Mingei International Museum

That was a big problem--no catalog!

mike

It was the first time I had been to the Mingei--missed the Eva Zeisel exhibition when it was there, but they did have some of Zeisel's stuff still in the museum shop for sale.

The Ackerman exhibition was a retrospective that covered nearly 5 decades of their work, and I was surprised to learn that they are still designing. I found their textiles, ceramics, wood carvings, and mosaics to be quite in line with my own personal mid-century modern likes. Many of the textiles and wall hangings were from the 60s. The mosaics pictures were my favorite things--most were about 3 feet long and about a foot+ in height and were 50s-60s stylized themes. The couple was equally facile with abstracts and stylized charicatures and scenes. The exhibit was larger than I expected for this smallish museum, by some NY standards, and included most of the first floor exhibition space. But it was not a small space, really. The upstairs included a wonderful exhibit entitled: Shibui: The Suble Beauty of Japanese Craft. Shibui is a very honest, modern oriental style.

The word, Mingei, I learned means 'art of the people'. The philosophy seems very much in line with the foundations of mid-century modern.

The museum, as you can see, is mission on the outside, and contemporary on the inside. Unfortunately, photos of the exhibitions were not allowed.

The Ackerman's started their first company as Jenev Design Studio in LA in 1952 and four years later the company was known as ERA Industries. Many of the textiles were actually produced by ERA in Mexico, I believe. Some were signed with simply an 'EA'.

There was a prestigious California Design exhibition from 1954 to 1976 that featured what perhaps might be referred to as 'California Modern' studio and production pieces. The Ackerman's work was purportedly in every such exhibition.  Jerome was a graduate of Alfred University where he obtained a master's in ceramics.

So, I really enjoyed the museum, but was disappointed that there was no catalog of the exhibition. The one brochure of the exhibition was aesthetically quite nice, but weak on text. In fact, the text begins with a typo in the second word of the first line, misspelling "retrospeccitve" [sic]. I found that surprising.

Balboa Park, where the Mingei is situated is absolutely gorgeous and San Diego's Museum of Art, Botanical Gardens, Natural History Museum, and Sports Museums are all within easy walking distance. They even have an Organ Pavillion where there is one of the oldest municipally owned pipe organs.

The Zoo was not far past all this and apparently they had just introduced a herd of new elephants the week that I was there.

Outside the Mingei. I think this was designed for child play. The ground was spungy so that a fall would be impact-absorbed.

Botanical Gardens, just across from the San Diego Museum of Art and the Mingei.

Carniverous plants in the Botanical Gardens.

I liked the look of this, particularly the geometry of the fence in contrast to the pot and masonry and typeface. This building on the walk to the Botanical Gardens.

The Prado restaurant across from the Mingei. I had a Kobe beef burger for lunch outside in the garden patio. Love the architectural style. The first and second World's Fairs were held in Balboa Park and I think the amazing architecture found in the park is related to some buildings from these World's Fairs.

Sorry about the quality of some of these photos. I had forgotten my camera and had to use the cell phone's.