Tom Sachs
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Tom Sachs (born July 26, 1966) is an American
contemporary art Contemporary art is a term used to describe the art of today, generally referring to art produced from the 1970s onwards. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a ...
ist who lives and works in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
.


Life and early career

Sachs was born in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
on July 26, 1966, and raised as a Reform Jew. He grew up in
Westport, Connecticut Westport is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. Located in the Gold Coast (Connecticut), Gold Coast along the Long Island Sound, it is northeast of New York City and is part of the Western Connecticut Planning Region, Connec ...
, attending high school at
Greens Farms Academy Greens Farms Academy (GFA) is a PreK-12 independent preparatory co-educational day school in the Greens Farms section of Westport, Connecticut, drawing 715 students from numerous towns across Fairfield County. Greens Farms Academy is located ...
, followed by
Bennington College Bennington College is a private liberal arts college in Bennington, Vermont, United States. Founded as a women’s college in 1932,
in
Vermont Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...
. Upon graduation, he studied architecture at London's
Architectural Association School of Architecture The Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, commonly referred to as the AA, is the oldest private school of architecture in the UK. The AA hosts exhibitions, lectures, academic conference, symposia and publications. Histo ...
before deciding to return to the States. He then spent two years working in Frank Gehry's L.A. furniture shop, where he began using the term ''knolling''. Around 1990, Sachs moved from L.A. to New York. He founded a studio in the disappearing machinery district downtown called Allied Cultural Prosthetics, which took its name from the previous tenant—Allied Machine Exchange—implying that contemporary culture had become nothing but a prosthetic for real culture. For a few years Sachs worked odd jobs, including lighting displays at
Barneys New York Barneys New York is an American brand founded in 1923 by Barney Pressman that operated full-line department stores from 1923 until 2020. Authentic Brands Group acquired Barneys' intellectual property in 2019, and has licensed the brand to Saks F ...
. In 1994, he was invited to create a scene for their Christmas displays and titled it ''Hello Kitty Nativity'', in which the
Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...
was replaced by
Hello Kitty , also known by her real name , is a fictional character created by Yuko Shimizu, currently designed by Yuko Yamaguchi, and owned by the Japanese company Sanrio. Sanrio depicts Hello Kitty as a British anthropomorphized white cat with a red ...
with an open
Chanel Chanel ( , ) is a French luxury fashion house founded in 1910 by Coco Chanel in Paris. It is privately owned by French brothers, Alain and Gérard Wertheimer, through the holding company Chanel Limited, established in 2018 and headquarte ...
bra, the three Kings were
Bart Simpson Bartholomew Jo-Jo "Bart" Simpson is a character in the American animated television series ''The Simpsons'' who is part of the titular family. Bart made his television debut in the short " Good Night" on '' The Tracey Ullman Show'' on Apri ...
s, and the stable was marked by a
McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...
logo. This contemporary revision of the nativity scene received great attention (not all of it positive) and demonstrated Sachs' interest in the phenomena of
consumerism Consumerism is a socio-cultural and economic phenomenon that is typical of industrialized societies. It is characterized by the continuous acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing quantities. In contemporary consumer society, the ...
, branding, and the cultural fetishization of products. Alongside his study of cultural propaganda and dedication to the art of the tea bowl, Sachs has also cited plans to branch into stand-up comedy.


Career

In the mid and late 1990s, Sachs' career began to take off. His first major solo show, "Cultural Prosthetics", opened at New York's Morris-Healy Gallery in 1995. Many works from the show conflated fashion and violence, as with ''HG (Hermès Hand Grenade)'' (1995) and ''Tiffany Glock (Model 19)'' (199

