The Interiors of Charles Rohlf

January 14, 2009

87 min 45 sec

Charles Rohlfs (1853-1936) ranks as among the most innovative furniture makers from the period around 1900. Praised by the international press and exhibited in the United States and Europe, his exquisite designs reflect a unique mix of styles, including the Aesthetic Movement, Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau and proto-modernism. Despite the fame of his work and his prominence in nearly all American museum collections of decorative arts, Rohlfs’s interiors and commissions have never before been explored. Please join author of The Artistic Furniture of Charles Rohlfs (Yale U Press October 2008) for a survey and analysis of the hitherto unknown interiors created by Rohlfs during the period 1904 to 1909. During this period, despite winding down the core of his furniture shop, the designer still endeavored to develop and proselytize his own particular vision of beauty.

Speaker:
Joseph Cunningham is the curator of American Decorative Art 1900 Foundation. His publications include Design Is Not Art: Functional Objects from Donald Judd to Rachel Whiteread (2004) and The Artistic Furniture of Charles Rohlfs (Yale U Press October 2008) which will be available for purchase and signing by the author.