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<strong>The</strong> <strong>Metropolitan</strong> <strong>Museum</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Art</strong> Bulletin<br />
Winter 1979/80
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he <strong>Metropolitan</strong> <strong>Museum</strong>'s<br />
involvement with the decorative<br />
arts <strong>of</strong> this century is one <strong>of</strong> long<br />
standing. A decade <strong>of</strong> intense collecting<br />
began in 1922, when<br />
Edward C. Moore, Jr., donated a<br />
generous sum for the purchase <strong>of</strong><br />
objects <strong>of</strong> the finest quality from<br />
America and Europe. Thanks to<br />
the discriminating eye <strong>of</strong> Joseph<br />
Breck, the Curator <strong>of</strong> Decorative<br />
<strong>Art</strong>s, the fund was used judiciously<br />
to buy examples <strong>of</strong> the now celebrated<br />
<strong>Art</strong> Deco style. Upon<br />
Breck's death in 1933, the impetus<br />
for collecting temporarily lapsed,<br />
but a succession <strong>of</strong> exhibitions<br />
already underway continued as<br />
planned. Inspired by the 1925<br />
Paris Exposition, Richard Bach,<br />
the <strong>Museum</strong>'s Director for Industrial<br />
Relations, organized a series<br />
<strong>of</strong> shows presenting innovative<br />
design. For "<strong>The</strong> Architect and the<br />
Industrial <strong>Art</strong>s," which opened in<br />
February 1929, a committee <strong>of</strong><br />
architects headed by Eliel Saarinen<br />
created room settings with specially<br />
manufactured furnishings.<br />
<strong>The</strong> spectacularly popular exhibition<br />
drew an unprecedented attendance<br />
<strong>of</strong> 185,256, and was<br />
extended from six weeks to seven<br />
months. In 1934 architects were<br />
joined by the first generation <strong>of</strong><br />
American industrial designers, as<br />
exhibits by Donald Deskey, Raymond<br />
Loewy, and Gilbert Rohde<br />
were featured. <strong>The</strong> program was<br />
discontinued during World War II.<br />
Interest in the field <strong>of</strong> twentiethcentury<br />
decorative arts was slow to<br />
regenerate after the war. It was not<br />
until 1966 that the <strong>Museum</strong> made<br />
another major acquisition with the<br />
purchase <strong>of</strong> an entire dining<br />
room-wood paneling, murals, and<br />
furniture-created for a Parisian<br />
townhouse between 1910 and<br />
1914. <strong>The</strong> ensemble by the Sym-<br />
bolist painter Lucien Levy-Dhurmer<br />
evokes an exotic garden, with<br />
carved wisteria overhanging the<br />
painted murals. <strong>The</strong> detail on the<br />
opposite page illustrates the room<br />
as it stood in Paris; now dismantled<br />
and in storage, it awaits reassembly<br />
in the Southwest Wing, still<br />
to be built in the final phase <strong>of</strong> the<br />
<strong>Museum</strong>'s master plan.<br />
Modern art in all its aspects was<br />
given new focus at the <strong>Metropolitan</strong><br />
in 1967 with the establishment<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Department <strong>of</strong> Contemporary<br />
<strong>Art</strong>, soon renamed Twentieth<br />
Century <strong>Art</strong>. At the instigation<br />
<strong>of</strong> Henry Geldzahler, who was head<br />
<strong>of</strong> the department until 1978, Pen-<br />
elope Hunter-Stiebel, Assistant<br />
Curator and author <strong>of</strong> this publication,<br />
brought out <strong>of</strong> storage<br />
Breck's outstanding purchases <strong>of</strong><br />
the 1920s and began again the<br />
systematic building <strong>of</strong> the collection,<br />
extending from <strong>Art</strong> Nouveau<br />
to contemporary Studio Craft.<br />
<strong>The</strong> best <strong>of</strong> modern decorative<br />
arts is today sought by collectors<br />
and museums the world over.<br />
<strong>The</strong> support <strong>of</strong> the Friends <strong>of</strong><br />
Twentieth-Century Decorative <strong>Art</strong>s,<br />
whose contributions have created<br />
the first purchase fund since the<br />
1922 Moore gift, promises new<br />
vitality to the <strong>Metropolitan</strong> in the<br />
now highly competitive field it pioneered<br />
