Vitra - Girard Bird sculpture

In the mid-1940s, designer Alexander Girard experimented with a whole series of abstract sculptures.  Including an ornithological figure, handcrafted masterfully from apple tree. These sculptures were presented in the July 1945 issue of the American magazine "Arts & Architecture".
Today, the original wooden specimen is in the Vitra Design Museum, inside the Girard Archive. In close collaboration with the Girard family, Vitra has revived this figure: although the features are minimized, the archaic Girard Bird (1945) by Alexander Girard is clearly recognized as an ornithological creature. This archaic figure, made of solid maple wood from France, stands or rests on the tail.

Alexander Girard

Alexander Girard; Born in 1907 in New York City, he was one of the leading figures of postwar American design, along with his close friends and colleagues George Nelson and Charles & Ray Eames. The main focus of his wide-ranging work was textile design. The designer has created numerous fabrics for the Herman Miller Company, favoring abstract shapes and geometric patterns in a wide variety of color compositions. Many of his upholstery fabrics remain as timely and vital as ever and are still produced and used by Vitra today. After studying architecture, he made a name for himself over his long career in the fields of furniture, exhibition, interior and graphic design. Furthermore, he was one of the foremost collectors of folk art in the world. Multifaceted, extremely creative, he was recently celebrated in the exhibition “Alexander Girard. A Designer's Universe” at the Vitra Design Museum. After the designer's death in 1993, his heirs donated the Girard archive (including hundreds of drawings, prototypes and samples) to the Vitra Design Museum. In 2016/17, the museum staged the exhibition “Alexander Girard: A Designer's Universe”.

Vitra

Vitra is a Swiss company that produces furniture and interior design. Known for producing the works of important designers and architects.The headquarters are located in Weil am Rhein, Germany, where the famous Vitra Design Museum is also located.This story starts in the post-war years, when two Americans, both architects, Charles and Ray Eames, decided to help a furniture dealer.The collaboration led them to design and then produce masterpieces for interior design, which are still very current today.