The Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany, has brought the exhibition Verner Panton: The Collected Works to Singapore. The exhibition opens from 15th May 2009 till 12th July 2009 at the National Museum of Singapore.
Considered as one of Denmark's most influential 20th-century furniture and interior designers, Verner Panton (1926–1998) created innovative and futuristic designs in various materials. His works often display his penchant for bold, vibrant colors.
Panton was eager to explore new possibilities and seek new ways of living and as early as in the 1950s, he experimented with new materials and industrial production techniques to create playful and radical works such as colored plastic and steel wire-framed furniture.
In 1967, the Danish designer introduced the Panton chair, a single piece of molded plastic that is nothing if not sexy. Yes, it's true the Panton chair has been ridiculously 'overused' in modern interiors. But it also shows how versatile Panton's vision can fit in with the modern times.
With mockups and market iterations arranged in a systematic order during the show, the Panton chair is traced from prototype to recent re-editions - a brilliant way to show the evolution of one of the most important chair designs in the world.
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Verner Panton experimented with designing entire environments: radical and psychedelic interiors that were an ensemble of his curved furniture, wall upholstering, textiles and lighting.
It's not hard to see why kids and adults alike love Panton's Phantasy Landscape. Walking through the space (without your shoes on) is akin to traveling down a corrugated culvert, only that it is extremely colorful. Awashed in deep pinks, blues, oranges and reds, the sections vary in form, curving in all kinds of manner to create sitting spaces, shoulder-height outcroppings to lean on, and low level areas for lounging. The room seems a realm of infinite possibilities.
For his fabric design, Panton often started with a simple shape, such as a diamond or circle, and a few colors, then toyed with their permutations until the pattern clicked.
Over the course of his career, Panton introduced a series of modern lamps with personalities unlike any of his Scandinavian contemporaries.
With a remarkable faith in the unlimited possibilities of the form, he worked successfully to create a new set of theories about how lighting should work and how it should influence its surroundings.Stan
