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.