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Philadelphia Art Museum Launches Richard Schultz Exhibition

The eight-week show features seminal outdoor pieces including the Petal table and the Topiary set.

Laurel Petriello -- Interior Design, 4/5/2009 12:00:00 AM

Richard Schultz after the Collab spring lecture on his famed Topiary bench

The Philadelphia Art Museum, in conjunction with Collab, brings the outdoor inside for a special eight-week-long exhibition beginning April 5. Titled “Richard Schultz Retrospective: Five Decades of Design,” the show spans the legendary designer’s work from 1960 to the present. Special attention is paid to Schultz’s 1966 Collection and the Petal Collection featuring the seminal Petal table.

Richard Schultz 1966 Adjustable Chaise Lounge
1966 Adjustable Chaise Lounge

“As our thoughts turn to the outdoors with the onset of springtime, it seems particularly appropriate to welcome designer Richard Schultz for the annual Collab lecture, and to share some of his works with our visitors,” said Kathryn Hiesinger, curator of decorative arts after 1700. “His outdoor furniture is compelling in part because it has been and continues to be at the defining edge of what is formally and technologically modern.”

Richard Schultz Petal table
Petal tables

Schultz’s work will be shown in the museum’s Perelman Building Café Terrace through May 31. The Philadelphia Art Museum joins only a handful of prestigious international museums to present the designer’s work, and the first to exhibit a comprehensive retrospective. The exhibition comes only three weeks after Interior Design helped launched the designer’s new showroom, the company’s first flagship store in New York at the Design & Decoration Building.

Schultz made a special appearance on the show’s opening day to inaugurate the exhibition and give Collab’s 2009 Spring Lecture. Collab, a thirty-eight year-old organization, supports the museum's collections and programs of modern and contemporary design.

Richard Schultz Topiary chair Richard Schultz Topiary Bench
Topiary chair and bench

Images courtesy of Philadelphia Art Museum and Richard Schultz Design.