Mark McDonald has always been at the epicenter of the world that is mid-century design, to a large extent, it is a world he created. For over forty years, Mark has pioneered whole fields of collecting, providing the scholarship and creating the market for mid-century furniture, studio jewelry, ceramics and Italian glass.
In 1983, Mark opened Fifty/50 with partners Mark Isaacson and Ralph Cutler. This groundbreaking gallery defined collectors’ taste. At the time, modern works were still largely overlooked; Mark and his partners collected and presented the rarest and most interesting pieces, often working with the makers themselves, to create compelling exhibitions accompanied by catalogs documenting the work.
In the 1990s, Mark opened Gansevoort Gallery, where he continued to curate collections and exhibitions of lasting impact. Over the years, he established relationships with artists and their estates becoming the go to authority on the designs of Art Smith, Ilonka Karasz and Leza McVey, among others. His enthusiasm for the material extended beyond the gallery floor to the back room where lucky visitors got to flip through Mark’s impressive design reference library and discuss the importance of works with him.
A connoisseur and wealth of knowledge, Mark became a resource for prominent collections across the globe—private and public alike. He inspired a generation of collectors and dealers introducing designers and their production to an audience that continues to grow. In 2002, Mark closed Gansevoort and established 330 gallery in Hudson, New York. Now, semi-retired, Marks splits his time between New York and Florida. He still collects, curates, supports, and shepherds the scholarship of mid-century design.
Rut Bryk 1916–1999
Finnish artist Rut Bryk is widely regarded as a critical proponent of reforming modern Finnish ceramic art; her body of work, however, spanned printmaking and textile design for a legacy of merging art, craft, and design. Bryk attended the Central School of Industrial Crafts in Helsinki, graduating in 1939. Her career in ceramics began when she joined the Art Department of Arabia, Finland in 1942. Her earliest ceramic works and objects feature figurative motifs but by the 1960s she turned to abstract modular compositions composed of tiles. Soon thereafter, Bryk’s abstract compositions grew in scale as they were used in architectural settings; architectural works by Bryk include City in the Sun in Helsinki’s City Hall (1975), The Money Tree at Bank of Finland, Helsinki (1980) and Ice Flow in the Presidential residence, Helsinki (1987-1991).
Aside from her own ceramic works, Bryk also collaborated with her husband Tapio Wirkkala, designing decorative motifs from many of his tableware designs. Rut Bryk’s works can be found in museums around the world, including Design Museum, Helsinki, Danish Museum of Art and Design, Copenhagen and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