both of which were models made with
Hermès Hermès International S.A. ( , ) is a French Luxury goods, luxury fashion house established in 1837. It specializes in leather goods, silk goods, lifestyle accessories, home furnishings, perfumery, jewelry, watches and ready-to-wear. Since the ...
or Tiffany packaging. Although these sculptures were non-functional, another piece - ''Hecho in Switzerland'' (1995) - was an actual working
homemade gun A homemade firearm, also called a ghost gun or privately made firearm (PMF), is a firearm made by a private individual, in contrast to one produced by a corporate or government entity. The term ''ghost gun'' is used mostly in the United Stat ...
. Sachs and his assistants would make similar guns and sell them back to the city as part of New York's
gun buyback program A gun buyback program is one instituted to purchase privately owned firearms. The goal of such programs is to reduce the circulation of both legally and illegally owned firearms. A buyback program would provide a process whereby civilians can dispo ...
(for up to $300 each). Celant 2006: 147 His next major show, "Creativity is the Enemy", opened in 1998 at New York's Thomas Healy Gallery and Paris'
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Thaddaeus Ropac are a group of galleries founded in 1981 by the Austrian gallerist Thaddaeus Ropac and has since specialized in International Contemporary Art. The group has galleries in Paris Marais, Paris Pantin, Salzburg and London. History ...
. It built on the discourse established in "Cultural Prosthetics" with sculptures like ''
Chanel Chanel ( , ) is a French luxury fashion house founded in 1910 by Coco Chanel in Paris. It is privately owned by French brothers, Alain and Gérard Wertheimer, through the holding company Chanel Limited, established in 2018 and headquarte ...
Guillotine'' (1998) and ''
Prada Prada S.p.A. (, ; ) is an Italian luxury fashion house founded in 1913 in Milan by Mario Prada. It specializes in leather handbags, travel accessories, shoes, ready-to-wear, and other fashion accessories. Prada licenses its name and branding ...
Deathcamp'' (1998). Other pieces, like ''Hermés Value Meal'' (1998), moved away from explicit references to violence and paired fashion with other successful brands, like
McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...
. Also included in the show were gaffer's tape versions of Piet Mondrian's famous compositions . Like the Hermes sculptures, the Mondrian paintings were things Sachs desired but could not have, so he made them instead. As Sachs puts it, "making it is a way of having it." Similar shows opened the following year at
Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac Thaddaeus Ropac are a group of galleries founded in 1981 by the Austrian gallerist Thaddaeus Ropac and has since specialized in International Contemporary Art. The group has galleries in Paris Marais, Paris Pantin, Salzburg and London. History ...
in
Salzburg Salzburg is the List of cities and towns in Austria, fourth-largest city in Austria. In 2020 its population was 156,852. The city lies on the Salzach, Salzach River, near the border with Germany and at the foot of the Austrian Alps, Alps moun ...
, Austria, and
Mary Boone Gallery Mary Boone (born 1952) is an American art dealer and collector. As the owner and director of the Mary Boone Gallery, she played an important role in the New York art market of the 1980s. Her first two artists, Julian Schnabel and David Salle, b ...
in New York, where Boone was famously arrested after Sachs allowed visitors to take
live ammunition Ammunition, also known as ammo, is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. The term includes both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines), and the component parts of oth ...
from an
Alvar Aalto Hugo Alvar Henrik Aalto (; 3 February 1898 – 11 May 1976) was a Finnish architect and designer. His work includes architecture, furniture, textiles and glassware, as well as sculptures and paintings. He never regarded himself as an artist, see ...
vase. Around the same time, Sachs' ''SONY Outsider'' (1998) opened at SITE Santa Fe in
New Mexico New Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States. It is one of the Mountain States of the southern Rocky Mountains, sharing the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona. It also ...
. The sculpture was outwardly a full-scale model of the
atomic bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission or atomic bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear weapon), producing a nuclear expl ...
that was dropped on
Nagasaki , officially , is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan. Founded by the Portuguese, the port of Portuguese_Nagasaki, Nagasaki became the sole Nanban trade, port used for tr ...
, and was a leap from handmade art into expensive outsourced fabrication. Ultimately, it was not well received by critics or even the artist himself - he later published a zine titled "The Failure of SONY Outsider"). For many, including
Roberta Smith Roberta Smith (born 1948) is co-chief art critic of ''The New York Times'' and a lecturer on contemporary art. She is the first woman to hold that position at the Times. Education and early life Born in 1948 in New York City and raised in Lawre ...
, the well-known
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
art critic, the piece "bore no trace of Mr. Sachs's hand" and "could have been the work of several other artists." As Sachs says about the piece: "At the time I didn't fully grasp the value of my handcrafted things... I should leave it to
Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...
or
Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...
to make those perfect things." Learning from this experience, Sachs fully embraced the practice of "
bricolage In the arts, ''bricolage'' (French language, French for "DIY" or "do-it-yourself projects"; ) is the construction or creation of a work from a diverse range of things that happen to be available, or a work constructed using mixed media. The t ...
". For Sachs, a bricoleur is one "who hobbles together functional contraptions out of already given or collected materials, which he re-tools and re-signifies into new objects with novel uses, but more importantly, which he regenerates into a new, oscillating syntax: one of loss, gain, and more than anything, one of play." After the failure of Sony Outsider, Sachs began to focus on leaving visible traces of his work, saying this a few years later:
We have our system of making things out of certain materials... and of showing the scars of our labor and the history of our efforts... We have the "your way", "my way", and "the right way," and I must insist everything is done my way, even if it takes longer.
Sachs organized an exhibition at Sperone Westwater in 2000 entitled "American Bricolage" that featured the work of 12 artists including
Alexander Calder Alexander "Sandy" Calder (; July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known both for his innovative mobile (sculpture), mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic, hi ...
,
