Knoll Textiles, 1945-2010, at Bard Graduate Center

From my assistant, Blaise:

In 1943, Florence Schust convinced Hans Knoll that she could turn his furniture company around and on an upswing by  partnering with architects and incorporating interior design into the company’s mission. It worked. They married three years later and together they founded Knoll Associates. When Hans died in a car accident in 1955, Florence took over the business and continued to design. The company flourished under her leadership and acquired designs and commissions from designers such as Hans Bellman, Eero Saarinen, George Nakashima, Harry Bertoia, and Isamu Noguchi.

Florence Knoll was a student of architecture who earned degrees at the Architectural Association in London and the Armour Institute (Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago). She studied with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer, among others.

Famous for her “total design” philosophy and space planning and storage innovations, Florence Knoll revolutionized interior design and produced collections that have become 20th century icons that are somehow timeless. She has received the National Medal of Arts and the American Institute of Architects’ Gold Medal for Industrial Design, among numerous other awards.

Knoll’s successful venture into a third division of the company–textile design–has now prompted a new show at the Bard Graduate Center: Decorative Arts, Design History, Material Culture (BGC). Knoll Textiles, 1945–2010, which will run from May 18th through July 31st, is “the first comprehensive exhibition devoted to a leading producer of modern textile design.” The exhibition focuses on Knoll’s leadership and risk-taking practices, the innovation in textile materials, production, and marketing, and the way that the Knoll textile division was ingeniously used to promote that “total design” philosophy.

Find out more about Knoll, Knoll textiles, and the upcoming exhibition at The Bard Graduate Center’s website.

Buying and Selling at the Brooklyn Flea

This spring, I’ve set up shop twice at the famous Brooklyn Flea in Fort Greene. The first time I did it, it rained, so I only got in half a day’s worth of selling. Though that day was cold and dreary, the die hards still came out–people with a good eye, looking to see if I knew my stuff. I was excited to see that people had sophisticated tastes. I sold a few things and then packed up when it started to drizzle. 

Two weeks later I set up again. This time, I could not have asked for more perfect weather. I sold a lot of $15-$20 items, a few $60-$80 items, and two $400 items–an original LCM Eames chair and an action painting by artist D. Aron. It was definitely worth the effort.

The following day I went to the same Brooklyn Flea in Williamsburg (they do Fort Greene on Saturdays and Williamsburg on Sundays), but this time, I was a buyer and not a vendor. I spent money from my flea sales on a vintage Panasonic Tourist for my son Axel, who is leaving for college soon. I’d been looking for the perfect collegiate style bike for several months, and I finally found it. Thanks, Brooklyn Flea!

I’ll be back as a vendor before the summer is over. Stay tuned!

More about the Brooklyn Flea:

Brooklyn Flea operates New York City’s best markets, every weekend of the year, featuring hundreds of top vendors of antique and repurposed furniture, vintage clothing, collectibles and antiques, as well as a tightly curated selection of jewelry, art, and crafts by local artisans and designers, plus delicious fresh food. The New York Times called the Flea “One of the great urban experiences in New York”; Country Living, Budget Travel, and Delta Sky ranked the Flea one of the best markets or antiques shows in the U.S.; andTime Out NY named the Flea one of New York’s Essential Pick-Up Spots.

Since April 2008, Jonathan Butler, founder of Brownstoner.com, Brooklyn’s biggest blog, and Eric Demby, former communications director for Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, have operated the Brooklyn Flea, a weekly outdoor market in Fort Greene and other “pop-up” locations that features 150 local and regional vendors of antiques, vintage clothing, handmade items, jewelry, food, bicycles, records, and more. In its first three years, the Flea has grown into a New York City institution, garnering local, national, and international press for its diversity of vendors, for the quality of food and merchandise, for the inclusive community aspects of the market’s atmosphere, and for the economic stimulus the market provides to both vendors/entrepreneurs and local businesses.