half a century ago.<br />
PHILIPPE<br />
De MONTEBELLO<br />
Director<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Metropolitan</strong> <strong>Museum</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Art</strong> Bulletin Winter 1979/1980<br />
Volume XXXVII, Number 3 (ISSN 0026-1521)<br />
Published quarterly. Copyright 1979 by <strong>The</strong> <strong>Metropolitan</strong> <strong>Museum</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Art</strong>, Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street, New York, N.Y. 10028. Second-class postage<br />
paid at New York, N.Y. and Additional Mailing Offices. Subscriptions $1 1 .50 a year. Single copies $2.95. Sent free to <strong>Museum</strong> members. Four weeks' notice<br />
required for change <strong>of</strong> address. Back issues available on micr<strong>of</strong>ilm, from University Micr<strong>of</strong>ilms, 313 N. First Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Volumes I-XXVIII<br />
(1905-1942) available as a clothbound reprint set or as individual yearly volumes from Arno Press, 3 Park Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016, or from the<br />
<strong>Museum</strong>, Box 255, Gracie Station, New York, N.Y. 10028. Photography in this issue by Sheldan Collins, <strong>Metropolitan</strong> <strong>Museum</strong> Photograph Studio. General<br />
Manager <strong>of</strong> Publications: John P. O'Neill. Editor in Chief <strong>of</strong> the Bulletin: Joan Holt. Associate Editor: Joanna Ekman. Design: Alvin Grossman<br />
On the cover: Detail <strong>of</strong> the mural from the Grand Salon <strong>of</strong> the liner Normandie (see pages 32-35). Frontispiece: Detail <strong>of</strong> the Wisteria Dining Room by Lucien<br />
Levy-Dhurmer (1865-1953). 1910-14. Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 66.244.1-26<br />
1<br />
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is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Metropolitan</strong> <strong>Museum</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Art</strong> Bulletin ®<br />
www.jstor.org
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he decorative arts <strong>of</strong> the<br />
twentieth century cannot be<br />
considered without acknowledging<br />
that the creation <strong>of</strong> objects<br />
appealing to both hand and eye,<br />
for use and decoration, is a prac-<br />
tice as old as civilization itself. A<br />
distance <strong>of</strong> centuries makes it<br />
easier to appreciate and evaluate<br />
these objects as art, for nostalgia<br />
tends to cloud our view in dealing<br />
with artifacts <strong>of</strong> eras we can<br />
remember. Where art is concerned,<br />
however, age or the lack <strong>of</strong> it<br />
should be subordinate to the<br />
central issue <strong>of</strong> quality. A work that<br />
is badly designed and shoddily<br />
made should not be sanctioned<br />
only because it has survived a<br />
hundred years or more; nor should<br />
one be dismissed because it<br />
cannot qualify as antique. <strong>The</strong><br />
challenge <strong>of</strong> collecting twentiethcentury<br />
decorative arts is to<br />
divorce oneself from the emotional<br />
bias <strong>of</strong> memory in order to judge<br />
each work in the perspective <strong>of</strong> its<br />
predecessors and for the degree to<br />
which it succeeds in fulfilling the<br />
aims <strong>of</strong> its creator. As a repository<br />
<strong>of</strong> works from past epochs and<br />
foreign cultures, <strong>The</strong> <strong>Metropolitan</strong><br />
<strong>Museum</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Art</strong> affords a unique<br />
vantage point from which to scan<br />
the accomplishments <strong>of</strong> this<br />
century.<br />
<strong>The</strong> single most important factor<br />
setting our age apart from others<br />
has been industrialization. In the<br />
continuous dialogue concerning<br />
the decorative arts and the<br />
machine, there has been a<br />
constant dispute over the aesthetic<br />
and moral value <strong>of</strong> objects fashioned<br />
by skilled handwork as<br />
opposed to those made in quantity<br />
by mechanized processes. On the<br />
one hand, the traditionalists have<br />
sought to humanize the industrial<br />