Greg Colson Greg Colson (born April 23, 1956) is an American artist known for his works and sculptures using scavenged materials. Biography Colson was born in Seattle, Washington and grew up in Bakersfield, California, in the nearby suburb of Oildale wi ...
, and Tom Friedman. After several solo exhibitions in New York and abroad, "Nutsy's" opened at the Bohen Foundation (New York City) in 2002 and
Deutsche Guggenheim The Deutsche Guggenheim was an art museum in Berlin, Germany, open from 1997 to 2013.Kuhla, Karoline"Final Exhibition: The Guggenheim's Farewell to Berlin" ''Spiegel Online'', November 15, 2012 It was located in the ground floor of the Deutsche B ...
(Berlin) in 2003. The large-scale installation covered a whole floor, and invited viewers to interact by driving remote-controlled vehicles on asphalt tracks throughout the installation. Several of Sachs' most famous works debuted at this exhibition, including ''Unité'', ''Nutsy's McDonald's'', and ''Barcelona Pavilion''. ''Unité'', in particular, is one of Sachs' masterpieces—a 1:25 recreation of
Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...
's ''
Unité d'Habitation The ''Unité d'habitation'' (, ''Housing Unit'') is a Modern architecture, modernist residential housing Typology (urban planning and architecture), typology developed by Le Corbusier, with the collaboration of painter-architect Nadir Afons ...
'' made completely out of
foamcore Foamcore, foam board, or paper-faced foam board is a lightweight and easily cut material used for wikt:mount, mounting of photographic prints, as backing for picture frame, picture framing, for making scale models, and in painting. It consists ...
. The Neistat Brothers, who began their careers working for Sachs, were instrumental in the operation of "Nutsy's". In 2006, the artist had two major survey exhibitions mounted in Europe, first at the Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst and next at the
Fondazione Prada Fondazione Prada, co-chaired by Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli since 1995, is an institution dedicated to contemporary art and culture. From 1993 to 2010, the Fondazione has organised 24 solo shows at its exhibition spaces in Milan, concei ...
, Milan. His work can be found in major museum collections worldwide, including the
Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...
, New York, The
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue between 88th and 89th Street (Manhattan), 89th Streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It hosts a permanent coll ...
, New York, the
Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...
and the
Centre Georges Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the (), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English and colloquially as Beaubourg, is a building complex in Paris, France. It was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of ...
, Paris. As
Germano Celant Germano Celant (11 September 1940 – 29 April 2020) was an Italian art historian, critic, and curator who coined the term "Arte Povera" (poor art) in the 1967 ''Flash Art'' piece "Appunti Per Una Guerriglia" ("Notes on a guerrilla war"), which w ...
writes in his monograph on the artist published by the Fondazione Prada, Milan, "The images and objects that make up the militarized space of consumption and fashion are at the very heart of Tom Sachs's visual passion." The Des Moines Art Center and
Rose Art Museum The Rose Art Museum, founded in 1961, is a part of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, US. Named after benefactors Edward and Bertha Rose, it offers temporary exhibitions, and it displays and houses works of art from its permanent co ...
hosted a solo exhibition titled ''Logjam'' featuring the artist in 2007. In 2012, Sachs partnered with
Nike Nike often refers to: * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine giv ...
to release the Mars Yard sneaker. Ten years later, Sachs and Nike released a new sneaker called the General Purpose Shoe. Nike quietly altered the packaging for a sneaker collaboration with artist Tom Sachs in 2017, scrubbing the box of his NikeCraft Mars Yard 2.0 shoe of the phrase "work like a slave" before the project launched that year, sources tell
Complex Complex commonly refers to: * Complexity, the behaviour of a system whose components interact in multiple ways so possible interactions are difficult to describe ** Complex system, a system composed of many components which may interact with each ...
. The shoes nearly made it to retail with the phrase on the inside of the lid of the box before Nike moved to have the text removed, sources say. The
Nasher Sculpture Center Opened in 2003, the Nasher Sculpture Center is a museum in Dallas, Texas, that houses the Patsy and Raymond Nasher collection of modern and contemporary sculpture. It is located on a site adjacent to the Dallas Museum of Art in the Dal ...
held a solo exhibition titled ''Tom Sachs: Tea Ceremony'' in 2017, which focused on Sachs' distinctive reworking of
chanoyu The Japanese tea ceremony (known as or lit. 'Hot water for tea') is a Japanese cultural activity involving the ceremonial preparation and presentation of , powdered green tea, the procedure of which is called . The term "Japanese tea ceremony ...
, or traditional Japanese tea ceremony. The exhibition was originally organized by The
Noguchi Museum The Noguchi Museum (chartered as The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum) is a museum and sculpture garden at 3237 Vernon Boulevard in the Long Island City neighborhood of Queens in New York City, designed and created by the Japanese-Amer ...
in New York. Sachs has printed several decks of custom
playing card A playing card is a piece of specially prepared card stock, heavy paper, thin cardboard, plastic-coated paper, cotton-paper blend, or thin plastic that is marked with distinguishing motifs. Often the front (face) and back of each card has a f ...
s featuring photos of his artwork. In 2023, Sachs came under fire from past studio employees for creating a cult-like and fear-inducing work environment. Past workers told Hyperallergic about how difficult it was to quit. "It is like a true cult in that they make it really hard to leave," they said, citing "manipulation and threats." One former studio manager told ''
Curbed Curbed is an American real estate and urban design website published by ''New York'' magazine. Founded as a blog by Lockhart Steele in 2006 to cover New York City real estate, it grew by 2010 to feature sub-pages dedicated to specific real ...
'', "It's almost as if he goes out of his way to sow discomfort and pawns it off as if he's a genius. It's like a ruse. So many people out there know that he's cruel, but the art world is tiny and no one gives a shit." The revelations caused
Nike Nike often refers to: * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine giv ...
to release a statement that the company was "deeply concerned by the very serious allegations". "We are in contact with Tom and his studio, seeking to better understand the situation and how these issues are being addressed," the company said. Others have since come out in support of the artist, citing Sachs' irreverence as ubiquitous. Sachs is represented by Thaddaeus Ropac, Acquavella Galleries, Tomio Koyama Gallery, and Baldwin Gallery.


