San Francisco Museum of Modern Art honors Apple’s Jony Ive with lifetime achievement award

The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) has named Apple Senior Vice President of Design Jonathan Ive the recipient of its 2014 Bay Area Treasure Award. The annual lifetime achievement award, organized by the Modern Art Council (MAC), SFMOMA’s premier fund-raising auxiliary, recognizes artists and creative leaders in the region whose contributions have redefined contemporary visual culture.

“Ive is our generation’s most innovative and influential figure in the field of industrial design — no other design mind has done more to transform the way we visualize and share information,” said SFMOMA Director Neal Benezra in a statement. “SFMOMA was the first museum on the West Coast to establish a department of architecture and design, and we’re thrilled to celebrate Ive’s revolutionary achievements.”

The award will be given at a presentation and dinner on Thursday, October 30, 2014 (venue TBD), chaired by MAC member Maria Tenaglia Watson and featuring Ive in conversation with SFMOMA Curator of Architecture and Design Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher.

“I’ve always enjoyed visiting SFMOMA, and I think it represents exceptional contemporary art and design,” said Ive in a statement. “I’m very grateful to the museum and proud to be recognized among such an amazing list of past recipients.”

SFMOMA’s Department of Architecture and Design has been tracking the evolution of computational design since 1988. The museum has a significant collection of 20th- and 21st-century consumer electronics, with a third of its holdings in this area originating from Northern California’s innovative tech sector. As design shifts focus away from the object and toward the experience—e.g., live maps and other software integrated products—a number of new concerns have emerged for museums collecting high-tech design, including the hardware/software divide, rapid evolution of media, and limitations of traditional exhibition formats.

As part of a major conservation-based research project, The Artist Initiative, SFMOMA’s Department of Architecture and Design is currently engaged in a long-term investigation of how best to collect, maintain, and interpret the museum’s collection of consumer electronics in dialogue with leading Bay Area–based designers, including Jonathan Ive.

​About Jonathan Ive
London-born designer Jonathan Ive is Apple’s senior vice president of design, reporting to CEO Tim Cook. Since 1996, he has been responsible for leading a design team widely regarded as one of the world’s best. As the driving force behind the look and feel of Apple’s innovative products, Ive also provides leadership and direction for Human Interface software teams across the company.

Recognized with numerous design awards, Apple products are featured in the permanent collections of museums worldwide, including SFMOMA; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Centre Pompidou, Paris.

Ive holds a BA and an honorary doctorate from Newcastle Polytechnic (now Northumbria University). In 2003, he was named Designer of the Year by the Design Museum London and awarded the title Royal Designer for Industry by The Royal Society of Arts.

About the Bay Area Treasure Award
Jonathan Ive is the 15th Bay Area Treasure Award honoree. Previous recipients include filmmaker George Lucas; media artist Jim Campbell; painters Robert Bechtle, Nathan Oliveira, Wayne Thiebaud, and William T. Wiley; sculptors Manuel Neri, Richard Serra, and Mark di Suvero; sound artist Bill Fontana; industrial designer Sara Little Turnbull; landscape architect Lawrence Halprin; and photographers Ruth Bernhard and Larry Sultan.

Nominees from museum leadership across the organization are considered for the award each year; the final decision is made by SFMOMA’s director. Proceeds from the event support SFMOMA’s exhibitions and enable the museum to serve more than 60,000 students, teachers, and families annually through diverse education programs.

Source: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]