SFMoMA Exhibit: "The Utopian Impulse: Buckminster Fuller and the Bay Area"

1. Buckminster Fuller and Chuck Byrne, Building Construction/Geodesic Dome, United States Patent Office no. 2,682,235, from the portfolio Inventions: Twelve Around One, 1981; screen print in white ink on clear polyester film; 30 in. x 40 in. (76.2 cm x 101.6 cm); Collection SFMOMA, gift of Chuck and Elizabeth Byrne; © The Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller, All Rights reserved. Published by Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati.

If you are in the Bay Area this weekend, we recommend you stop in at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) and check out their current exhibit The Utopian Impulse: Buckminster Fuller and the Bay Area. This exhibition is the first of its kind, featuring Buckminster Fuller’s most iconic projects as well a focus on his local design legacy in the Bay Area. Though he was never a resident, Fuller’s ideas inspired many local experiments in the realms of technology, engineering and sustainability. Continue reading for more information.

SFMoMA Exhibit: The Utopian Impulse: Buckminster Fuller and the Bay Area - More Images+ 16

Fuller’s imaginative works will be represented primarily with prints from the Inventions: Twelve Around One portfolio (1981), as well as several key works on loan from the R. Buckminster Fuller Archive at Stanford University. The exhibition also includes other Bay Area endeavors inspired by Fuller’s thinking, such as low-cost laptops from Yves Behar and Nicholas Negroponte’s “One Laptop per Child” initiative; the North Face’s Oval Intention, the first dome-shaped tent to best the sheet-thrown-over-a-rod design (demonstrating Fuller’s notion “tensegrity,” or tensional integrity, if you will); David de Rothschild’s Plastiki sailboat, the recycled catamaran of 12,500 plastic water bottles that sailed from San Francisco to Australia; and Stewart Brand‘s comprehensive “Whole Earth Catalog.”

2. Buckminster Fuller and Chuck Byrne, Motor Vehicle-Dymaxion Car, United States Patent Office no. 2,101,057, from the portfolio Inventions: Twelve Around One, 1981; screen print in white ink on clear polyester film; 30 in. x 40 in. (76.2 cm x 101.6 cm); Collection SFMOMA, gift of Chuck and Elizabeth Byrne; © The Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller, All Rights reserved. Published by Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati.

“Fuller’s eccentric views were informed by speculating on future technologies, not past history,” says SFMOMA Acting Department Head/Assistant Curator of Architecture and Design Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, who organized the event. “Since he worked outside of business, academic, and scientific norms, he never quite fit in. Perhaps it was frustrating for him or maybe it was a calculated elusiveness. Either way, the view of Fuller as an outsider has emerged as an emblem for ‘thinking differently,’ which is a starting point for many Bay Area initiatives.”

3. Buckminster Fuller and Chuck Byrne, Undersea Island-Submarisle, United States Patent Office no. 3,080,583,from the portfolio Inventions: Twelve Around One, 1981; screen print on Lenox paper; 30 in. x 40 in. (76.2 cm x 101.6 cm); Collection SFMOMA, gift of Chuck and Elizabeth Byrne; © The Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller, All Rights reserved. Published by Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati.

The Utopian Impulse: Buckminster Fuller and the Bay Area will be on display through July 29, 2012. Find more information here.

, 2004; chromogenic print; 48 in. x 60 in. (121.92 x 152.4 cm); Collection SFMOMA, purchase through a gift of Barry R. Campbell, Toronto, Canada, and the Accessions Committee Fund; Olivo Barbieri; photo: Ben Blackwell”]

