Design & Desire in the Twentieth Century

“California Design, 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way” is on exhibit now through June 3, 2012 at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This exhibit features more than 300 items including furniture, ceramics, metalwork, fashion and textiles, as well as industrial and graphic design. It is the first major show to examine the influence of California designers on mid-Twentieth century product design.

Christopher Hawthorne in his review of  “California Design” writes:

“California modernism was a distinct style from its earliest years. It traded the social conscience of the Bauhaus for an approach to design that was not only ‘looser, warmer’ and often ‘ad hoc,’ as Kaplan puts it in the catalog, and more expressive of local character, but also entirely comfortable with the notion of salesmanship and the realities of commerce. Indeed, of the exhibition’s four thematic sections, the one on ‘Selling California Modern’ arguably makes up the heart of the show. The other sections are ‘Shaping,’ on the early years of California modernism; ‘Making,’ on materials and fabrication; and ‘Living,’ on housing, furnishings and the indoor-outdoor postwar aesthetic made possible by a benign climate.” Read the entire review.

More information on “California Design, 1930-1965: Living in a Modern Way” on the LACMA site.

Read our past post on photographer Julius Schulman and California architecture.

Julius Shulman (1910–2009), photographer, Pierre Koenig, architect, Stahl House (Case Study House #22), Los Angeles, 1960 © J. Paul Getty Trust. Used with permission. Julius Shulman Photography Archive, Research Library, Getty Research Institute (2004.R.10).
Source: http://www.lacma.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/Exhibition_Main/image/Shulman.jpg

I had planned to write an article on Frank Lloyd Wright that would tie in with the exhibit, “Frank Lloyd Wright: Organic Architecture for the 21st Century,” opening this month at the Milwaukee Art Museum, but my friends at Designslinger already have created a great post on Wright’s Harry S. Adams House (1913), Oak Park, Illinois, that I’d like to share instead.

Frank Lloyd Wright, Adams House (1913). Image: designslinger
Source: http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn281/SallyGreene2008/UZY20000000048-11.jpg

“Counter Space: Design and the Modern Kitchen” is currently on exhibit now through March 14, 2011 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The New York Times interviews the show’s curator, Juliet Kinchin.

For further reading:

National Public Radio’s Weekend Edition’s story.

MoMA’s Counter Space blog.

Left: Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky. Frankfurt Kitchen from the Höhenblick Housing Estate, Frankfurt, Germany (reconstruction). 1926–27.

Source: http://www.moma.org/images/dynamic_content/exhibition_page/40200.jpg?1273781855

I recently attended the current exhibition at the Everson Museum of Art here in Syracuse New York: “Good Design: Stories from Herman Miller.” Originating from the Muskegon Museum of Art in Muskegon, MI, the exhibit was inspired by a 2004 book by John A. Berry, Herman Miller: the Purpose of Design. According to the museum’s executive director, Judith A. Heyner, the show focuses “on case studies that explore design problems and solutions created by some of the talented artists who have created masterpieces of modern design for the company, and continue to do so today.”

Installation of the exhibition at the Muskegon Museum of Art (Aug 2009).
Source: http://www.hermanmiller.com/discover/wp-content/uploads/4.jpg

I was certain I would see the iconic furniture of designers Ray and Charles Eames, Gilbert Rohde, and George Nelson among others, but where did the “good stories” fit in? How can an art exhibit tell “stories,” especially the complex story of how one furniture company changed the workplace through its innovative design process?

At the Everson, the exhibit is presented in two galleries. The first concentrates on the history of the Herman Miller Company and its founder D.J. De Pree, who was active in the firm until his death at age 99 in 1990. The iconic works of the company’s legendary designers Gilbert Rohde, George Nelson, and Charles and Ray Eames are highlighted here, including Nelson’s typewriter desk and the Eames’ plywood chairs.


Charles and Ray Eames (1945), Lounge Chair Wood.
Source: http://eameschairs.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/eames_plywood_chair.jpg

The second gallery features four case studies, each illustrated through attractive, colorful graphic storyboards that also serve as dividers separating each section. This aspect of the exhibition design relates to Herman Miller’s Action Office, the revolutionary system of panels and furniture that addressed the use of space in modern office buildings where steel frameworks allowed for more expansive spaces. The Action Office gave rise to what we now refer to as “office cubicles.”

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