Chicago Collects: Jewelry in Perspective Opens May 23

March 21, 2024
Download PDF

Decadence and Destruction: A Review of “Twin Flame, Double Ruin” by Sif Itona Westerberg at Driehaus Museum

March 13, 2024

NewCity Art Top 5: February 2024


Today In Culture, Wednesday, December 20, 2023:

December 20, 2023

The Arts Section 12/17/23: Sugar Hill Nutcracker, Dial M For Murder + Glass to Garden Exhibit

December 17, 2023

A Tale of Today Sif Itona Westerberg: Twin Flame, Double Ruin open February 16, 2023

December 15, 2023
Download PDF

Around the Town: Glass to Garden Preview

December 4, 2023

The To-Do: Upcoming Events and Activities You Should Know About

November 30, 2023
Download PDF

Celebrate “Drie-cember” with family-friendly weekend programs, holiday concerts at the Driehaus Museum, starting December 1

November 14, 2023
Download PDF

Lisa Key: New Leadership at the Driehaus Museum


Today in the Culture: Tiffany Flowers

November 2, 2023

Driehaus Museum celebrates major milestone in expansion with beam installation

November 1, 2023

Design Top 5: November

October 25, 2023

Floral Artworks Blossom from Tiffany's Glass in New Driehaus Museum Exhibition “Glass to Garden: Tiffany Inspired Floral Designs”


Download PDF

5 Offbeat Chicago Museums to Visit While ‘The Bean’ Is Off-Limits

October 19, 2023

October Design Top 5

October 4, 2023

Trash or Treasure: Chicago exhibition traces iconic designs

October 4, 2023
Download PDF

Design Top 5: October 2023

October 4, 2023

Museums for Fall: Tiffany at the Driehaus

September 6, 2023

The Arts Section, WDCB Radio, Legacy of Hector Guimard

August 13, 2023

Timeless Resonance: A Review of “Hector Guimard: Art Nouveau To Modernism” at the Driehaus Museum

August 16, 2023

DRIEHAUS MUSEUM ANNOUNCES LISA M. KEY AS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

August 14, 2023
Download PDF

Art Nouveau and Guimard at the Driehaus

July 10, 2023

At the Driehaus Museum, Hector Guimard Exhibit Explores the Work of the Paris Architect Who Designed Those Beloved Métro Stations

June 28, 2023

Design Top 5 June 2023

June 7, 2023

Art Enlivens Chicago in the Summer Season. Here’s an Insider’s Guide to the City’s Major Exhibitions, Landmarks, and Thriving Galleries

June 23, 2023

The Big Ticket June 22, 2023

June 22, 2023

Things to Do in Chicago June 22-28

June 21, 2023

Today in the Culture, May 23, 2023. Driehaus Restoring Auditorium

May 23, 2023

Things To Do in Chicago June 2023

May 21, 2023

10 Chicago Museum Must-sees for Summer 2023 — and Yes, You Can Stay Outside for Some of Them

May 24, 2023

Today in the Culture, May 16 2023 “Hector Guimard: Art Nouveau to Modernism” At Driehaus


DRIEHAUS MUSEUM TO RESTORE AND REVITALIZE THE HISTORIC MURPHY AUDITORIUM

May 18, 2023
Download PDF

HECTOR GUIMARD: ART NOUVEAU TO MODERNISM EXPLORES THE LIFE AND WORK OF THE FRENCH ART NOUVEAU ARCHITECT AND DESIGNER

May 3, 2023
Download PDF

HECTOR GUIMARD: ART NOUVEAU TO MODERNISM EXPLORES THE LIFE AND
WORK OF THE FRENCH ART NOUVEAU ARCHITECT AND DESIGNER

The Exhibition Provides a Comprehensive Look at Guimard’s Career, his Wife’s Creative Collaboration and his Commitment to Accessible Design

CHICAGO — May 3, 2023 — Beginning June 22, 2023, the Richard H. Driehaus Museum will present Hector Guimard: Art Nouveau to Modernism, an exhibition exploring the life and work of Hector Guimard (1867-1942), the French architect and designer whose name is synonymous with the French Art Nouveau movement. Bringing together approximately 100 works including furniture, jewelry, metalwork, ceramics, drawings, and textiles from collections worldwide, Hector Guimard: Art Nouveau to Modernism is the first major American museum exhibition devoted to Guimard since the retrospective organized by the Museum of Modern Art in 1970.  The exhibition will run until November 5, 2023.

