New York City’s Museum of Arts and Design presents a pioneering exhibition, the first in a museum to focus on mannequin design. The retrospective, of sorts, highlights the industry and innovation of New York-based mannequin, lighting, and furniture designer Ralph Pucci, widely regarded as one of the world’s best sculptors of the stationary mannequin form.
The Collection Birdland 1988
Having collaborated with the likes of Diane von Furstenberg, Patrick Naggar, Andrée Putman, Anna Sui, Isabel and Ruben Toledo, Christy Turlington, and Veruschka, among others, his work has served to recalibrate the craft of mannequin design as we know it today.
Ralph Pucci portrait
“Pucci has not been afraid to diversify, abstract, and satirise the human figure and generally to push ‘the culture envelope,’’ said MAD’s Chief Curator Lowery Stokes Sims. “He has also cultivated collaborative relationships with designers, models, artists and illustrators that have had energizing and inspiring results.”
The Collection Diane von Furstenberg 2013
MAD will display a recreation of Pucci’s sculpting studio, including details down to idea boards, mid-construction mannequin forms, clay maquettes, and more. Pucci’s longtime collaborator Michael Evert will be in residence during the run of the exhibit, conducting “sittings”, during which he will live-sculpt preliminary models, offering museum guests an unprecedented insight into the processes and methodologies of early-on mannequin design work. Additionally, three decades of Pucci’s innovative mannequin forms will be on display, including some of his most celebrated designs and collaborations.
Ralph Pucci: The Art of the Mannequin will be on show at Museum of Arts and Design, New York from March 31 until August 30.
Images via MAD