When her so-called Dragon Chair fetched €21,905,000 ($28.3 million) at the landmark Yves Saint Laurent sale at Christie’s Paris in 2009, realizing seven times the high estimate and acquired by French dealer Chska Vallouis, the world of collectible design was stunned. But up until 1972, the market for furniture by Eileen Gray did not really exist. The Irish-born, Paris-based designer crafted the chair of lacquer around 1920 for one of the most magical interiors of the last century, the apartment of Madame Mathieu-Levy on Rue de Lota in Paris.

Ask any architectural historian and they'll say that the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, which Louis Kahn designed, built between 1966 and 1972 is the world's best-designed modern art museum. Here, Kahn took the so familiar barrel-shaped roof of Roman architecture and gave it a poetic interpretation of harmonic simplicity. Now, the Kimbell has announced the opening of the new wing, which was designed by the once assistant of Kahn’s, architect Renzo Piano. I plan on traveling to Fort Worth in the summer to see the building first hand. 

Celebrating a representation of Brancusi's estate, the Paul Kasmin Gallery presents "Brancusi in New York 1913 – 2013," an exhibition of works from the Brancusi Estate collection. The show celebrates Brancusi’s 100th anniversary in New York. He had first showed at the New York landmark exhibition the Armory Show in 1913, exhibiting five works that showcased a radical path in sculpture.

There are only a few things I like doing better than strolling down Chelsea’s galleries on a freezing weekend. My first stop was Demisch Danant, one of my most favorite design galleries, which shows an exhibition,“Michel Boyer: The Rothschild Bank, Paris 1970,” dedicated to the furnishings Boyer, a celebrated decorator during the 70s designed for the Rothschild Bank on rue Lafitte in Paris. The landmark commission resulted in some extraordinary pieces that represent the zeitgeist, the aesthetic vocabulary of 1970s France. I loved the addition of “Prayer Rug” by Sheila Hicks, the American textile artist who has lived in Paris since 1964, and who was commissioned by Boyer for Elie de Rothschild’s private collection. This is what I call an extraordinary exhibition that contributes to the study and scholarship of 20th-century design. 

By adding panels of mirrors to an existing wooden home in the California High Desert, American artist Phillip K Smith III has created an illusion and transparency intriguing play between the fabric of the desert and the built form. Photography by Steve King.

It is all made of broken glass that has been melted together for form objects, the entire new series by Finnish designer Ilkka Suppanen, shown at Galerie Maria Wettergren in Paris. The designer explores boundaries of fragility, stability, and the very essence of pure crystal, offering a new way of treating glass in the territory of limited-edition collectible design..

He was not only Japan's best designer, but also a poet, because Shiro Kuramata's designs have been woven like poetry. Now, the Vitra Museum opened "'Shiro Kuramata - Design as Poetry' an exhibition that explores this giant postmodernist and one of the most influential designers of the 20th century who passed away at the pick of his career.
While thinking like a Japanese, Kuramata was able to bring the Japanese principles to new horizons, with his extraordinary interest and relationship with the global design world. 

The impact of Scandinavian furniture on the mid-century interior across the globe has been recognized by scholars for a while, but its presence in the Israeli interior was detected in my recently-published paper in the Journal of Interior Design. The fascination with Danish furnishings can be mostly seen in interiors by one of Israel's most ambitious architect Zeev Rechter, who was concerned with interiors as much as with their exterior shells, but the taste for the Scandinavian was mainly promoted by Jeff Tolman, an immigrant from South Africa who was the first to import furniture into Israel. Tolman can be credited with disseminating the taste for all things Danish. 

Finally, and after it has been on the market for sale for years, the Esherick House, designed by Louis Kahn and completed in 1961 was finally sold. Situated in Chestnut Hill, it considered one of America's most beautiful residences with a kitchen handcrafted by Wharton Esherick. In 1992, it was awarded the honor of a Landmark Building Award from the Philadelphia chapter of the American Institute of architects.

R 20th Century, one of my most favorite design galleries will be showing a lot of contemporary design by those represented by the gallery.