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Michael Boyd Biography

Michael Boyd is the principal of BoydDesign, a consultancy for the restoring and preserving of modernist architecture, and collecting modern art and design. His most notable restorations are the Paul Rudolph Townhouse (1975) in New York City and the Oscar Niemeyer Strick House (1964) in Santa Monica. He has recently restored, designed a pool and cabana, interiors and landscapes for the Craig Ellwood Steinman House (1956), which is featured in the June 2011 issue of Architectural Digest. Other completed projects include the John Lautner Chemosphere House (1960) gardens, the Richard Neutra Wirin House (1949) gardens and interiors, the John Lautner Harvey House (1950) gardens, the Richard Neutra Kaufman House at UCLA (1937) exterior restoration and gardens, and the R.M. Schindler McAlmon House (1936) gardens and hardscapes. He curated the architecture and design section of Birth of the Cool, a museum exhibition of California art, design, and culture at midcentury. The accompanying (Prestel, 2008) catalog featured his essay,The Migration of Modernism: From Turn-of-the-Century Vienna to Mid-Century Los Angeles. He writes a quarterly column for MODERN magazine, entitled Boyd’s Eye and is featured in an interview with Adam Lindeman in Collecting Design(Taschen, 2011). Mr. Boyd has contributed numerous articles and essays, including Chasing Modern: Ideal and Object for Modernist Paradise: Niemeyer House/Boyd Collection (Rizzoli, 2007), which was also issued in French (Chene Publishers, 2008), under the title Le Style Moderniste: La Collection Boyd/La Maison Niemeyer and Furniture as Micro-Architecture for R.M. Schindler: The Gingold Commissions (William Stout Publishers, 2008). His collection along with his wife, Gabrielle, was the subject of a museum exhibition at SFMOMA entitled Sitting on the Edge: Modernist Design from the Collection of Michael and Gabrielle Boyd (Rizzoli, 1998). He has contributed an essay, Fluid Form and Social Concern: The Furniture of Oscar Niemeyer, for the upcoming Taschen monograph on Oscar Niemeyer. Boyd serves as an advisor to several museums and institutions regarding modern design and architecture, and 20th-century Decorative Arts, including: LACMA, MoMA, SFMOMA, Orange County Museum of Art, The Wolfsonian, and MaK, Vienna. He regularly lectures and appears on panels for museums and auction houses including Christie’s and Sotheby’s.

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