Alexander Girard: A Designer's Universe, Palm Springs
The Palm Springs Art Museum is one of my favourite places to visit when in Palm Springs, and making it back to town to time with the current exhibition Alexander Girard: A Designer’s Universe was an absolute highlight of my most recent visit. Coinciding with Modernism Week, there were some excellent lectures and talks held as part of the festival — some dedicated to Alexander Girard and his lifetime of work, and some about Herman Miller, which of course includes Girard as a pivotal role in the company for more than 20 years.
Girard was well known (and revered) for his ‘collecting and selecting’, and amassed over 100,000 pieces in the Girard archives — rotating selections of his pieces and collections are on show in the Santa Fe Museum of Folk Art — and approximately 1000 of these are on loan to the Palm Springs Art Museum for the dedicated exhibition. The most amazing array of work is included, as one of the most prolific designers of the 20th century, the work spans Girard’s student and early architecture sketches, his work for the NY restaurant La Fonda del Sol (which included more than 40 iterations of the sun face logo!) and all of the branding and collateral for the restaurant. At one point so many salt and pepper shakers were being stolen from the restaurant that they had to change the designs to less appealing ones to discourage theft!
More design work from The Miller House in collaboration with Eero Saarinen, the now very famous hand painted Girard dolls, a huge array of textiles from his time heading up the Herman Miller textile division, and hundreds of toys and folk art pieces collected from all over the world. A large portion of the exhibition is dedicated to work that Girard contributed to the enormous rebrand of Braniff Airways in 1965; the campaign was dubbed ‘The end of the plain plane’ and it got me wishing that all contemporary airlines would take note! Girard’s designs covered every detail right down to the sugar packets served on the planes, and Braniff Airways also brought on Italian designer Emilio Pucci to design the uniforms for the air hostesses. All I’m saying is I would definitely wear a green wool cape and those striped green boots — can we bring it back?
There was really nothing that Alexander Girard couldn’t turn his hand to and make better, a visionary and true talent. His work is hugely influential and inspirational to my own work - and ethos - as a designer, so to get the chance to experience so much of it up close and en-masse was one of the most amazing things; I had to come back and do the whole exhibit again because it was that good, and that overwhelming! Alexander Girard: A Designer’s Universe is on until March 20, 2020 at the Palm Springs Art Museum — if you’re in the California area and able to get to Palm Springs, I couldn’t recommend the exhibition more highly. Even the elevators have been decked out in tribute to Mr Girard!
Palm Springs Art Museum
101 Museum Drive
Palm Springs, CA 92262
Admission $14 adults
