Make Pots Not War

Jonathan Adler made this Chanel teapot his senior year in college when he was obsessed with fashion, hip hop bling and Adrian Saxe, another ceramic artist. It's been given pride of place in a self-curated exhibition of his quirky merchandise, along with items from the collection of the Museum of Arts and Design that have inspired him.

A professor once told him he had no talent and should give up pottery for the law.  Tell that to the happy customers of his nine stores, purchased last year by Reese Witherspoon's fashion company.  

The most interesting gallery recreates his studio space

. . . including what appears to be a mood board.

Adler got his start selling his unique tchotchkes in the gift shop downstairs, when MAD was still known as the American Craft Museum.  Barney's New York became an early buyer when he cold-called Manhattan's hippest retailer in the early 90s.

Other displays--organized by theme--look a lot like store windows so it makes sense that Adler's husband, Simon Doonan, the former creative director at Barneys, designed them. Thom and I once spotted the couple--who personify today's "collab" trend--shopping in Liberty of London. 

The displays definitely have a retail feel about them.  Doonan brings the store's catalog to life with a kind of greatest hits approach.

I wonder what gay comedian Paul Lynde would have had to say about his likeness appearing on a needlepoint pillow?  

He probably would have laughed at the Jonathan Adler coasters Magda and Joe brought to the Pines one summer. No house gift ever received greater use.

Double entendres, occasionally more subtle, are his stock and trade.

In Adler's world, humor and iconography are just as important as design.  And why not?

 His sequined take on Renaissance portraiture really resonated after my trip to Northern Italy.

Downstairs, MAD exhibited LGBT-themed jewelry. Some of it is pretty out there.

"Untitled, Balls, Heavy Chain" by Rebekah Frank (2016)

"Rainbow Moose" by Felieke van der Leest (2005)

"Salt Lick (Unlikely Self-Portrait as a Porn Star)" by Keith Lewis (1996)

"Designing Motherhood" made me very glad to have been born a man.  In 2018, Martha Poggioli began printing fabric with illustrations for scarily invasive medical devices that have been patented to examine women since 1867.

Another gallery showcases the work of costume designer Ruth E. Carter, two-time Oscar winner for the Black Panther movie franchise.  Has anyone ever looked more regal than Angela Bassett?  It's not just the clothes that make the woman.

This red Venetian party goblet by Don Niblack (1994), on view in MAD's stairwell, would have looked right at home in the Murano Glass Museum, although the backdrop wouldn't have been quite as dramatic.