Alexander Girard

Lifetime

1907–1993

Country

USA

Alexander Girard was born on 24 May 1907 in New York and died on 31 December 1993 in Santa Fe. He studied architecture in London, followed by the Royal School of Architecture in Rome. In 1946, he received an award in the Museum of Modern Art textile competition, and in 1962 he was awarded the Silver Medal by the Architectural League.

From 1952 to 1973, he headed Herman Miller’s textile department, designing upholstery fabrics, among others, for furniture by George Nelson and Charles and Ray Eames. For the New York restaurant La Fonda del Sol (1960), he designed an interior with Eames chairs and tables. In 1965, he developed a new identity for Braniff International Airways, and in 1971, graphic panels for Robert Propst’s Action Office 2 office system.

In 1962, he established the Girard Foundation in Santa Fe; his collection of more than 100,000 folk art objects was transferred in 1978 to the Museum of International Folk Art, where the Girard Wing opened in 1982. Vitra still produces his textiles and Wooden Dolls figurines, while his heirs donated the designer’s archive to the Vitra Design Museum, which presented the exhibition “A Designer’s Universe” in 2016–2017. Girard’s work was also presented by Cooper Hewitt (2001) and SFMOMA (2006).