Renate Müller: Toys + Design
Foreword by Evan Snyderman and text by Reinhild Schneider
Renate Müller: Toys + Design is the first monograph on the German designer’s work available in the United States. Coinciding with her first solo exhibition at R & Company in 2011, this volume inspires and delights.
Made of beige jute with colored leather accents, Renate Müller’s animals and forms are some of the sweetest and most artistic toys ever made. They were conceived in the early 1960s as part of an endeavor launched by Helene Haeusler at the Sonneberg Technical College in Germany, and designed to enhance orthopedic exercises and balance coordination for mentally and physically handicapped children. Müller’s toys debuted at the Leipzig Fair in 1967, and were then tested by psychiatric hospitals and clinics throughout Germany, proving to be a huge success. Her alligators and rhinos were so lovable, her fabric bowling pins so beautifully made, her hippos and elephants so comforting, that they quickly became coveted by design buffs worldwide, and they have remained so to this day. In 1990, Müller took over the rights to her designs and continues to hand-produce very limited quantities of these classic designs as well as new designs.
Publisher: R & Company & Whitehaus Media
Release date: 2011
Format: Hardcover
Dimensions: 11.25 x 8.5”
Pages: 80
ISBN: 9780970460837