June Issue 2002
Mint Museum of Craft + Design in Charlotte, NC, Features Exhibition on American Design
If ever there is an exhibition that illustrates
the competitive creative spirit of Americans, it is American
Modern, 1925-1940: Design for a New Age. Organized by the
Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Federation of Arts,
with support by the National Patrons of the AFA, this landmark
exhibition dramatically demonstrates, through 150 objects, the
unprecedented ascent of modern design that was unmistakably American
in style and character. The furniture, appliances, posters, textiles,
tableware and even literally, the bathroom sink, from 60 designers,
including Norman Bel Geddes, Donald Deskey, Paul Frankl, Raymond
Loewy, Isamu Noguchi, Eliel Saarinen, Walter Dorwin Teague, Walter
von Nessen and Russel Wright are on display in American Modern
at Charlotte, NC's Mint Museum of Craft + Design, through July
28, 2002.
At the turn of the century, the United States was reaching full
economic and cultural maturity. Artists such as John Singer Sargent,
Winslow Homer and Augustus Saint-Gaudens were earning international
recognition. In acknowledgment, America was offered a prime location
in the monumental 1925 Paris Exposition Internationale des
Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes to demonstrate
the skill and latest achievement of American craftsmen and manufacturers.
The organizers stipulated that works must show "new inspiration
and real originality" of the modern decorative and industrial
arts. Imitation of ancient styles was strictly prohibited.
It must have come as a great shock to Commerce Secretary Herbert
Hoover to learn from leading art and education consultants that
there was no modern design in America. Despite the exceptional
work of Frank Lloyd Wright and Richard Neutra, virtually all of
American design in 1925 was heavily dependent on historic precedent.
The United States declined the invitation. To American designers,
the gauntlet had been thrown down in much the same manner as the
later 1957 Russian launch of Sputnik challenged American scientists.
In the initial response, much of America's modernist design reflected
the widespread influence of the Paris fair which brought to international
prominence the chic French luxury style of Art Deco, with its
emphasis on costly materials and fine workmanship. Dramatic economic,
industrial and technological changes, however, would significantly
impact design during this time of drastic growth in mass production
and mass consumption.
America's most innovative designers adapted the clean lines, pure
geometric forms and machine-made materials of Germany's Bauhaus
movement which forged an alliance between art and industry. The
onset of the Depression served to enhance the aim of the Bauhaus
to create objects that were both attractive and affordable.
A decisive factor in the start of American design dominance was
the huge influx of foreign talent. More than a third of the designers
in American Modern were immigrants drawn by economic opportunity
or escape from political oppression. They found a country receptive
to entrepreneurs, even if their radical new design styles were
not yet widely understood. Finnish architect-designer Eliel Saarinen
brought new elegance, subtlety and sophistication to American
modernist design as seen by his Tea and Coffee Urn and Tray
(c. 1934). The spherical urn, mounted on an openwork cylindrical
stand and decorated with a delicate vertical finial, combines
modernist geometric aesthetics with classical sense of proportion
and ornament. Hungarian-born Ilonka Karasz's pair of cone-shaped
bowls (c. 1930), made of electroplated nickel silver and resting
on stands made of crossed metal plates, also catered to the taste
for mathematical precision and a machine-made look.
Not only designers and manufacturers, but department stores, museums
and galleries joined in an effort to promote innovative work in
overcoming the country's generally conservative taste for traditional
forms. During the Depression many companies turned to modern styling
as a novelty they hoped would spur plunging sales. The clean,
sleek, fun and affordable modern pieces lifted flagging American
spirits during an uncertain and erratic time. Foremost in influence
were three landmark design exhibitions organized by the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in 1929, 1934 and 1940 which popularized new materials
and encouraged designers to work with American industry. Dozens
of the works on display in American Modern first appeared
publicly at the three exhibitions.
Industrial designers such as Walter Darwin Teague came to prominence.
While American designers absorbed and profited from European influences,
they sought ways to give their work an unmistakably American stamp.
Paul Frankl's Skyscraper Bookcase (c. 1927) with its strong
vertical lines and staggered setbacks, is evocative of the Manhattan
skyline that spawned a rash of skyscraper-related objects, from
cocktail shakers to textiles. While ultimately too extreme and
eccentric, Frankl's look paved the way for streamlining.
Developed by aerodynamic engineers as a means of minimizing air
resistance, streamlining, with its bullet profiles and flowing
lines, not only made objects move faster - it made them look fast.
Not only were cars, planes and trains streamlined, but so were
a whole range of stationary household objects including Kem Weber's
Airline Armchair (c.1934), Lurelle Guild's Electrolux,
Model 30, Vacuum Cleaner (c.1937) and Egmont Aren's Streamline
Meat Slicer (1940).
Industrial materials like cork, linoleum and tubular steel and
new materials such as Bakelite and Vitrolite became components
of modern architecture, furniture and household goods. On display
in American Modern is the first plastic shell chair ever
made. Framed in tubular steel and rendered in Plexiglass, Gilbert
Rohde's curvy clear-plastic seat was a prototype made for the
1939 World's Fair. It never went into production because Plexiglass
was taken out of commercial use by the federal government and
diverted for use in the windshields of military aircraft when
war broke out in Europe that same year.
By 1940 a noticeable shift had occurred in American tastes. The
vogue for dynamism, speed and sophistication gave way to an approach
that valued comfort. The Scandinavian emphasis on softer, organic
shapes, designed to conform more closely to the human hand and
body, was taken up with brilliant success by Russel Wright. His
line of American Modern Dinnerware which debuted in 1937
and ultimately sold more than 80 million pieces is on display
in the exhibition. Other examples include J. Robert F. Swanson's
maple and stainless steel Flexible Home Arrangements Nesting
Tables (c.1940) and "user-friendly" kitchen utensils
by Henry Dreyfus.
By the start of the 1939-40 World's Fair in New York City, Americans
dominated design innovation. Designers had found a middle ground,
encompassing both the precision of the machine aesthetic and the
nostalgic warmth of handcraftsmanship. Designs were practical,
livable and comfortable, quintessential American traits that transformed
the American domestic landscape.
For more information check our NC Institutional Gallery listings,
call the museum at 704/337-2000 or at (www.mintmuseum.org).
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