Exhibition: Museum Künstlerkolonie Darmstadt, September 16 2007 to March 24 2008
Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) is one of the most innovative plastics developments of the 20th century. The amazing versatility of this material makes it an essential component of everyday life. Better known by the PLEXIGLAS® trademark, this extremely weather-resistant plastic was developed to patent stage in 1933 by the Darmstadt-based Röhm company. Its constant high transparency, light weight as compared with glass and wide range of forming options are the attributes that make PLEXIGLAS® an equally attractive material for architecture and design.
As a curved windshield for automobiles, this plastic put its stamp on the Streamline movement of the 1930s. Whereas the material was required in huge volumes for aircraft construction during World War II, music boxes, illuminated signs or record player covers such as the famous “Snow White’s Coffin” were among its first fields of application in the 1950s. Organically shaped tableware, eccentric handbags and avant-garde furniture were further fortes of the synthetic material. In the “space design” of the 1960s, an era characterized by its fascination with space travel and its pop culture, the possibilities offered by the material were more consistently exhausted. In 1972, the transparent roof construction of Munich’s Olympic Stadium revolutionized architecture and opened up perspectives for the use of PLEXIGLAS® in construction. Today, the design potentialities of the material, which has undergone constant further development, are more manifold than ever and are embraced with matching enthusiasm by contemporary designers. By means of selected examples, the exhibition staged to mark the 100th anniversary of the Röhm company displays PLEXIGLAS® in architecture, design and everyday life from early times up to the present.
Catalogue edited by Ralf Beil, with texts by Kai Buchholz. Published by Wienand Verlag, Cologne, German/English
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