This exhibition was co-organized with Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City, where it was on view from November 18, 2022 through May 21, 2023. At the Driehaus Museum, the exhibition was curated by guest curator David A. Hanks, who also edited the accompanying catalogue, and Sarah Coffin, former curator, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

Hector Guimard is best-known for his designs for the Paris Métro, which are so emblematic of the French Art Nouveau style that it was sometimes referred to as “le style Métro.” Representing a radical break from the classical and revival styles of the nineteenth century, Art Nouveau embraced natural forms while integrating architecture with the decorative and fine arts. Hector Guimard: Art Nouveau to Modernism explores Guimard’s commitment to sharing beautiful, sensuous, accessible designs for both civic architecture and everyday objects with a wide audience, as well as Guimard’s modern entrepreneurial approach to promoting his work through Le Style Guimard branding and his use of mass-production technologies. The show also explores the critical role played by his wife and collaborator Adeline Oppenheim Guimard, presenting new scholarship that underscores her critical role as her husband’s creative partner during his lifetime and ardent steward of his legacy.

“This exhibition tells the full story of Guimard’s career, with a new focus on the role his wife played in promoting his work and his innovative efforts to make modern design affordable, accessible, and a force for social good," said curator David Hanks. "The collections of Richard H. Driehaus and the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum hold some of the most significant objects by Hector Guimard in the United States. We are thrilled to unite these objects alongside important loans from national and international collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Musée d’Orsay, to reveal new insights into this remarkable designer and his lasting impact.”

At the Driehaus Museum, Guimard’s work and the Art Nouveau style will be placed in direct dialogue with the Gilded Age aesthetic of the Nickerson Mansion where the museum is housed. Though the building was completed in 1883—a few years before the Art Nouveau movement took off in Europe—the building’s architecture was influenced by the same reform movements that influenced Guimard. The Nickerson Mansion is a prime example of the Aesthetic Movement, which embraced the idea that art should not be confined to architecture, painting, and sculpture but should be incorporated into everyday life.

Hector Guimard: Art Nouveau to Modernism highlights how the designer’s commitment to the Gesamtkunstwerk—or “total work of art”—shaped his life and career, reflecting his desire to incorporate beautiful design in all aspects of urban life, from transportation to large-scale apartment buildings. In his most famous buildings, such as Castel Beranger, Hotel Guimard, and Castel Henriette, Guimard achieved this unity of work by carefully designing and planning every element, from the exterior façades to the furniture, wallpaper and doorknobs within the buildings. The exhibition also includes Guimard’s designs for affordable housing as well as some of his plans for responding to the post-World War I housing crisis.

Extending beyond his work, Guimard applied the concept of integrated design to his personal life as well.  He designed everything from his wife Adeline Oppenheim’s wedding dress and engagement ring to their home and Guimard’s studio. On the occasion of their marriage, Oppenheim remarked, “It will be necessary for us to make of our whole life a work of art,”—a declaration manifested in every detail of the couple’s life.

The exhibition is divided into five thematic sections:

  • Visionary Architect features drawings, plans, photographs, architectural fragments, and furnishings from some of Guimard’s most important buildings, including Castel Beranger and Castel Henriette. Castel Beranger was constructed between 1895-1897 and is the first example of Guimard’s desire to create a total work of art in which every element of the building was carefully designed and planned by Guimard. For Castel Henriette, which was completed in 1899 and demolished in 1969, Guimard also designed all the furnishings.
     
  • Guimard as Entrepreneur addresses the marketing and branding that were key aspects to what helped Guimard succeed in creating ‘le style Guimard.” This section explores the architect’s penchant for entrepreneurship and the various materials he created to advertise his work, including exhibitions, postcards, posters, and publications. These will be displayed alongside some of his lesser-known plans for commercial and apartment buildings.
    looks at Guimard’s collaborations with various French manufacturers, including designs developed in partnership with the Sèvres porcelain manufactory, the Saint-Dizier Foundries (for works in cast iron) and Langlois (for glass-pendant lamps and light fixtures).
     
  • Design for Production looks at Guimard’s collaborations with various French manufacturers, including designs developed in partnership with the Sèvres porcelain manufactory, the Saint-Dizier Foundries (for works in cast iron) and Langlois (for glass-pendant lamps and light fixtures)..
     
  • The section Guimard for the People focuses on his use of mass-production technology, such as standardized building components in cast iron, to promote his vision of design for all. This section includes examples of the cast-iron Parisian metro entrance panels and medallions he designed in addition to the architect’s unrealized plans for housing based on the principles of standardized construction. A video will demonstrate the construction of the only house ever built using Guimard’s Standard-Construction methodology.
     
  • M & Mme Guimard, featuring Guimard’s designs for personal objects created for his personal use and for his wife, Adeline Oppenheim (1872–1965), an American artist from a wealthy financial family in New York, whom he married in 1909. In addition to objects such as the engagement ring and other jewelry he designed for his wife, this section includes plans and design objects from Hotel Guimard (constructed 1909-1912)—a new house Guimard designed for the couple, along with its interiors, furnishings, carpeting, and even table linens and door handles. This section also highlights Oppenheim’s great efforts to preserve her husband’s legacy following his death.

