For the pursuit of the taste, I invited Peter Blake to speak in the program Collecting Design this week. Blake, who opened his Laguna Beach gallery in 1993, has concentrated on West Coast Minimalism, Light and Space, and Hard-Edge Movement. Among the artists he has represented and exhibited are some of the key stars of these Movements, including Joe Goode; Peter Alexander; Ed Moses; James Hayward; Larry Bell; Mary Corse. Blake’s taste for the minimal and for the purity has been shaped over the past twenty-five years; it has also come to inform his choices when recently entering the world of collectible design. He has begun exhibiting design with a groundbreaking show of his own collection entitled ‘The Tendency of the Moment: International Design Bauhaus through Modern.’ The furniture pieces were primarily modernism, created and designed from by the pioneers of modern design. This exhibition came to define the direction to come.
We have looked at two exhibitions Blake presented at Design Miami/. In 2018, it was an exquisite booth, which focused on the commission which German-born American designer Kem Weber created for the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California during the 30a, and which included his iconic Airline Chair. The other booth, no less fascinating, was presented in 2019, with a focus on the work of French duo Antoine Philippon (1930 -1995 ) and Jacqueline Lecoq (b.1932) who in the early 60s, created a line of minimalist furniture, which they regularly presented at the Salon des artistes decorateurs and in various World’s Fairs.
Blake explored his preference for the purity, for the modernist notion of respect for material and lack of decoration. The journey to achieve a distinctive taste was the main theme of this session, but he openly spoke about obstacles, questions, and about the desire to begin showing contemporary design. Thank you, Peter Blake, for contributing to the program Collecting Design. Your authentic and generous presentation came to capture the imagination of our students. All images courtesy Peter Blake Gallery.
