Yet, despite the prominent achievements and presence in Asian collections of some of the world’s best museums, and despite the growing design conversation and showcases that are increasingly global, I’ve puzzled over the limited attention paid by Western collectors, auction houses, and galleries to the extraordinary production of Japanese Kogei (crafts). Why don’t we see Japanese objects in leading design galleries? Why are they rarely included in the world’s finest interiors celebrated in European and American shelter magazines? Why have those sensual, beautiful pieces, which have the potential to make an enduring impact on spaces, exclusively remained within the territory of Japanese collections and galleries? We explore more in a session of my course devoted to Japanese contemporary design.

Registration is open now.

Join me for a thought-provoking, memorable evening on design and nature, as I host award-winning starchitect Koichi Takada at the Museum of Arts and Design on March 25th, on one of his rare visits to New York City.

To Japanese, Sydney, Australia-based architect Takada, fusing buildings with the natural world is the embodiment of contemporary principles in architecture and in landscape urbanism, and a winning recipe for a sustainable and green future. For the past three decades the award-winning architect has cemented his vision of ‘form follows nature’ with buildings which are not only integrated and blurred into the nature around them but also mimic it. As in the Zen tradition, landscape and architecture are one to him, and his buildings stand as kinetic, living organisms, while at the same time projecting positive environmental impact -- clean energy and efficiency, solar principles, and environmental connections. Climate change and biodiversity loss, he says, must stimulate shifting from the industrial to the natural, and to allow architecture to generate its own energy. His buildings are soft, organic, and flexible, with movable screens, rotating roofs, natural ventilations, reflecting and responding to the ever-changing natural environments.

Takada’s circular Sunflower House in Umbria, Italy was inspired by the region’s famed yellow fields, mirroring the way sunflowers turn to face to the sun; his Mamsha Palm in Abu Dhabi is an urban oasis in the shape of palm tree, the symbol of life in arid regions; and the Landmark by Lexus pavilion in Melbourne, which featured 1,000 native Australian plants growing on its façade was a powerful green statement. Each project illustrates Takada’s study of how the present ecological constrains weigh on the architectural design processes and how the reality of our densely built habitats changes the perception we have of buildings and cities, offering a compelling look at environmentally conscious architecture today and to the future evolution of the practice.

This event comes to celebate Takada’s second monograph, which advances his narrative, illuminating his nature-led architecture as a regenerative model for shaping a bright future. The event will conclude by a book signing.

Tickets are available now.

Collecting Design has become a barometer for changing tastes and for shifting directions in decor. Not only blue-chip pieces, but affordable furniture and lighting as well. The series Collecting Design: History, Collections, Highlights will open next month. Isamu Noguchi designed many innovative, modernist, and memorable pieces of furniture. Was Noguchi a designer? And why was the production of his famed coffee table, the best-seller coffee table of all time, ceased between 1974 and 1984?

The world of design gains significant momentum as design objects fetch record-setting prices and the global market continues to thrive. This growth has been driven by an institutional interest and expanded international collector base, including Millennials and Gen Z, who currently make up 20% of design bidders. Collectible design is no longer about connoisseurship, but about the creation of personal, dazzling interiors with narrative as collectible objects make the core of some of the world’s finest homes today. Yet, despite the increasing knowledge and as design of historical significance has occupied art scholars, been the focus of museum exhibitions, the market has been flooded with fakes, copies, reeditions, and misattributed works; the term ‘collectible design’ has become more elusive as it is commonly used incorrectly.

The program Collecting Design: History, Collections, Highlights has become known as the most exciting design experience. It is time to thoroughly re-examine and to analyze the term ‘collectible design,’ which was coined relatively recently to describe long-time collecting activities. What makes a design object ‘collectible’? What is the role of the changing taste in the ‘collectibility’ of design objects? The current blue-chip fixtures in the design market are objects of bold visions and innovations—of historical significance. Among the stars of the current market are François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne, Diego Giacometti, George Nakashima, Jean Royère, Lucie Rie, and Tiffany Studios. There is also a rising interest in the work of newly-discovered stars, notably Judy Kensley McKie, Line Vautrin, and Shiro Kuramata; a very different group than what was the face of the market 10 years ago.

Join me this spring for the most fascinating and memorable season as I renew the series ‘Collecting Design: History, Collections, Highlights,’ which I started 12 years ago. Together with some of the world’s leading experts, I will dive into the magical world of the art of collecting design. Among the topics covered this season are Isamu Noguchi, American interwar design, Nordic lighting and furniture, Japanese ceramics, mid-century Brazilian furniture, Marolles, Panton, and so much more. While creating a collection takes passion and dedication, it requires an educated eye to determine the great from the mediocre, and to fully understand, as good design is not in the eye of the beholder, but ought to be judged objectively. Together we will learn how to ‘read’ objects, and what really is ‘collectible’ in design. Join me and take your taste and knowledge to new horizons.

Collecting Design: History, Collections, Highlights; 8 virtual sessions on Wednesdays from 12:00 to 1:00 pm EST.

Starting Date: February 18. Registration is open.

As a participant in the series, you will be invited to a curator-led tour of TEFAF New York on May 15th, 2026.