Gene Moore (June 10, 1910 – November 23, 1998) was an American

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exp ...

and

window dresser Window dressers are retail workers who arrange displays of goods in shop windows or within a shop itself. Such displays are themselves known as " window dressing". They may work for design companies contracted to work for clients or for department ...

. Moore joined

Tiffany & Company Tiffany & Co. (colloquially known as Tiffany's) is a high-end luxury jewelry and specialty retailer, headquartered on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. It sells jewelry, sterling silver, porcelain, crystal, stationery, fragrances, water bottles, wa ...

in 1955, as its Artistic Director and Vice President.

Biography

Gene Moore is often cited as pioneer in the history of American

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design' ...

and a vital figure in the creation of the

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create ...

image of jewelry powerhouse Tiffany & Co. Historian Mark C. Taylor has described Moore as one of the "most important twentieth-century window designers in the United States". Moore was also the photographer behind one of the best-known portrait sittings of actress Audrey Hepburn, in 1952. The photo session was made by Moore originally with the intent to be the basis for modeling his new mannequin design for

Bonwit Teller Bonwit Teller & Co. was an American luxury department store in New York City, New York, founded by Paul Bonwit in 1895 at Sixth Avenue and 18th Street, and later a chain of department stores. In 1897, Edmund D. Teller was admitted to the par ...

. Hepburn was later reunited with Moore in the opening sequence of the 1960 film Breakfast at Tiffany's, appearing as the iconic Holly Golightly sipping morning coffee in front of his windows at the Tiffany & Co. flagship store. Working at Tiffany's, Moore designed approximately 5,000 windows, many of which featured his collection of stuffed hummingbirds. He was also noted for using concepts or actual works of modern art in his windows, including those of Robert Rauschenberg,

Jasper Johns Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose work is associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and pop art. He is well known for his depictions of the American flag and other US-related top ...

Alexander Ney Alexander Ney (russian: link=no, Александр Ней; born September 1939 in Leningrad, Soviet Union) is an American sculptor and painter. After establishing himself in 1972 as a resident of France, he immigrated to the United States in 197 ...

and

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the Art movement, visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore th ...

Legacy

In 1997, Moore donated much of his archives to the

Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum housed within the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New York City, along the Upper East Side's Museum Mile. It is one of 19 museums that fall under the wing of the Smithsonian Inst ...

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

. The collection was transferred to the Archives Center at the National Museum of American History in 2012. His work was the subject of the 1996 exhibition ''Moon Over Pearls, Gene Moore's Tiffany Windows and Beyond'' held at The Museum at the

Fashion Institute of Technology The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) is a public college in New York City. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) and focuses on art, business, design, mass communication, and technology connected to the fashion industry. ...

in New York City.

Bibliography

*''Windows at Tiffany's: The Art of Gene Moore''. With Judith Goldman. NY: Harry N. Abrams, 1980. *''My Time at Tiffany's''. Gene Moore with Jay Hyams. NY: St. Martin's Press, 1990.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Gene 1910 births 1998 deaths Artists from Birmingham, Alabama Artists from New York City American costume designers Window dressers