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BGC Gallery will resume its exhibition programming this September with the return of Sèvres Extraordinaire! Sculpture from 1740 until Today, originally slated for fall 2024.
Bard Graduate Center is an advanced graduate research institute in New York City dedicated to the cultural histories of the material world. Our MA and PhD degree programs, Gallery exhibitions, research initiatives, scholarly publications and public programs explore new ways of thinking about decorative arts, design history, and material culture.

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BGC Gallery reopens this September with the return of Sèvres Extraordinaire: Sculpture from 1740 until Today, originally slated for fall 2024.

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The Bard Graduate Center Gallery produces multiple exhibitions and publications each year, serving as a vital center of learning and a catalyst for engagement in the interrelated disciplines of decorative arts, design, and material culture. The gallery is celebrated in the museum world for its longstanding legacy of landmark projects dedicated to significant—yet often understudied—figures and movements in the history of decorative arts and design; these exhibitions and publications typically represent the definitive intervention on the artists and objects they investigate. BGC Gallery is also committed to generating and supporting a vast range of diverse presentations, small and large, that challenge traditional approaches to object inquiry; these examinations of material culture explore the human experience as manifest in our creation and use of “things” of all kinds. Whether originating in internal research and expertise, or in collaboration with external subject specialists, these endeavors prioritize rigorous scholarship while seeking to adhere to the field’s highest standards in production and design.



Cast Iron from Central Europe, 1800-1850 was the first exhibition in the United States to explore the art of Central European cast iron. Featuring more than 200 decorative plaques, medallions, sculptures, as well as personal objects, like clocks, sewing implements, perfume bottles, and jewelry, it explored cast iron from a socioeconomic, political, and domestic perspective.

While major engineering and architectural works such as bridges and buildings have long been considered landmarks of the early industrial age, the exhibition focused instead on the ornamental objects often overlooked by scholars. In one section examining techniques of cast iron production, it showcased a casting tree from the Technical Museum in Vienna to illustrate the complex and delicate process of casting intricate works of jewelry out of iron.

On view at Bard Graduate Center from May 26–August 7, 1994, the exhibition was organized with MAK–Austrian Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna. It was curated by Elisabeth Schmuttermeier and Derek Ostergard.
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