TULSA, OKLA.- Philbrook Museum of Art will open Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec – Album on Sunday, March 2, 2014, an exhibit showcasing the critical stages of design often unseen by the public. Making its U.S.A. debut with Philbrook, this exhibition will run through May 11, 2014.
Among the most celebrated designers practicing today, the Bouroullec brothers’ work ranges from furniture to jewelry, with a primary focus on the organization of interior spaces. Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec – Albumfocuses on the brothers’ drawings, which combine fine draftsmanship with fantastic imagination. The exhibition also presents a sampling of prints, small models, and photographs of finished pieces and projects. Together, these materials offer a panorama of the designers’ output, illuminating their concerns, from broad concept to technical detail.
On one hand, the Bouroullec drawings are works of independent artistic value with abstract pictorial motifs that suggest a unique and fantastical world. On the other, they map out the design process as it moves toward the ultimate realization of a new object. The designers proceed like natural scientists who investigate and continually retest their own array of ideas with a spirit of curiosity. Inspired by this approach, the exhibition stages the objects in a manner reminiscent of a natural history museum or a laboratory.
Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec – Album shows the complex process of today’s designers in which numerous structural and technical problems must be solved. The exhibition emphasizes the significant role of drawing in the conception of objects – from da Vinci to Le Corbusier. The very word “design” can be traced back to the Italian term “disegno,” which was used in the Renaissance to refer to the sketching out of a pictorial motif. But even in the age of computers, drawing remains an indispensable tool for many designers, as it captures spontaneous, sometimes unexpected design ideas and develops an individual formal language.
French brothers Ronan (b. 1971) and Erwan (b. 1976) Bouroullec were born in Brittany. Collaborating since 1999, they now share a studio in Paris. Their designs of furniture, lighting fixtures, and other objects for commercial and domestic use are produced and distributed world-wide by such distinct manufacturers as Vitra, Ligne Roset, Kvadrat, and Alessi. Solo exhibitions of their work have been presented at many museums, including Centre Pompidou Metz, Victoria and Albert Museum London, Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, and Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. The Bouroullecs are the recipients of many awards and accolades, including the A&W Designer of the Year award (2013), the Designer of the Year award for Now! Maison & Objet (Paris, 2011), the Danish Design Award (Copenhagen, 2010), the Finn-Juhl Prize (Copenhagen, 2008), Designers of the Year at the Salon du Meuble (2002), the New Designer Award at the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF New York, 1999), the Grand Prix du Design (Paris, 1998).
Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec – Album is the second of a three-exhibition series partnership between Philbrook and Vitra Design Museum. Through this partnership, Philbrook holds exclusive rights to three Vitra Design Museum exhibitions—opening at Philbrook in 2012, 2014, and 2016—within a 425 km (264 mile) radius of Tulsa. The first, Antibodies: The Works of Fernando and Humberto Campana, 1989-2009, was presented at Philbrook in 2012 to great acclaim.