''Space Program''

Sachs had built numerous space-related sculptures throughout his career (such as ''Crawler'', 2003 and ''Lunar Module (1:18)'', 1999). His obsession with space, and specifically the
Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...
program of the 1960s and 1970s, culminated with his ''Space Program'' in 2007. Sachs built a 1:1 model of the Apollo lunar module, a mission control with 29 closed-circuit video monitors, and outfitted two female astronauts with handmade Tyvek space suits. In October 2007 at
Gagosian Gallery The Gagosian Gallery is a modern and contemporary art gallery owned and directed by Larry Gagosian. The gallery exhibits some of the most well-known artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. As of 2024, Gagosian employs 300 people at 19 exhibiti ...
in Los Angeles, Sachs launched his spacecraft, landed on the "Moon", and explored its surface. While the Apollo program was source of precedent, much of Sachs' ''Space Program'' is historically inaccurate, often humorously. The Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) was built full-scale, but had many modifications that were probably not on any Apollo mission, including a fully stocked Vodka bar and a library (with titles such as ''Woman's Almanac''). After the astronauts' first step, they used Sachs' handmade shotguns to "patrol the surface", before planting a flag and taking rock samples—by drilling into the gallery floor. Much of Apollo's TV footage was restaged using special effects sculptures that Sachs made himself, including ones that reproduced the Saturn V takeoff, the Moon landing, and the reentry of Apollo's capsule in Earth's atmosphere. Sachs continues to work on developing the Space Program, noting after the exhibition in 2008, "The Space Program continues in full force... Such is the nature of improvised construction technique." After collecting twelve pounds of fake "
Moon rocks Moon rock or lunar rock is rock originating from Earth's Moon. This includes lunar material collected during the course of human exploration of the Moon, and rock that has been ejected naturally from the Moon's surface and landed on Earth a ...
", he named each significant piece and encased them in carefully constructed display boxes, like with ''Florida''. In addition, Sachs allows followers to download an up-to-date "Moon Rock Report" that includes detailed information on each collected sample. In May 2012, Sachs opened the Space Program 2.0: MARS exhibit at the
Park Avenue Armory The Park Avenue Armory, also known as the 7th Regiment Armory, is a historic armory for the U.S. Army National Guard at 643 Park Avenue on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States. Designed in the Gothic Revival style ...
in New York. Much of the 2007 Space Program equipment was included, as well as new bricolage sculptures for the challenges of colonizing Mars:
Terraforming Terraforming or terraformation ("Earth-shaping") is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying the atmosphere, temperature, surface topography or ecology of a planet, moon, or other body to be similar to the environment of Earth to mak ...
with
poppy A poppy is a flowering plant in the subfamily Papaveroideae of the family Papaveraceae. Poppies are herbaceous plants, often grown for their colourful flowers. One species of poppy, '' Papaver somniferum'', is the source of the narcotic drug ...
plants—and an accompanying opium
tea ceremony Tea ceremony is a ritualized practice of making and serving tea (茶 ''cha'') in East Asia practiced in the Sinosphere. The original term from China (), literally translated as either "''way of tea''", "''etiquette for tea or tea rite''",Heiss, M ...
—a
Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...
rover, and a solar-powered boombox. As of 2021–2022, the current edition of ''Space Program'' is exhibited in the
Deichtorhallen The Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, Germany, is one of Europe's largest art centers for contemporary art and photography. The two historical buildings dating from 1911 to 1913 are notable examples of industrial architecture from the transitional period ...
in
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
, Germany.