age by embellishment. On the<br />
other, the modernists have<br />
espoused an ideology <strong>of</strong> puritanical<br />
socialism and Platonic<br />
idealism, inveighing against what<br />
they perceive to be the anachronistic<br />
traditions <strong>of</strong> those who create<br />
beautiful objects for the privileged<br />
few. Out <strong>of</strong> their various manifestos<br />
comes a common theme, that the<br />
aim <strong>of</strong> the decorative or applied<br />
arts should be to create perfect<br />
forms standardized to accommodate<br />
the needs <strong>of</strong> modern<br />
everyday life.<br />
Although modernism appeared<br />
briefly in Vienna about 1900, it<br />
found its most effective spokesman<br />
during the 1920s in the great architect<br />
Le Corbusier. Modernistheory<br />
was given its most thorough application<br />
at the Bauhaus, founded by<br />
the architect Walter Gropius in<br />
1919. This German institute was<br />
dedicated to the creation <strong>of</strong> proto-<br />
types for industrial production. In<br />
the fourteen years <strong>of</strong> its existence,<br />
the Bauhaus developed mechanistic<br />
designs featuring metal, glass,<br />
and other industrialized materials.<br />
It then became the dominant influence<br />
on a subsequent generation<br />
<strong>of</strong> architects and designers<br />
working in what was to be iden-<br />
tified from the 1930s on as the<br />
International Style.<br />
he most serious interpreters<br />
<strong>of</strong> twentieth-century decorative<br />
arts have been historians <strong>of</strong><br />
the International Style, who have<br />
treated only those aspects that can<br />
be construed as prefiguring or<br />
contributing to the style. A broader<br />
vision must apply in a museum <strong>of</strong><br />
the <strong>Metropolitan</strong>'s encyclopedic<br />
scope, which imposes a pluralistic<br />
aesthetic on anyone exposed to<br />
works <strong>of</strong> art as diverse as Chinese<br />
Buddhas and Renaissance altarpieces.<br />
It is logical, then, that the<br />
<strong>Museum</strong> should attempt to acquire<br />
important works in every significant<br />
mode. In modern decorative arts<br />
the <strong>Metropolitan</strong>aturally tends<br />
At the end <strong>of</strong> the nineteenth century a<br />
desire for novelty infused the arts <strong>of</strong><br />
Europe and America. This found expression<br />
in such outbursts <strong>of</strong> fantasy as Carlo<br />
Bugatti's imaginative turn-<strong>of</strong>-the-century<br />
secretary replete with Moorish arches and<br />
inlays <strong>of</strong> pseudo-calligraphy (see detail on<br />
the opposite page). Working in Milan,<br />
Bugatti (1855-1940) gained considerable<br />
notoriety for his exotic furniture. <strong>The</strong><br />
animal sculptures <strong>of</strong> his younger son,<br />
Rembrandt, also won recognition, but it<br />
was the classic automobile <strong>of</strong> his older<br />
son, Ettore, that made the name Bugatti<br />
famous.<br />
Vellum, walnut, copper, pewter, and mirror<br />
glass, h. 88 in. Purchase, Edward C.<br />
Moore, Jr Gift, 69.69<br />
toward those works that continue<br />
traditions represented in its historic<br />
collections, but the field has too<br />
long been dealt with as an afterthought<br />
and is just beginning to<br />
come into its own. <strong>The</strong> following<br />
pages illustrate examples from the<br />
<strong>Metropolitan</strong>'s collection, which<br />
cannot yet tell the full story <strong>of</strong> the<br />
decorative arts in this century.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y do, nonetheless, bear<br />
witness to a sequence <strong>of</strong> styles,<br />
and to moments in the history <strong>of</strong><br />
art that have not received their<br />
due. <strong>The</strong> works <strong>of</strong> <strong>Art</strong> Nouveau,<br />
Wiener Werkstatte, <strong>Art</strong> Deco,<br />
Moderne, Scandinavian Modern,<br />
and the Studio Craft Movement<br />
deserve attention as successive<br />
manners by which art has transformed<br />
the environment <strong>of</strong> our<br />
time.<br />
PENELOPE<br />
HUNTER-STIEBEL<br />
