Johanna Grawunder Lights an Exhibition for Van Cleef & Arpels
During the good-taste craze of the 1990s, Johanna Grawunder became bored with beige. “I wanted a contemporary language, something that was almost digital,” says the San Francisco– and Milan–based designer, who worked for 16 years with Italian legend Ettore Sottsass, 12 of them as partner at Sottsass Associati. Light, she discovered, gave her access to “colors you couldn’t find in a Pantone chip.” Using colored bulbs, she illuminated tables, bookcases, chandeliers, and entire homes. The effects were both freaky—a heavy cabinet might appear to hover off the ground—and flattering. “Pink makes everyone look healthy and happy,” Grawunder notes. “It’s why they painted walls in Pompeii bright red.” Now she is bringing her digital-age color theory to Milan’s Palazzo Reale for an exhibition of historic jewelry and objects by Van Cleef & Arpels, opening November 30 (palazzorealemilano.it). Across 14 rooms, amid silk walls, inlaid floors, and frescoed ceilings, she will inset minimalist cases—many of them made of glowing, colored mirror—that display more than 400 examples from the French brand’s illustrious archive. “It’s like time traveling,” she says of the dialogue between old and new. “In one space you can see things from the 18th century and the 21st.” grawunder.com
Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
