Although we usually spend every waking moment slaving over making beautiful furniture for your homes, the Metal Design Furniture team are allowed the occasional day trip out into the real world! We decently recently to spend some of our rare and highly prized spare time visiting the Barbican for their The Bride and the Bachelors: Duchamp with Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg and Johns exhibition. We had a great day! The collection features pieces from French surrealist artist Marcel Duchamp, as well as from those influenced by him: composer John Cage, choreographer Merce Cunningham and visual artists Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns.

The exhibition is a feast for the eyes and ears, featuring some of the visual art, music and dance that changed the face of the art world back in the 1950s and 1960s. There are 90 works to be looked at, and the exhibition runs until June 9th this year, so go down and have a look. We at the MDF team were especially drawn to Duchamp’s Apolinere Enameled piece. Duchamp took this advert and altered it to make it a piece of art. The sign was originally an ad for the industrial paint company Sapolin Enamel. Duchamp changed the lettering on the front and back of the piece and added his signature, playing with the notion of what authorship means within art.

We thought the bed is this piece looked like it would be at home in our collection. It especially reminded us of our stylish Maris beds, which start at £375 and are available in a range of size and colours, including smooth silver and jet black. Typical… the one day we get to go out and play, and all we can think about is work!

Avi Reisman