Episode 99: The Space Between

This week, Michael and Jessica discuss Hilma af Klint, the artist and mystic whose Paintings for the Future are on view at the Guggenheim through April 23.

For designers and painters alike, Jessica says,

the hardest thing is to invent a new way to do something and say something and show something, to invent a new visual language.

Also mentioned this week:

Roberta Smith, New York Times, ‘Hilma Who?’ No More
Christine Burgin, Hilma af Klint, Notes and Methods
Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, Hilma af Klint’s Visionary Paintings
Washington Post obituary of Kevin Roche,
Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo Associates, In Memoriam
Alexandra Lange, Curbed, Inside the Proposed Changes to the Landmarked Ford Foundation
A House to Live With: Paul Rand in Esquire, 1953
Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen, Kevin Roche: Architecture as Environment
Alexandra Lange, Design Observer, Making the Modern House Home (2011)
Lange’s Twitter thread about Roche
Alexander Girard studio
modern midwest a.k.a. Josh Lipnik on Twitter
Design Observer, Fifteen Minutes of Fame
Saturday Night Live, Michael Cohen hearing
SNL, Brett Kavanaugh hearing

Subscribe to The Observatory on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast app, or follow Design Observer on Spotify or Soundcloud.

Posted in: Arts + Culture, The Observatory

Michael Bierut studied graphic design at the University of Cincinnati, and has been a partner in the New York office of Pentagram since 1990. Michael is a Senior Critic in Graphic Design at the Yale School of Art.

Jessica Helfand, a founding editor of Design Observer, is an award-winning graphic designer and writer. A former contributing editor and columnist for Print, Eye and Communications Arts magazine, she is a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale and a recent laureate of the Art Director’s Hall of Fame. Jessica received both her BA and MFA from Yale University where she has taught since 1994. In 2013, she won the AIGA medal.

More from Michael Bierut + Jessica Helfand

Episode 127: Fear and Longing
Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters; Hrishi Hirway and Mike Errico; The Quiz Broadcast; Shakespeare and Co. Project

Episode 126: Screens and Dreams
Take Me to the World: A Sondheim 90th Birthday Celebration; Unorthodox; My Brilliant Friend; The Affair; Anil Dash on the dangers of social media; Anna Wiener on Silicon Valley; quarantine dreams

Episode 125: Zoom Aesthetics
Zoom aesthetics and COVID-19; Kyle Chayka on minimalism; Deborah Berke on shared spaces; Jessica Salfia’s poem “The First Lines of Emails I’ve Received While Quarantining”; Megan O’Grady on artistic recluses

Episode 124: That Thing You Do
Making art and design during the COVID-19 pandemic; Christoph Niemann and Daniella Zalcman; Adam Schlesinger; spec scripts for Larry David

Episode 123: Closing Doors, Opening Doors
Looking at COVID=19: Flattening the curve, Washington Post designers Harry Stevens on visualizing social distancing, Alissa Walker on how dots are people, Stephen Sondheim at 90

Jobs | November 05