The Detroit News Highlights George Nelson’s Contributions to American Design

The Detroit News explores the interesting story behind George Nelson’s journey from architect and journalist to iconic American designer. The vision of the Herman Miller Furniture Company and the talents of Nelson ultimately changed design as we know it. "George Nelson: Architect / Writer / Designer / Teacher" makes it’s final stop at Cranbrook through October 14 as part of its American tour.

The Mod Man | Hour Detroit

If you’ve ever kicked back in your family room, maybe perched in a midcentury Coconut Chair and reading under a Bubble Lamp, you’ve got designer and architect George Nelson to thank. The Hartford, Conn.-born Nelson (1908-86) came up with the idea of the family room in his 1945 book Tomorrow’s House, and was responsible for creating some of the most recognizable postwar designs in furniture and lighting for home and office while serving as design director for the Herman Miller furniture company in Zeeland, Mich., and also as head of his own studio, George Nelson Associates Inc. In addition to furniture, Nelson also designed dishes, flatware, typewriters, weathervanes, tiles, and rugs. This master of modernism is being saluted by the Cranbrook Art Museum in the exhibit George Nelson: Architect, Writer, Designer, Teacher, on view through Oct. 14. Although he didn’t work at Cranbrook, Nelson was well-acquainted with some of the titans who ...

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“GEORGE NELSON: Architect, Writer, Designer, Teacher”

Exhibition through Sunday, October 14, 2012 George Nelson is considered one of the most influential figures in American design during the second half of the twentieth century. Operating from the western side of Michigan as Design Director at the Zeeland-based furniture manufacturer Herman Miller for more than twenty years, Nelson had his sights firmly focused on Cranbrook, which was also playing a defining role in the development of Modernism. Organized by the Vitra Design Museum in Germany, “George Nelson: Architect/ Writer/ Designer Teacher" is the first comprehensive retrospective of Nelson’s work. It has been touring in Europe and most recently in the United States at the Bellevue Art Museum in Seattle. Cranbrook is the final stop in the US tour and the last opportunity to see this major exhibition before the work returns to Germany. More than 120 three-dimensional objects including examples of chairs, benches, desks, cabinets, lamps, and clocks, as well as ...

Latest Reviews of “GEORGE NELSON: Architect, Writer, Designer, Teacher”

"Influential designer Nelson's works in Cranbrook spotlight," Khristi Zimmeth, Detroit News Columnist"George Nelson: Architect, Writer, Designer, Teacher' Exhibit Shows Varied Work Of Modernist," Kate Abbey-Lambertz, HuffPost Detroit, Associate Editor Click here for the article."George Nelson Returns to Cranbrook," Architects and Artisans Click here for the article."Herman Miller's legendary designer George Nelson featured in exhibition at Cranbrook Art Museum," Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk, MLIVE, Arts Writer Click here for the article.

“2012 Graduate Degree Exhibition of Cranbrook Academy of Art”

Saturday April 21 Through Sunday, May 13, 2012Cranbrook Academy of Art is delighted to present its annual exhibition of work by the 2012 class of Masters of Fine Arts and Masters of Architecture students in the newly renovated galleries of Cranbrook Art Museum. The Academy’s program is interdisciplinary in orientation, representing the crossing and merging of mediums as well as the investigation and use of content from diverse areas of thought. The exhibition of these 79 emerging artists reflects the culmination of their time spent at the Academy and ranges from painting and sculpture to video, photography and installation.

Cranbrook Art Museum’s Grand Reopening Exhibition

Left: Nick Cave, Tree Soundsuit, 2011, Mixed Media. Photographer: James Printz, Chicago. Right: May Morris, Bed Hangings, 1917, or earlier. Embroidered wool on linen. Each panel:76 ¾ x 27 inches. Gift of George Gough Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth.Bloomfield Hills, Michigan – No Object is an Island: New Dialogues with the Cranbrook Collection is the provocative exhibition that will reopen the expanded and renovated Cranbrook Art Museum at Cranbrook Academy of Art on November 11, 2011. Inside and around the landmark building, designed by renowned Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen, the exhibition will pair the work of 50 leading contemporary artists and designers with an equal number of objects from Cranbrook’s outstanding permanent collection of 20th- and 21st-century art and design. Visitors will discover a Nick Cave Soundsuit side-by-side with a tapestry by Arts and Crafts master May Morris. A conceptual partnership that Maarten Baas projects between himself and Marc Newson meets a ...