5. Buckminster Fuller and Chuck Byrne, Non-Symetrical Tension-Integrity Structures, United States Patent Office no. 3,866,366, from the portfolio Inventions: Twelve Around One, 1981; screen print in white ink on clear polyester film; 30 in. x 40 in. (76.2 cm x 101.6 cm); Collection SFMOMA, gift of Chuck and Elizabeth Byrne; © The Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller, All Rights reserved. Published by Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati.
6. Buckminster Fuller and Chuck Byrne, Laminar Geodesic Dome, United States Patent Office no. 3,203,144, from the portfolio Inventions: Twelve Around One, 1981; screen print in white ink on clear polyester film; 30 in. x 40 in. (76.2 cm x 101.6 cm); Collection SFMOMA, gift of Chuck and Elizabeth Byrne; © The Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller, All Rights reserved. Published by Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati.
7. Buckminster Fuller and Chuck Byrne, 4D House, United States Patent Office no. 1,793, from the portfolio Inventions: Twelve Around One, 1981; screen print on Lenox paper; 30 in. x 40 in. (76.2 cm x 101.6 cm); Collection SFMOMA, gift of Chuck and Elizabeth Byrne; © The Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller, All Rights reserved. Published by Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati.
8. Buckminster Fuller and Chuck Byrne, Dymaxion Air-Ocean World Map, 1981; screen print; 50 in. x 72 in.; Collection SFMOMA, gift of Elizabeth and Carl Solway in memory of Robert Fillmore Lovett, Jr.; © The Estate of R. Buckminster Fuller, All Rights reserved

Reference: SFMOMA, ARTINFO

10. Olivo Barbieri, site specific_ MONTREAL 04 [Buckminster Fuller Dome], 2004; chromogenic print; 48 in. x 60 in. (121.92 x 152.4 cm); Collection SFMOMA, purchase through a gift of Barry R. Campbell, Toronto, Canada, and the Accessions Committee Fund; © Olivo Barbieri; photo: Ben Blackwell
11. Yves Béhar/fuseproject, One Laptop Per Child XO Laptop, 2007; plastic, electronics, and software; 1 1/2 x 9 x 9 1/2 in. (3.81 x 22.86 x 24.13 cm); Collection SFMOMA, gift of Yves Béhar/fuse project; © Yves Béhar; photo: courtesy fuseproject
12. Ant Farm, Convention City 1976, 1972, printed 2012; prints from 35mm slides; 20 x 24 in. each; Collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Ant Farm
13. Bas Princen, Train Depot (Hexagon Exoskeleton), 2005; framed lambda print; 50 3/8 x 62 5/8 x 1 9/16 in. (128 x 159 x 4 cm); Courtesy the artist; © Bas Princen
14. IwamotoScott Architecture with proces2, Jellyfish House, 2005–2006; nylon model and movie; model: 26 x 49-3/8 x 12 in.; Collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase and Gift of IwamotoScott Architecture; © IwamotoScott Architecture
15. IwamotoScott Architecture with proces2, Jellyfish House, 2005–2006; nylon model and movie; model: 26 x 49-3/8 x 12 in.; Collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase and Gift of IwamotoScott Architecture; © IwamotoScott Architecture
16. Jason Kelly Johnson and Nataly Gattegno, HYDRAMAX Port Machine, 2012; model; 12 x 60 x 30 in. (30.48 x 152.4 x 76.2 cm); courtesy the designers; © Jason Kelly Johnson and Nataly Gattegno
18. Lloyd Kahn, Images of Pacific High School 1968–1971; Eleven prints from 35 mm slides; one print is 16 x 20 inches, and the others are 8 x12 inches or 12 x 8 inches each; courtesy the designer; © Lloyd Kahn
17. Lloyd Kahn, Images of Pacific High School 1968–1971; Eleven prints from 35 mm slides; one print is 16 x 20 inches, and the others are 8 x12 inches or 12 x 8 inches each; courtesy the designer; © Lloyd Kahn

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Cite: Karissa Rosenfield. "SFMoMA Exhibit: "The Utopian Impulse: Buckminster Fuller and the Bay Area"" 06 Apr 2012. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/224032/sfmoma-exhibit-the-utopian-impulse-buckminster-fuller-and-the-bay-area> ISSN 0719-8884

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