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拍品专文
cf. R. C. Miller, Modern Design 1890-1990 in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1990, p.p. 282-3 for an example of a Fish Lamp;
S. G. Lewin (ed.), Formica & Design, New York, 1991, pp. 156 for another example of a Fish Lamp;
F. Dal Co and K. W. Foster, Frank Gehry: The Complete Works, New York, 1998, pp. 24, 278-279, 293 for examples of Fish Lamps, p. 279 for study drawings for a Fish Lamp of this model.
Neoclassical thinking was back and I became self-conscious about having anything to do with it. Architecture always has to do with history in some way or another, but when they started exaggerating it, the fish was kind of a joke over all these reference to the past. Everyone was quoting these old classical buildings, so I decided to quote something five hundred million years older than mankind. Frank Gehry
When Gehry was a young boy in Toronto, his grandmother would go to the Jewish market in Kensington on Thursday mornings where she would buy a live, large, black carp to be made into gefilte fish for the Sabbath. The fish would be kept alive in her filled bathtub overnight and Gehry would play with it, watching it twist and turn, until the next day when it became part of his family's sacred meal. It is a rich and complex story, one that clearly resonates in his work.
Frank Gehry created his first legendary Fish Lamp for the exhibition, "Surface & Ornament," organized by the Formica Corporation to promote their new product ColorCore and exhibited at Neocon, the design trade exposition at Chicago's Merchandise Mart in 1983.
Under the direction of Formica Corporation's Creative Director, Susan Grant Lewin, ten innovative leading designers were selected, among them Frank Gehry, Emilio Ambasz, Leila and Massino Vignelli and Robert Venturi. Each was supplied with a large quantity of the material, a small grant and free reign to explore the material's potential without concern for the marketplace.
Struck by the translucency of ColorCore, Gehry was drawn to the idea of a lamp. After a few failed attempts, one of the spurned objects fell to the floor and shattered providing Gehry's inspiration. The scattered remnants recalled arrowheads, sharks teeth -- fish scales -- and Gehry embarked on a light sculpted in the shape of a whole fish. He designed a prototype and subsequently turned the production of the Fish Lamps over to New City Editions, and over the next three years they produced approximately three dozen fish lamps, including a group of lamps for an exhibition at Metro Pictures Gallery in New York. One of the earliest versions, the here offered lamp was chosen by Gehry for Susan Grant Lewin and was accompanied by a drawing inscribed, "Dear Susan, You made it Happen, Love Frank". In Lewin's lamp, which was Gehry's favorite version, the fish is presented, not swimming, but as if on a platter, an ethereal offering - part perhaps of a celebration: pure, glowing; the burning light of its eyes locking with those of the viewer.
As a result of "Surface & Ornament's" success, the show embarked on a five year international tour. When the exhibition finally came to a close, each object was acquired by a leading museum, and Gehry's Fish Lamp went to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.
The fish is, for Gehry, a symbolic image with numerous complex associations and has figured prominently in his work. It first appeared in 1981 as part of the colonnade in the Smith Residence project; the same year a fish figured as a monumental sculpture in his collaboration with Richard Serra for an Architectural League of New York exhibit. Among others: two large luminous fish rise upward in Rebecca's Restaurant in Venice, California (1982-85); there is the Walker Art Center's mammoth Standing Glass Fish (1986); its aquatic form dominates at both the Vila Olimpica, in Barcelona (1989-92) and the Fishdance Restaurant, Kobe, Japan (1986-87), and there was one literally in a bathtub at the Toronto Chiat/Day office (1988), vividly recalling Gehry's early encounter.
In the fish there is a perfect symbiosis between skin and structure; between form and function: an inspirational paring for Gehry, one which informs his work. Indeed, the dynamic shapes of his buildings have been related to fish, often vigorously swimming in the water.
Gehry's Fish Lamps have been presented in several museum exhibitions including, High Style: Twentieth-Century American Design, at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1986 and The Architecture of Frank Gehry at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis in 1986. A Fish Lamp of this design was on included in the exhibition, Fish Forms: Lamps by Frank Gehry, at the Jewish Museum, New York, 2010. In addition to the Fish Lamp in the collection of The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.