3<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Metropolitan</strong> <strong>Museum</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Art</strong><br />
is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Metropolitan</strong> <strong>Museum</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Art</strong> Bulletin ®<br />
www.jstor.org
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A rt Nouveau, the first decorative style<br />
<strong>of</strong> the twentieth century, emerged in<br />
the 1890s to challenge the historicism <strong>of</strong><br />
revival styles that held sway at the time. Its<br />
advocates broke with the past and sought<br />
to engender a new art for the new century,<br />
drawing on the forms and forces <strong>of</strong> nature.<br />
Flowering vines, waves, a woman's<br />
flowing hair, and even organic abstraction<br />
are described by an undulating line that is<br />
the hallmark <strong>of</strong> <strong>Art</strong> Nouveau.<br />
<strong>The</strong> origins <strong>of</strong> the style can be traced, in<br />
part, to the writings <strong>of</strong> William Morris, who<br />
had focused attention on the need for a<br />
renewed energy in the decorative arts. But<br />
while Morris found his ideal in the European<br />
Middle Ages, the practitioners <strong>of</strong> <strong>Art</strong><br />
Nouveau looked for aesthetic direction to<br />
Japan, opened to the West since the<br />
1850s. Contrary to the tenets <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Art</strong>s<br />
and Crafts Movement initiated by Morris,<br />
commerce and the machine bore no<br />
stigma, and every attempt was made to<br />
tailor art production to current economics.<br />
In Paris the new style was named,<br />
popularized, and discreetly molded by the<br />
art dealer Samuel Bing, already established<br />
in the field <strong>of</strong> Japanese art. In<br />
December 1895 he issued invitations to<br />
the public and press to the reopening <strong>of</strong><br />
his gallery transformed into the "Salon de<br />
I'<strong>Art</strong> Nouveau." Here he exhibited contemporary<br />
objects and furnishings alongside<br />
paintings and sculptures by Pierre<br />
Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, Mary Cassatt,<br />
Auguste Rodin, and others. His firm then<br />
expanded into the manufacture <strong>of</strong> applied<br />
arts designed by artists that he selected.<br />
Bing's major triumph, and the triumph <strong>of</strong><br />
the new style, came at the Paris Exposition<br />
Universelle <strong>of</strong> 1900, where the "<strong>Art</strong><br />
Nouveau Bing" pavilion contained entire<br />
rooms by the designers Edward Colonna<br />
(1862-1948) and Georges de Feure<br />
(1868-1928).<br />
Restraint distinguished Bing's approach,<br />
and the artists working for him avoided the<br />
more flamboyant aspects <strong>of</strong> <strong>Art</strong> Nouveau.<br />
Colonna devised curvilinear flourishes to<br />
enliven the corners <strong>of</strong> a basically conservative<br />
table, a model featured in Bing's<br />
1900 Exposition pavilion. Colonna's addition<br />
<strong>of</strong> a swirling silver collar and attenuated<br />
handle transformed an unassuming<br />
ceramic by Alexandre Bigot into a<br />
precious object worthy <strong>of</strong> Bing's showcases.<br />
On de Feure's vase, below, the<br />
arch <strong>of</strong> a swan's neck echoes the<br />
emphatic sweep <strong>of</strong> a flower stem, but the<br />
decoration is kept within strict limits. His<br />
use <strong>of</strong> negative space accords with Bing's<br />
advocacy <strong>of</strong> the principles <strong>of</strong> Japanese<br />
art. In this vase, as in many examples <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>Art</strong> Nouveau, the strength <strong>of</strong> the design<br />
overcomes the indifference <strong>of</strong> its commercial<br />
execution.<br />
Table. About 1900. Palisander wood. Jug.<br />
1899. Glazed stoneware with silver mount,<br />
h. 31/8 in. Vase. About 1900. Porcelain, h.<br />
121/2 in. Purchase, Edward C. Moore, Jr<br />
Gift. 26.228.4, 7,9<br />
5
mages <strong>of</strong> women pervade <strong>Art</strong><br />
Nouveau, but the modish young lady<br />
on de Feure's fan is far from the typical<br />
siren. Her reverie transforms a city park<br />
