If you go to MoMA’s gift shop, you can see that a lot of the products they sell are very versatile. The products are what you would call utilitarian art, meaning they serve as decorative items as well as tools. I recently also went to MoMA’s exhibition called Action! Design Over Time, which showcased a lot of this type of art. I highly recommend this show because it was extremely different from the usual painting, sculpture, and drawing that you see. The point of the show is to see how “design” in furniture and tools have changed to fit the commercial and modern aspects of our society. I loved the exhibit because it was sort of scientific. There were many creative, innovation and artist designs for almost everything.
Here’s an example.
I’ve also realized that utilitarian art is become more and more common these days. For example, Target has a line created by artist Michael Graves that focuses on design and function. You can see his website below.
The art also looks more and more futuristic. I think this is because we are always fascinated with technology and inventions that help us save time, since everyone is always so busy. Another thing I realized is that a lot of our present day technology is getting smaller and smaller. For example, in the MoMA show, I saw an electric guitar that was basically just a metal bar with strings on it. However, it has all the parts of a functioning guitar, except it is much more portable. It is certainly interesting to see how society has evolved and changed in only a short amount of time.
