Alexander Girard
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Alexander Girard (May 24, 1907 – 1993) Born in New York City to an American mother form Boston and a French-Italian father, Alexander Girard was raised in Florence, Italy. His professional education was in architecture. He graduated from the Royal School of Architecture in Rome, and also studied in Florence and New York. Girard is widely known for his contributions in the field of American textile design through his career at Herman Miller from 1952 to 1975 where he created fabrics for the designs of George Nelson and Charles and Ray Eames. He designed The La Fonda del Sol Restaurant in New York in 1960, the Herman Miller Showplace: T&O (Textiles and Objects), Braniff Airlines and The Girard Foundation 1962 which houses his extensive folk art collection. He and his wife. Susan Girard, amassed a remarkable collection of artifacts comprising folk art, popular art, toys, and textiles from around the world.
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[edit] Girard At Herman Miller
Herman Miller Textiles Division In 1952 Alexander Girard was hired to head the fabric and textile division. Girard worked with George Nelson and Charles and Ray Eames to form a design team that has influenced the fundamentals of design throughout the United States and the rest of the world. Girard initially established a fabric collection based on his architectural training. His first fabric line consisted of plain upholsteries and geometric drapery prints—stripes, circles, and triangles. He went on to create many more patterns and designs, largely inspired by folk art.
[edit] Folk Art Collection
Girard contributed his immense collection to the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA. The museum opened to the public in 1953 and has gained national and international recognition as home to the world’s largest collection of folk art. The collection of more than 135,000 artifacts forms the basis for exhibitions in four distinct wings: Bartlett, Girard, Hispanic Heritage, and Neutrogena.
The Girard Wing houses the popular permanent exhibition, Multiple Visions: A Common Bond, which showcases folk art, popular art, toys and textiles from more than 100 nations. Girard designed this unorthodox and delightful exhibition of his collection, which opened at the museum in 1982 and remains open to the public to this day.
[edit] Books About The Girard Folk Art Collection
The Museum of International Folk Art offers two books that provide an in-depth description of folk art and the Girard Folk Art collection.
"The Spirit of Folk Art: The Girard Collection at the Museum of International Folk Art" is a 276-page set of essays by Henry Glassie, which describe the content and importance of the Girard collection. The essays are complemented by black and white as well as color plates of collection objects on display at the Museum. For a full description of this book, see the MoIFA Publications page.
"Folk Art from the Global Village: The Girard Collection at the Museum of International Folk Art" is a 96-page set of essays by Jack Lenor Larsen and others, which describe the Girard collection and its origins. The book, which contains over 100 color plates of objects described in the essays, is currently out of print. For a full description of this book, see the Museum of New Mexico Foundation's publications page.
Books are available at the Museum Gift Shop and online at http://www.worldfolkart.org.
For more information and biographical data about Alexander Girard, see the Museum's listing of website resources.
[edit] External links
- Girard Wing
- Girard's designs for La Fonda Del Sol
- Girard bio at maXimo Design Company website
- Interview with Girard re his work at the Herman Miller Company
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