Stefan Sagmeister
The Happy Show
28 Oct 2015 - 28 Mar 2016
STEFAN SAGMEISTER
The Happy Show
28 October 2015 – 28 March 2016
In The Happy Show, Stefan Sagmeister, the “grand master of graphic design,” explores and transcends the boundaries between art and design. The exhibition documents his ten years of ongoing investigation into happiness with the aid of videos, prints, infographics, sculptures, and interactive installations. It takes visitors on a journey through the designer’s way of thinking and his attempts to increase his own happiness by training his mind as others train their bodies. The Happy Show, which stretches across corridors, staircases, and even includes the museum’s “spaces in between,” is Sagmeister’s second exhibition at the MAK since 2002. In handwritten commentaries on the museum’s walls, bannisters, and bathrooms, Sagmeister elucidates his thoughts and motives for the projects on show. He supplements these personal notes with facts from social science by the psychologists Daniel Gilbert, Steven Pinker, and Jonathan Haidt, the anthropologist Donald Symons, and important historians, to contextualize his experiments with mind and typography. This inspiring presentation shows the designer’s experiences during a three-month experiment with meditation, cognitive therapy, and mood-altering medication.
The exhibition is accompanied by the publication THE HAPPY FILM. STEFAN SAGMEISTER, edited by the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, English, 239 pages with numerous color illustrations, Philadelphia PA 2012. Available at the MAK Design Shop for € 20.
STEFAN SAGMEISTER: The Happy Show is organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania and is curated by former ICA Director Claudia Gould, currently Helen Goldsmith Menschel Director, The Jewish Museum, New York. The exhibition is coordinated at ICA by associate curator Anthony Elms. Stefan Sagmeister extends special thanks to Jessica Walsh and the entire team at Sagmeister Inc.; Ben Wolf, Ben Nabors, and Hillman Curtis of The Happy Film; and Kevin O’Callahan.
Stefan Sagmeister. The designer (b. 1962 Bregenz, Austria; lives and works in New York) blends typography and imagery
The Happy Show
28 October 2015 – 28 March 2016
In The Happy Show, Stefan Sagmeister, the “grand master of graphic design,” explores and transcends the boundaries between art and design. The exhibition documents his ten years of ongoing investigation into happiness with the aid of videos, prints, infographics, sculptures, and interactive installations. It takes visitors on a journey through the designer’s way of thinking and his attempts to increase his own happiness by training his mind as others train their bodies. The Happy Show, which stretches across corridors, staircases, and even includes the museum’s “spaces in between,” is Sagmeister’s second exhibition at the MAK since 2002. In handwritten commentaries on the museum’s walls, bannisters, and bathrooms, Sagmeister elucidates his thoughts and motives for the projects on show. He supplements these personal notes with facts from social science by the psychologists Daniel Gilbert, Steven Pinker, and Jonathan Haidt, the anthropologist Donald Symons, and important historians, to contextualize his experiments with mind and typography. This inspiring presentation shows the designer’s experiences during a three-month experiment with meditation, cognitive therapy, and mood-altering medication.
The exhibition is accompanied by the publication THE HAPPY FILM. STEFAN SAGMEISTER, edited by the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, English, 239 pages with numerous color illustrations, Philadelphia PA 2012. Available at the MAK Design Shop for € 20.
STEFAN SAGMEISTER: The Happy Show is organized by the Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania and is curated by former ICA Director Claudia Gould, currently Helen Goldsmith Menschel Director, The Jewish Museum, New York. The exhibition is coordinated at ICA by associate curator Anthony Elms. Stefan Sagmeister extends special thanks to Jessica Walsh and the entire team at Sagmeister Inc.; Ben Wolf, Ben Nabors, and Hillman Curtis of The Happy Film; and Kevin O’Callahan.
Stefan Sagmeister. The designer (b. 1962 Bregenz, Austria; lives and works in New York) blends typography and imagery