A few miles northwest of centre city Philadelphia, a 17th century-style Japanese house sits serenely in the landscaped gardens of Fairmount Park. Designed by architect Junzō Yoshimura (1908 – 1997) it was built for an outdoor exhibition, The House in the Museum Garden, at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in 1954 – a gift from the government of Japan to the people of the United States as a gesture of friendship during the fraught postwar period.

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Visitors to Marc Newson’s lavish design exhibition at Gagosian Gallery on West 21st Street could have been forgiven for wondering if they’d been transported back to the 18th century — albeit an oddly minimalist version of the age of Rococo. That’s not because of the deluxe surfboards that were on view, though these works were transporting in their sleekness and vivid colours.

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