Gallery Two · 14 March — 2 September

A Century of
Useful Things

One hundred and twelve objects from the permanent collection, arranged as a single argument: that the ordinary made carefully is the most durable kind of beauty.

Six works on view Curated by M. Aldridge Admission free

Decade index1950 — 1990

The Works

Typography

Grotesk No. 4 Specimen

1957 · letterpress proof

Furniture

Kestrel Lounge Chair

1963 · laminated oak

Lighting

Beacon Desk Lamp

1969 · spun aluminium

Furniture

Modular Storage System

1974 · powder-coated steel

Industrial

Field Camera, Mark II

1982 · magnesium body

Surface

Terrazzo Tile Series

1991 · cement and marble chip

Six works on view

Armillary Sphere · c. 1961

Artifact spotlight

Armillary Sphere

Three brass rings and a steel axis, built as a teaching instrument for a school that could not afford one. The maker turned the rings on a lathe borrowed for a fortnight and engraved the graduations by hand, working from a photograph of an eighteenth-century original.

Brass and steel · 1961 · gift of the maker

Drag the object to turn it