OUT IN THE WORLD WITH GAETANO PESCE
Out in the World with Gaetano Pesce, a new hardcover tome from MUSEUM devoted to the master of radical design is available from today.
“To think about Pesce’s work is to reevaluate the structures of ordinary objects.”
Now 81, Pesce remains as prolific as ever, working each day from his studio in Brooklyn's Navy Yards on experimental and highly saturated works that renegotiate the boundary between art and design. For decades, he has pioneered the use of seemingly ordinary materials that generate instant emotional connections: pink buildings made entirely from foam, sofas that resemble jester hats, large-scale portraits from hand-poured resin and vases that bend and wobble.
In the 1970s, Pesce radicalized mass manufacturing, insisting on the incorporation of mistakes and chance, so that a mass-made piece would still be individualized. This hardcover volume on Pesce is the first of its kind: fusing still life images and fashion photography with his pieces at the center. Including an essay and interview with the designer by art critic Sophie Haigney who spoke with him in October 2020 and newly commissioned photographs of Pesce’s most iconic and never-before-seen works, some of which were made during the pandemic, and have never been seen outside his studio.
Many of the images explore what happens to a designer’s work once it enters the world outside of a gallery context, in the hands and eyes of other people.
The cover features a portrait of Pesce by Duane Michals on a special puffy image plate taken in the designer’s studio last year.
There are four commissioned series of photographs inside, including an investigation into the materiality of his vases by Steve Harries, fashion portraits with the Nobody’s Perfect chairs, taken in Milan by Leonardo Scotti, and with various works at Brooklyn Navy Yards by New York photographer Tina Tyrell.
In another series of images, 18 different photographers—including Chris Rhodes, Charlie Engman, Esther Theaker, Stephen Lewis, Jerome Ming, Benjamin Prabowo Stexton and Lorna Bauer capture Pesce chairs loaned from private collections and museums. Out in the World with Gaetano Pesce is available worldwide from 26 April 2021 and is available for purchase online at museumbooks.net.
Out in the World is the debut book from the creators at MUSEUM, writer-editor Laura Bannister and creative director Matthew Roland Bannister.
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