Hector Guimard: Art Nouveau to Modernism reveals just how committed Guimard was to exceptional—and accessible—design,” said Interim Executive Director, Lisa M. Key. “And by situating his work within the beautifully elaborate halls and galleries of the Nickerson Mansion, our audiences are promised an exceptionally immersive environment that reminds us how good design elevates our daily lives, a core belief of our founder, Richard H. Driehaus. The exhibition also shares the next chapter in the story of modern architecture, following the work of architects like Louis H. Sullivan, whom we featured in our most recent exhibition.

The Driehaus Museum exhibition's presenting sponsor is Northern Trust.

The Driehaus Museum exhibition is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Richard H. Driehaus Annual Exhibition Fund.

Exhibition Catalogue

Hector Guimard: Art Nouveau to Modernism is accompanied by a full-color hardcover catalogue published by Yale University Press in association with the Richard H. Driehaus Museum.  It features new scholarship, including an essay by Philippe Thiebaut discussing Guimard’s training in drawing and the exquisite detail of his drawn plans; an essay by Barry Bergdoll highlighting an overarching theme of the exhibition – signature vs. standardization – and addressing Guimard’s concern for the well-being of people and workers; and an essay by Sarah D. Coffin discussing Adeline Oppenheim as a partner to Hector Guimard – in both life and work – and also as a determined preserver of his legacy; and an essay by Isabelle Gournay which presents new research on Guimard’s connection to the Parisian neighborhood of Auteil. The catalogue was designed by award-winning designers Miko McGinty and Rita Jules and was made possible with support from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and Robert and Carolyn Burk.

About the Richard H. Driehaus Museum

The Richard H. Driehaus Museum engages and inspires the global community through exploration and ongoing conversations in art, architecture, and design of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Its permanent collection and temporary exhibitions are presented in an immersive experience within the restored Samuel Mayo Nickerson Mansion, completed in 1883, at the height of the Gilded Age. The Museum’s collection reflects and is inspired by the collecting interests, vision, and focus of its founder, the late Richard H. Driehaus.

Address:           40 East Erie Street, Chicago, IL  60611

Phone:             (312) 482-8933

Website:           driehausmuseum.org

Follow us on social media:

Facebook.com/RHDriehausMuseum

Twitter.com/driehausmuseum

Instagram.com/driehausmuseum

About Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Cooper Hewitt is America’s design museum. Inclusive, innovative and experimental, the museum’s dynamic exhibitions, education programs, master’s program, publications and online resources inspire, educate and empower people through design. An integral part of the Smithsonian Institution—the world’s largest museum, education and research complex—Cooper Hewitt is located on New York City’s Museum Mile in the landmarked Carnegie Mansion. Steward of one of the world’s most diverse and comprehensive design collections—over 215,000 objects that range from an ancient Egyptian faience cup dating to about 1100 BC to contemporary 3-D-printed objects and digital code—Cooper Hewitt welcomes everyone to discover the importance of design and its power to change the world.

###

For more information, please contact:

Sascha Freudenheim

PAVE Communications & Consulting

sascha@paveconsult.com

917-544-6057

Julie Treumann

The Richard H. Driehaus Museum

jtreumann@driehausmuseum.org

312-874-5909

For Your (Re)Consideration Series To Present THE SHADOW OF A DOUBT By Edith Wharton

February 21, 2023

Today In The Culture, February 7, 2023: Dali at AIC | South Shore Studio Breaks Ground | Raven’s Johnson Stage

February 7, 2023

The Richard H. Driehaus Museum Extends Capturing Louis Sullivan: What Richard Nickel Saw and Announces Expanded Opening Hours

February 1, 2023
Download PDF

The Driehaus Museum Announces Leadership Change

January 13, 2022
Download PDF

The Buildings Richard Nickel Championed

November 4, 2022
Download PDF

T

New City: Design Top 5: November 2022

October 27, 2022

Today in the Culture, September 29, 2022: Sullivan x Nickel Symposium | Cloud Gate Dances at Auditorium | Preservation Award Winners

September 30, 2022

Symposium Organized by the Driehaus Museum Will Bring Together an Array of Noteworthy Speakers to Address “The Art of Architecture: Perspectives on Sullivan & Nickel”

September 22, 2022
Download PDF

Art for Fall 2022: Our Picks Include Exhibitions from the Arab World, from the Cultural Center, from Identity Politics

September16,2022

Fall Visual Arts Guide 2022

September 3, 2022

Can't Miss Design Events (Fall Arts Preview 2022)

