Mid-Century Style, Stellar Tours & Sunshine in Store at Palm Springs Modernism Week
Palm Springs Modernism Week 2017
February 16–26, 2017
- Reform Gallery of LA exhibiting at the Palm Springs Modernism Show & Sale in 2016. ©David A. Lee Photography.
Mid-century modern architecture and design are as synonymous with Palm Springs as sunshine is with southern California. Each year, Palm Springs celebrates mid-century modern design, architecture, art, fashion and culture with a vibrant, eleven-day festival. Palm Springs Modernism Week will return next week for its signature February edition. A robust program of more than 250 events, including the Palm Springs Modernism Show & Sale, signature home tours, films, lectures, panel discussions, double decker architectural bus tours, nightly parties, live music, walking and bike tours, modern garden tours, a vintage travel trailer exhibition, and many others ensures that there is something to captivate each and every person who is drawn to the festival.
- Sputnik Modern of Dallas will show this Large Pendulating Floor Lamp by Robert Sonneman at the Modernism Show & Sale this year.
Positioned at the center of it all, the Modernism Show & Sale is the most highly anticipated and well-attended event of the week. Eighty-five stellar new and returning dealers, including Bridges Over Time, Danish Modern NoHo, Off the Wall, and Porter & Plunk, will offer furniture, decorative and fine arts representative of all design movements of the 20th century. The Show & Sale will open with an Early Buying Preview Reception on Friday, February 17 from 6-9pm. The Fall Preview of the Show & Sale recently took place in October, giving visitors a taste of what was to come. Incollect is proud to be the exclusive premier online digital collection sponsor of the Show & Sale.
A special dedication on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars for renowned architect John Lautner will take place at 2pm on Friday, February 17, at the Palm Springs Art Museum Architecture and Design Center. This event is free to the public. John Lautner was the architect who created the Bob Hope Estate and Elrod house in Palm Springs, two shining examples of the mid-century modern aesthetic. The Elrod house is among the buildings that will be open for tours—many of which are rarely open to the public. Frank Sinatra’s “Twin Palms” Estate, Frey House II, the James L. Abernathy House, and the Annenberg estate at Sunnylands are among the homes that will also be open for tours. Although tours of Sunnylands are now sold out, you can click here for a glimpse inside the iconic 25,000-square-foot estate.
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- Dennis George Crow of LA will show a signed gelatin silver print of Frank Sinatra at Monte Carlo by Herman Leonard, circa 1958, at the Show & Sale this year.
Among the educational programming at this year’s Modernism Week are free talks, film screenings, book signings, and a special exhibition curated specifically for the Show & Sale. On Sunday, February 19, producer, writer and curator Daniel Ostroff will present “Eames: An Affection for Objects,” where he will reveal what Charles and Ray Eames bought when they went shopping for art, artifacts and design, and discuss what we can learn from what they collected.
A compelling new exhibition that will debut at the Show & Sale this year, entitled, “Plastics from Paradise: California Modernizes the American Lifestyle,” is organized by the Museum of California Design. The exhibition highlights the many ways in which California designers have created cutting-edge innovations out of various types of plastics, from Fiberglass and polymer to Lucite, Styrofoam, Micarta, and more. Popular consumer products made between 1936 and 2010 will be exhibited, such as a 1952 Glasspar G2 sports car, Frank Gehry's 2010 polymer Heller Easy Chair, a Charles and Ray Eames fiberglass chair from 1948, a Hobie surfboard from 1961 made of polyurethane foam, and a RKS Guitar, the first guitar made of a sustainable wood flour and polymer compound. The exhibition will showcase how these plastic items have impacted the lives of millions around the world for decades. “Plastics from Paradise: California Modernizes the American Lifestyle,” is made possible in part by the sponsorship of JF Chen, Alvin Lee, Michael Gregg Michaud and Barbara Spark.
Multiple programs, including tours, films, and lectures, will honor many of the visionaries whose designs are part of the foundation of Palm Springs modernism. Richard Neutra, Frank Lloyd Wright, Albert Frey, Donald Wexler, William Krisel, Eero Saarinen, A. Quincy Jones, John Lautner, E. Stewart Williams, and William F. Cody are just some of the legendary architects who helped usher in a new era of design that shaped a 20th-century America.
Another can’t-miss event from Modernism Week will be the designer showhouse, which will open February 18 with a red carpet gala. Twenty or so prominent interior designers and tastemakers will be creating rooms in the Modernism Week Show House: The Christopher Kennedy Compound. This year, the designers have been tasked with renovating the home of blogging and social media sensation Kelly Lee (a.k.a. “Kelly Golightly”) in the Andreas Hills area. Daily tours of the show house will take place throughout the week.
- Sputnik Modern of Dallas will show a Paul Evans PE40 Welded Cabinet, circa 1970s, at the Show & Sale this year.
Palm Springs Modernism Week will kick off with an Opening Night Party on Thursday, February 16. This red carpet affair will have a 1960s-era spy movie theme, à la James Bond in ”Diamonds are Forever,” a film that featured a famous scene in Elrod House in Palm Springs. Last year, Modernism Week drew an astonishing 77,500 attendees, 30% more than the previous year and by far the largest showing so far. This year’s turnout is projected to eclipse that figure. A portion of the proceeds from Modernism Week provides scholarships to local students pursuing college educations in the fields of architecture and design, and supports local and state preservation organizations and neighborhood groups in their efforts to preserve modernist architecture throughout the state of California.
- a La MOD of Palm Springs exhibiting at the Palm Springs Modernism Show & Sale in 2016.
The Palm Springs Modernism Show & Sale will be held at the Palm Springs Convention Center, located at 277 N. Avenida Caballeros. Weekend admission to the Show & Sale is $20; hours are Saturday from 10am–6pm, Sunday from 10am–5pm, and Monday from 10am–4pm. Modernism Week events will be held at various locations throughout Palm Springs. Tickets to each event are individually priced, and available online. View a complete schedule of events here. To learn more about Palm Springs Modernism Week, visit www.modernismweek.com. For more information about the Show & Sale, visit www.winter.palmspringsmodernism.com.
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