Design Museum Gent History and Collections Book

The Design Museum Gent is internationally renowned for its collection of furniture and objects from the 1600s up until today. Its works span in taste and philosophy from an ornate eighteenth-century wooden chandelier by the Ghent sculptor J.F. Allaert to an assortment of radical industrial and decorative objects by the contemporary Italian designer Ettore Sottsass. The museum's special pride is its Art Nouveau collection, which features work by prominent Belgians like Henry van de Velde, Victor Horta and Paul Hanker alongside foreign designers like Josef Hoffman and Otto Wagner of the Vienna Secession. Works by Modernists like Le Corbusier and Gaston Eysselinck are seen in context with Postmodern pieces by Allessandro Mendini, Aldo Rossi, Hans Hollein and Andrea Branzi. And Minimalist works by Maarten Van Severen are juxtaposed with more sculptural pieces by Pieter De Bruyne and Emiel Veranneman and works by outsiders like Borek Sipek and Ron Arad.