Marco Grob for TIME
When Murray Moss closed the doors of his namesake shop-gallery in Manhattan’s SoHo earlier this year, it was devastating news to industrial-design mavens who might have discovered Tord Boontje’s Blossom chandelier or Martin Baas’ Smoke Collection of furniture there. Moss wasted no time in moving on, opening a new design agency, Moss Bureau, and consulting for the likes of Baccarat. But for those of us who miss combing his showroom floor—ogling the Campana brothers’ teddy-bear chair and Hella Jongerius’ porcelain vases, among other discoveries—Moss and his life and business partner Franklin Getchell are teaming with auction house Phillips de Pury & Co. in October for “Moss,” an exhibition and auction of some of their private treasures.
The exhibit will combine lots from the worlds of design and art, juxtaposing, for example, a Gio Ponti wall unit with a geometric drawing by Kazimir Malevich, or the hand-carved legs of a Martin Bass dining table with a sculpture of a legless torso by Alberto Giacometti. The goal: to blur the lines between objet and art. “I wanted to create a dialogue between the various disciplines,” Moss says. “The functional object has a sculptural element. If you write something off as just a table, you are not getting your money’s worth.”
“Moss” will be on view at Phillips de Pury & Co., 450 Park Ave., New York, Oct. 6—15, followed by the auction on Oct. 16