Montreal cements its status as an essential design pilgrimage with Habitat 67, but beyond that blocky landmark lies another major attraction: one of North America’s largest portfolios of decorative arts and design, held by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. When it came time for the gallery to reinstall this collection — housed in the brutalist Liliane and David M. Stewart Pavilion, by architect Fred David Lebensold — it turned to Rachel Gotlieb, founding curator of Toronto’s Design Exchange (as well as the curator of “Canadian Modern” at the ROM back in 2022). Her challenge: Chart global design history in a mere 800 objects.
The resulting permanent exhibition, “From the Functional to the Fabulous,” considers two main perspectives. The first level focuses on furniture as a form of cultural expression, while upstairs unpacks the functional side of things, with a retro iMac and other office tech in one corner and a seat from the Concorde joining transportation infrastructure in another. “The museum’s design collection is interesting because so much of it is created as art — think of Gianni Ruffi’s bird nest–shaped La Cova sofa, or even Gaetano Pesce’s Big Mama chair. But then there is also Egmont Arens and Theodore Brookhart’s cast aluminum meat slicer,” Gotlieb explains. Clusters of objects all made from the same material and a chronological timeline of major movements round out the nearly 2,000-square-metre showcase.
At the heart of it all is Dale Chihuly’s glass sculpture The Sun, which previously held court on the museum’s front steps each summer. As Gotlieb says, the sculpture underscores the surrounding designs as “objects of wonder” in their own right. Here, she expands on the thinking behind her curation.
1
Great Minds Think Alike
- Rachel Gotlieb:
“One way to learn about design is through osmosis and observing these common themes that inspire designers across many regions and time frames. The body, nature and abstraction: These are universal ideas presented at the beginning of the show, with surprising connections but also some amazing juxtapositions. In the Figuration display, we have Eero Saarinen’s Womb sofa next to Faye Toogood’s Roly Poly chair, designed while she was pregnant.”
2
Bucky Fuller Was the OG Gwyneth
- RG:
“For other groupings, I built off of really unique strong anchor objects. For instance, Buckminster Fuller’s prefab, self-contained Dymaxion bathroom module, made of four stamped sheets of metal, leads a Well-Being display. I was surprised by how many other pieces there were in the collection that related to toilette — everything from 18th-century porcelain barber bowls to Braun electric shavers. Plus, there is this incredible ceremonial armchair with ‘Well-being’ carved in the crest rail made in Montreal in the 1880s. People might think of wellness as part of today’s culture, but there’s always been a lot of discussion in design about hygiene and things like the importance of sunlight for mental health.”
3
Embrace Off-the-Wall Ideas
- RG:
“At the back of the ground floor is the Cantilevered Modernism wall, including 17 chairs and one desk that all feature some sort of floating structural element. You’ll see the Cesca armchair by Marcel Breuer, but also Verner Panton’s plastic chair. For the display, we took inspiration from Lebensold’s amazing architecture, with its poured concrete coffered ceiling, and created a display grid — then extended each chair off the wall. It became another way for us to talk about modernism and cantilever engineering.”
4
Give Canada Its Due
- RG:
“In the timeline section, we have special ghlights focusing specifically on Canadian design — from 19th-century Quebec through to the L’École du meuble movement and then the 1960s and Expo 67. But throughout every section, you’re appreciating Canadian and Quebec design in an international context. The Shaping Mobility display includes one of Montreal’s Bixi rental bikes, as well as amazing Indigenous cradleboards and a new kayak made by Inuit students in the Kativik Ilisarniliriniq school district of Nunavik. It shows how incredible design traditions have endured.”
5
It All Comes Back Again
- RG:
“The Past Forward section of the exhibition looks at reinterpretations of historical styles — like Alessandro Mendini’s Poltrona di Proust, which covers this neo-baroque chair in a colourful contemporary pattern. There are new ways to approach design, but there are also old ways — and that conversation continues.”
Q&A: Curator Rachel Gotlieb Revamps the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Design Wing
“From the Functional to the Fabulous” places fresh focus on wellness, objects of wonder and off-the-wall seating displays.