Isabel Toledo and Johannes Vermeer

Designer Isabel Toledo's retrospective at the Museum at FIT in New York closed Saturday. I feel fortunate to have seen it because it was another coup for that small university museum whose creative ideas should be a paradigm for exhibitions and their execution. Toldeo's work made me want to pick up a needle and thread and sew more than a hem--or at least inspired me to think about organic relationships in the world of design and architecture.

I like obviousness in design. I like to understand its point of inspiration, mode of production, and ultimate function. During a recent visit to Denmark I had the pleasure of visiting the studio of Christina Strand and Niels Hvass, a dynamic (and remarkably good looking) duo whose furniture has the distinct appeal of being comfortable and ethereal. Strand's "Rex" chair has won a number of awards and deservedly so. Named for Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark, who is expected to become King Frederik X, the chair sits on a pedestal with an "x" shaped base. Strand took a piece of paper, cut an oval with a hole in the middle with a pair of Fiskars and, voila, showed me her the originis behind her smart idea for a chair.

Toledo's designs work in much the same way and the exhibition's curators made a point of illustrating on the labels the pattern laid flat. Now I get it! Toledo thinks like a queen of origami and the body responds to the natural flow of her workmanship. The jackets, dresses, and trousers are realized from inside out, which is to say they are beholden to the very stuff that keeps them together: seams, stitches, and drawstrings. I started to wonder if I could use these types of diagrams in a traditional art exhibition to demonstrate the development of a painting's composition or the technique behind chiselling a marble sculpture. It would give the visitor the artist's eye view on the object's production which usually becomes obscured by the museum/exhibition context.

As I rounded out my day in New York with a trip to see Vermeer's Milkmaid I pondered the idea of Toledo-type labels in this exhibition of 17th-century Dutch painting. It would be overkill to describe the technical details in every work but it could provide another level of engagement, enjoyment, and insight.