S. G. Lewin (ed.), Formica & Design, New York, 1991, pp. 156 for another example of a Fish Lamp;
F. Dal Co and K. W. Foster, Frank Gehry: The Complete Works, New York, 1998, pp. 24, 278-279, 293 for examples of Fish Lamps, p. 279 for study drawings for a Fish Lamp of this model.
Neoclassical thinking was back and I became self-conscious about having anything to do with it. Architecture always has to do with history in some way or another, but when they started exaggerating it, the fish was kind of a joke over all these reference to the past. Everyone was quoting these old classical buildings, so I decided to quote something five hundred million years older than mankind. Frank Gehry
When Gehry was a young boy in Toronto, his grandmother would go to the Jewish market in Kensington on Thursday mornings where she would buy a live, large, black carp to be made into gefilte fish for the Sabbath. The fish would be kept alive in her filled bathtub overnight and Gehry would play with it, watching it twist and turn, until the next day when it became part of his family's sacred meal. It is a rich and complex story, one that clearly resonates in his work.
Frank Gehry created his first legendary Fish Lamp for the exhibition, "Surface & Ornament," organized by the Formica Corporation to promote their new product ColorCore and exhibited at Neocon, the design trade exposition at Chicago's Merchandise Mart in 1983.
Under the direction of Formica Corporation's Creative Director, Susan Grant Lewin, ten innovative leading designers were selected, among them Frank Gehry, Emilio Ambasz, Leila and Massino Vignelli and Robert Venturi. Each was supplied with a large quantity of the material, a small grant and free reign to explore the material's potential without concern for the marketplace.
Struck by the translucency of ColorCore, Gehry was drawn to the idea of a lamp. After a few failed attempts, one of the spurned objects fell to the floor and shattered providing Gehry's inspiration. The scattered remnants recalled arrowheads, sharks teeth -- fish scales -- and Gehry embarked on a light sculpted in the shape of a whole fish. He designed a prototype and subsequently turned the production of the Fish Lamps over to New City Editions, and over the next three years they produced approximately three dozen fish lamps, including a group of lamps for an exhibition at Metro Pictures Gallery in New York. One of the earliest versions, the here offered lamp was chosen by Gehry for Susan Grant Lewin and was accompanied by a drawing inscribed, "Dear Susan, You made it Happen, Love Frank". In Lewin's lamp, which was Gehry's favorite version, the fish is presented, not swimming, but as if on a platter, an ethereal offering - part perhaps of a celebration: pure, glowing; the burning light of its eyes locking with those of the viewer.
As a result of "Surface & Ornament's" success, the show embarked on a five year international tour. When the exhibition finally came to a close, each object was acquired by a leading museum, and Gehry's Fish Lamp went to the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.
The fish is, for Gehry, a symbolic image with numerous complex associations and has figured prominently in his work. It first appeared in 1981 as part of the colonnade in the Smith Residence project; the same year a fish figured as a monumental sculpture in his collaboration with Richard Serra for an Architectural League of New York exhibit. Among others: two large luminous fish rise upward in Rebecca's Restaurant in Venice, California (1982-85); there is the Walker Art Center's mammoth Standing Glass Fish (1986); its aquatic form dominates at both the Vila Olimpica, in Barcelona (1989-92) and the Fishdance Restaurant, Kobe, Japan (1986-87), and there was one literally in a bathtub at the Toronto Chiat/Day office (1988), vividly recalling Gehry's early encounter.
In the fish there is a perfect symbiosis between skin and structure; between form and function: an inspirational paring for Gehry, one which informs his work. Indeed, the dynamic shapes of his buildings have been related to fish, often vigorously swimming in the water.
Gehry's Fish Lamps have been presented in several museum exhibitions including, High Style: Twentieth-Century American Design, at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1986 and The Architecture of Frank Gehry at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis in 1986. A Fish Lamp of this design was on included in the exhibition, Fish Forms: Lamps by Frank Gehry, at the Jewish Museum, New York, 2010. In addition to the Fish Lamp in the collection of The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.