"When was the last time you saw an ashtray filled with stubbed-out Marlboros at a friend's apartment? At a restaurant? For some of us, the answer may very well be "never." Maybe that's the charm of the International Museum of Dinnerware Design's new exhibition on ashtrays - invoking an era before health codes and Mayor Bloomberg. Or reaching back even further, when you might see a Similac-branded ashtray in the office of your OB/GYN."
"Is there maybe a little bit of Sex and the City's Lexi Featherston in all of us? ("When did everybody stop smoking?" she yells, before falling out a window to her death.) Even if not, there's still probably something for you here. The ashtrays on display include Art Deco elegance in bronze, mid-century color pops, and even an entry from Picasso for Madoura - a bid by the artist to make his work more accessible to regular people by way of ceramics."
An exhibition at the International Museum of Dinnerware Design assembles vintage ashtrays that evoke eras before widespread smoking bans and Mayor Bloomberg's policies. The display ranges from Art Deco bronze pieces and bright mid-century color pops to commercial branded examples, such as a Similac ashtray once found in an OB/GYN office. The installations touch on cultural memories of domestic and public smoking and nod to popular culture with a Sex and the City reference. The show includes an entry by Picasso for Madoura, produced to make his ceramics accessible to everyday people, blending fine art with quotidian cigarette culture.
Read at Curbed
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]