The Undiscovered Richard Meier The Architect as Designer and Artist

Image courtesy Richard Meier & Partners

The Museum fur Angewandt Kunst is a project that is very dear to my heart and holds a special place in my design oeuvre, being my first european museum commission; it is a great pleasure and an honor to have my art and object design exhibited in this museum./Richard Meier

A distinguished architect and Pritzker laureate, Richard Meier has attracted public attention with his architectural designs for museum and cultural buildings including the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California; the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, Spain, and most recently as the leader of a collaborative team including esteemed architects Charles Gwathmey, Peter Eisenman and Steven Holl, who recently submitted a proposal for the World Trade Center Site in New York city.


Photo: arcspaceMuseum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, Spain

The exhibition will feature products Richard Meier has designed for a number of companies in the United States and Europe, including Alessi, Arabia, Reed & Barton, furniture for Knoll International and Stow Davis, lighting fixtures for Baldinger, door and window hardware for Valli & Valli, clocks and watches for Markuse, pens for Acme Studios, designs in crystal for Steuben and a significant amount of designs of tableware, stemware and silverware for Swid Powell.


Photo: Robert MooreTall Framed Vase for Steuben 

Photo: Steven SlomanBlack Laquer Chair for Knoll

Photo: Effective Images - Bill SharpeSofa for Stow Davis

Photo: Steven SlomanSilver Plated Pitcher and Silver Pitcher for Swid Powell.

Photo: Steven SlomanSignature Black Buffet Plate, Luncheon Plate, Cup & Saucer for Swid Powell

One of the largest and more unexpected objects in the exhibition is an extraordinary piano Richard Meier designed for Ibach.

Photo: Ulli SteinmetzGrand Piano for Rud Ibach Sohn

The exhibition also includes a number of Richard Meier's collages, many of which he has created during his travels throughout the world for his architecture projects.  Of the over 1800 collages he has created, 27 will be included in the exhibition.

Photo: Steven SlomanRichard Meier Collage: Berlin

The exhibition has been organized by the office of Richard Meier along with the Mak Frankfurt Curator of the Design Department, Dr. Volker Fischer, an internationally known architecture and design historian who is an Honorary Professor at the Academy of Design at Offenbach and who was the vice Director of the Deutsches Architektur museum in Frankfurt for over 10 years.

Photo courtesy Richard Meier & PartnersPhoto: Alastair Hunter

Mak Frankfurt, The Museum for Applied Art, designed by Richard Meier, was completed in 1985 and showcases the history of European decorative arts, design, and since 1999, digital craft' including websites and computer games.  It is located on the edge of the Main River in Frankfurt, in close proximity to several other museums, which together form the renown Museumsurfer, a venerable embankment of cultural institutions fronting the water.

Renowned publisher Axel Menges has created a 128 page illustrated catalogue of the exhibition written by Dr. Volker Fischer, with a Preface by James M. Bradburne the former Director of the museum.  The catalogue covers the items in the exhibition as well as additional objects from Richard Meier's object design oeuvre.