A close friend of post-war American designers George Nelson, and Charles and Ray Eames, Alexander Girard had a love of traditional folk art, toys and miniatures coupled with an adventurous sense of colour. Girard designed everything from architecture to furniture and textiles, and in 1963 started making wooden dolls inspired by a growing collection of art from Mexico, South America, Asia and Eastern Europe.
The Wooden Dolls by Alexander Girard for Vitra. Photos c/o Vitra Design Museum.
“Every new project presents some version of basic order. In it, the ingredients for the exercise of fantasy and magic may usually be found.”
Alexander Girard
Born in New York City and raised in Florence, Girard was educated in Europe as an architect. In 1952, he joined Herman Miller as their Director of Design in the textiles division and worked there for more than 20 years. It was here that he introduced his love of colour to the collection at a time when colour was muted and safe. By 1962 Girard's own collection of colourful folk art had grown to over 100,000 pieces, and today the collection held at the Museum of International Folk Art in Sante Fe, New Mexico, represents the most comprehensive example of cross-cultural folk art in the world.
Girard's original collection of 11 Wooden Dolls was inspired by the traditions of folk art and he designed each figure to decorate his own home in Santa Fe. Today, the originals are part of the Girard Estate held by the Vitra Design Museum in Switzerland, and they provide the models for the current editions. At Vitra, every piece is meticulously recreated according to Girard’s detailed drawings and painted by hand, and every one of the characters in the growing collection is unique.
The Wooden Doll collection is available from Space – Australia – and Space – Asia.