''Bronze Collection''

In 2008 and 2009, the artist's ''Bronze Collection'' was shown at
Lever House Lever House is a office building at 390 Park Avenue in the Midtown East neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. Constructed from 1950 to 1952, the building was designed by Gordon Bunshaft and Natalie de Blois of Skidmore, Owings & Merr ...
, Baldwin Gallery (in Aspen, CO), and the Trocadero in Paris. The collection featured large white bronze casts of foamcore Hello Kitty and Miffy foamcore sculptures—a particular style distinctive to the artist. In addition, unpainted casts of battery towers, a skateboarding halfpipe, and Le Corbusier's lamps were also shown.


Knolling

The term ''knolling'' was first used in 1987 by Andrew Kromelow, a janitor at
Frank Gehry Frank Owen Gehry ( ; ; born February 28, 1929) is a Canadian-American architect and designer. A number of his buildings, including his private residence in Santa Monica, California, have become attractions. Gehry rose to prominence in th ...
's furniture fabrication shop. At the time, Gehry was designing chairs for
Knoll In geography, knoll is another term for a knowe or hillock, a small, low, round natural hill or mound. Knoll may also refer to: Places * Knoll Camp, site of an Iron Age hill fort Hampshire, England, United Kingdom * Knoll Lake, Leonard Canyon, ...
, a company known for
Florence Knoll Florence Marguerite Knoll Bassett ( Schust; May 24, 1917 – January 25, 2019) was an American architect, interior designer, furniture designer, and entrepreneur who has been credited with revolutionizing office design and bringing modernist de ...
's angular furniture. Kromelow would arrange any displaced tools at right angles on all surfaces, and called this routine ''knolling'', in that the tools were arranged in right angles—similar to Knoll furniture. The result was an organized surface that allowed the user to see all objects at once. Sachs spent two years in Gehry's shop as a fabricator and adopted use of the term from Kromelow. Knolling is now integral to his process. Sachs adopted the phrase "Always be Knolling" (abbreviated as ABK) as a mantra for his studio (in direct reference to Blake's famous "Always be Closing" in ''
Glengarry Glen Ross ''Glengarry Glen Ross'' is a 1983 stage play written by the American playwright David Mamet. It is a two-act tragedy that depicts two days in the lives of four desperate Chicago real estate agents who are prepared to engage in any number of un ...
''), which he expands on in his 2009 studio manual, ''10 Bullets'':
BULLET VIII: ALWAYS BE KNOLLING (ABK) # Scan your environment for materials, tools, books, music, etc. which are not in use. # Put away everything not in use. If you aren't sure, leave it out. # Group all 'like' objects. # Align or square all objects to either the surface they rest on, or the studio itself.
Knolling is present in Sachs' oeuvre in pieces like ''Hardcore'', a cabinet filled with objects neatly arranged at right angles. He has also had a long-time obsession with Knoll furniture, most evident in pieces like ''Knoll Loveseat and End Table'' (currently at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) and ''Barcelona Pavilion'', both full-scale replicas of Knoll furniture of the same name. Knolling is also present in the work of
Casey Neistat Casey Owen Neistat (; born March 25, 1981) is an American YouTube personality, filmmaker, vlogger and co-founder of the multimedia company Beme, which was later acquired by CNN. In 2018, he founded ''368'', a creative space for creators to ...
, Sachs' former employee.


See also

*
5S (methodology) 5S (Five S) is a workplace organization method that uses a list of five Japanese words: , , , , and . These have been translated as 'sort', 'set in order', 'shine', 'standardize', and 'sustain'. The list describes how to organize a work space f ...
*
Shadow board A shadow board is a type of tool board for organizing a set of tools; the board defines where particular tools should be placed when they are not in use. Shadow boards have the outlines of a work station's tools marked on them, allowing operator ...


Citations


General and cited references

* * *


External links


Tom Sachs official website

Tomio Koyama Gallery