San Francisco International Airport Presents Collecting by Design: Silver and Metalwork of the Twentieth Century

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San Francisco International Airport Present
Collecting by Design: Silver and Metalwork of the Twentieth Century
New Exhibition at SFO Features Silver and Metalwork Collection of Prominent Interior Architect Margo Grant Walsh

SAN FRANCISCO -- Collecting by Design: Silver and Metalwork of the Twentieth Century presents approximately 300 silver and metal objects from the collection of Margo Grant Walsh. A prominent interior architect. Grant Walsh was inspired to begin collecting fine metalwork in 1981 after being charmed by the beauty and craftsmanship of a client’s Early American tankard. Her careful selections of silver, metalwork, and jewelry over the past twenty-five years demonstrate her affection for well-proportioned and confidently crafted objects and reflect her primary criteria for collecting -- design, craft, and beauty.

The exhibition spans the twentieth century, with objects on view representing the work of more than one hundred artisans from fifteen countries. Grant Walsh’s initial inspiration for the collection - the combination of beauty, clean lines, and utility found in American and English Arts and Crafts silver - is evident in pieces by Arthur Stone, Oliver Baker for Liberty and Company, and Omar Ramsden, among others. The exhibition traces the evolution of her collection to also include objects of great design and craft made of copper and other metals from throughout the century and around the world, such as a copper lantern by Dirk van Erp (1920); mid-century works by Mexican masters including Salvador Vaca Terán and Hector Aguilar; and a gold and quartz ring by Björn Weckström (c.1985).

Grant Walsh’s collection also reveals the international exchange of great silver designs during the twentieth century. For example, a bowl from Marcus and Company, crafted in New York, is compared to works from Charles Robert Ashbee’s Guild of Handicraft in England; while pieces by Peer Smed for Tiffany and Company in New York, Julius Randahl for the Kalo Shops in Chicago, and Erik Magnussen for Gorham Manufacturing Company in Providence, Rhode Island, are presented to show the design influences from their makers’ native countries in Scandinavia.

Collecting by Design: Silver and Metalwork of the Twentieth Century is on view at San Francisco International Airport from February 5, 2007 through August 5, 2007, twenty-four hours a day. The exhibition will be located pre-security in the International Terminal Main Hall. There is no charge to view the exhibition.

Images from the exhibition are available online at http://www.flysfo.com/photos/exhibition/ exhibition.htm.

San Francisco Airport Museums

The San Francisco Airport Museums program was established by the Airport Commission in 1980 for the purposes of humanizing the Airport environment, providing visibility for the unique cultural life of San Francisco, and providing educational services for the traveling public. The Museum was granted initial accreditation from the American Association of Museums in 1999, reaccredited in 2005, and has the distinction of being the only accredited museum in an airport. Today, the San Francisco Airport Museums features approximately twenty galleries throughout the Airport terminals displaying a rotating schedule of art, history, science, and cultural exhibitions, as well as the San Francisco Airport Commission Aviation Library and Louis A. Turpen Aviation Museum, a permanent collection dedicated to the history of commercial aviation.

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About San Francisco International Airport SFO

San Francisco International Airport SFO (www.flysfo.com) connects non-stop with more than 60 cities in the United States on 20 domestic airlines, including more than twice as many non-stop flights to the New York area than other Bay Area airports combined. In addition, SFO offers non-stop links with more than 29 international points on 25 international carriers, making SFO the Bay Area’s Airport of Choice.