September 7, 2022

Blue Man Group, "Immersive Monet" And More Things To Do In Chicago This Season

August 31, 2022

‘Capturing Louis Sullivan’ at Driehaus Museum: 50 years after Richard Nickel’s death, his photographs still haunt and inspire

August 31, 2022

Review: Driehaus Museum Exhibit Honors Richard Nickel's Passion to Preserve Louis Sullivan's Legacy

August 31, 2022

Legacies of Architect Louis Sullivan, Photographer Richard Nickel Take Center Stage at Driehaus Museum

August 30, 2022

Things to Do in Chicago, August 25-31

August 25, 2022

The Big Ticket: Fall Culture Preview

August 24, 2022

In Chicago’s Demolition Days, Richard Nickel Stood in the Way

August 23, 2022

13 Best Museums in Chicago

August 22, 2022

Today in the Culture: Driehaus Museum On Richard Nickel’s Role In Louis Sullivan Legacy

June 30, 2022

The Richard H. Driehaus Museum to Explore Photographer Richard Nickel's Role in Preserving Architect Louis Sullivan's Legacy

June 22, 2022
Download PDF

With Botanicals and Celestial Bodies, Theodora Allen Examines Our Scientific Journey

May 5, 2022

Expo Chicago 2022 Highlights

April 2022

Expo Chicago Lights Up for the First Time in Years, Drawing Dealers From Near and Quite Far

April 8, 2022

What to See During EXPO Chicago

April 7, 2022

Cool Things To Do in Chicago March 24

March 24, 2022

EXPO CHICAGO Announces April EXPO ART WEEK

March 22,2022

Today in the Culture, March 22, 2022 Theodora Allen; Saturnine

March 22,2022

Theodora Allen Saturnine


Driehaus Museum acquires 80 prints from PAN, essential journal of the Avant-Garde


Museum buys PAN magazine prints

March 21, 2022

Today In The Culture, March 16, 2022: Historic Pritzker Prize | DuSable Park, Finally | Joffrey’s Largest Production Ever

March 16, 2022

Contemporary Art Returns to the Driehaus Museum

CHICAGO, Feb. 17, 2022

This spring, the Driehaus Museum is proud to present the work of Los Angeles-based artist Theodora Allen in Theodora Allen: Saturnine.  The exhibition marks the latest iteration of the Museum's newest initiative: A Tale of Today, which features work by leading contemporary artists to expand the immersive experience and to shape our understanding of the world through the art, architecture, design, and cultural history of the Nickerson Mansion, the Museum's home.

Curated by Stephanie Cristello, Theodora Allen: Saturnine derives its title from the figure of Saturn and its historical association with melancholy, often referred to as the curse of artists. Visitors to the Museum will see Allen's luminous and meditative compositions, filled with a lexicon of snakes, planets, moons, and plant life – motifs that draw from ancient Greek mythology, literature, fin-de-siècle Europe, and the zeitgeist of 1960s California.  According to Cristello, "Through these intensely detailed and distilled paintings, we come closer to an experience of understanding the enduring symbols that surround us."

Allen's paintings will be exhibited in the second-floor galleries of the Driehaus Museum, convening a dialogue between the rich ornamentation of the Gilded Age Nickerson Mansion and the artist's interpretation of iconic mythical, natural, and celestial symbols. Alongside its collection of Tiffany glass, pre-Raphaelite paintings, and Art Nouveau flourishes, the unique environment of the Driehaus Museum becomes an essential part of Theodora Allen: Saturnine. "As the Driehaus Museum moves into its next chapter, we are thrilled to recommit to the core philosophy pursued by both the Nickerson family and founder Richard H. Driehaus to enliven the Mansion as a host to art and artists of their time and ours for connection, inspiration, and learning," said Anna Musci, Executive Director of the Driehaus Museum. "Theodora Allen's work is emblematic of timeless tropes that resonate with the Museum and the Collection, as well as our present day." 

Theodora Allen: Saturnine opens March 25th and runs through July 10th. Theodora Allen is represented by Blum & Poe (Los Angeles / New York / Tokyo), Kasmin (New York), and 12.26 (Dallas). A monograph published by Motto Books (Berlin, Germany) accompanies this iteration of the exhibition traveling from Kunsthal Aarhus (Denmark) and will be available for sale in the Driehaus Museum Store. The Museum will offer exhibition programs throughout the run, including select events presented in partnership with EXPO CHICAGO.

Theodora Allen: Saturnine is made possible in part by loans from Kasmin and Blum & Poe and through the generous support of Gary Metzner and Scott Johnson, Jean and Eugene Stark, TBD Collection, Forrest E. and Cynthia D. Miller, Howard Rachofsky, and Josi Fleishman.



   Back