into a hallucinatory vision in which everything,<br />
as in a distorting mirror, seems to<br />
turn in on itself: the city buildings<br />
reflected upside-down in a pond, an<br />
impossibly poised tree, and the twisting<br />
lilies that loom almost ominously in the<br />
foreground are all locked into a sinuous<br />
linear pattern. <strong>The</strong> theme is chosen with<br />
piquant symbolism for the decoration <strong>of</strong><br />
a fan destined to relieve the atmosphere<br />
oppressing a lady <strong>of</strong> aesthetic bent.<br />
About 1900. Printed silk, celluloid sticks<br />
witli ivory I. 8 in. Purchase, Edward C.<br />
Moore, Jr Gift. 26.228.19
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An early center <strong>of</strong> <strong>Art</strong> Nouveau developed<br />
at Nancy, in the French province<br />
<strong>of</strong> Lorraine, under the leadership <strong>of</strong><br />
the glass and furniture designer Emile<br />
Galle. Beginning in the 1880s, Galle<br />
exhorted his colleagues to derive their<br />
ornament from the direct study <strong>of</strong> nature,<br />
citing the precedent <strong>of</strong> Japanese art. This<br />
naturalisticoncern is evident in details <strong>of</strong><br />
the <strong>Museum</strong>'s dressing table-sink by Louis<br />
Majorelle (1859-1926), a prominent<br />
member <strong>of</strong> Galle's circle. <strong>The</strong> bronze<br />
pulls, cast in the form <strong>of</strong> leaves and<br />
berries, are typical <strong>of</strong> the Ecole de Nancy<br />
Majorelle, however, went beyond the<br />
surface application <strong>of</strong> floral ornament to a<br />
fundamental reinterpretation <strong>of</strong> structure<br />
along organic lines, and was, as a result,<br />
considered the eccentric <strong>of</strong> the group. In<br />
this unique work, commissioned by<br />
Eugene Corbin, a noted patron <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Ecole de Nancy, Majorelle incorporated<br />
the technology <strong>of</strong> modern plumbing in a<br />
bold artistic statement, creating a structure<br />
that branches majestically outward<br />
like a l<strong>of</strong>ty tree rising from a massive base.<br />
1900-10. Honduras mahogany Macassar<br />
ebony gilt-bronze, mirror glass, with<br />
marble top, h. 86% in. Gift <strong>of</strong> <strong>The</strong> Sydney<br />
and Frances Lewis Foundation, 1979.4<br />
9
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F avrile glassware, patented in 1894,<br />
established Louis Comfort Tiffany<br />
(1848-1933) as America's leading exponent<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>Art</strong> Nouveau. <strong>The</strong> flowing contours<br />
and iridescent colors, as well as<br />
the floral imagery <strong>of</strong> these vases, make<br />
them exemplary expressions <strong>of</strong> the<br />
style, although many other products <strong>of</strong><br />
Tiffany Studios bore no reference to it.<br />
Under the aegis <strong>of</strong> Samuel Bing,<br />
Tiffany's fame became international.<br />
<strong>The</strong> two met in 1893 when Bing was<br />
engaged in a survey <strong>of</strong> American decorative<br />
and industrial art for the French<br />
government. A close relationship developed<br />
in which Bing supplied oriental art<br />
to Tiffany, and, in turn, became Tiffany's<br />
exclusive European distributor, feeding<br />
appropriate works into the mainstream<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>Art</strong> Nouveau.<br />
(Left to right) 1892/3-96. H. 27/8 in. Gift<br />
<strong>of</strong> H. O. Havemeyer, 96.17.46. Late 19thearly<br />
20th century. H. 15112 in. Anonymous<br />
Gift, 55.213.27 1898. H. 18/11/6 in.<br />
Gift <strong>of</strong> the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation,<br />
51.121.17. 1902-28. H. 41/16 in.<br />
Anonymous Gift, 55.213.12<br />
In England, the career <strong>of</strong> <strong>Art</strong>hur<br />
Lasenby Liberty, founder <strong>of</strong> Liberty &<br />
Co. in London, paralleled that <strong>of</strong> Samuel<br />
Bing. Both began as dealers in oriental<br />
imports, progressed to marketing<br />
contemporary European wares, and<br />
finally engaged in the manufacture <strong>of</strong><br />
designs conforming to their own tastes.<br />
In 1899 Liberty launched the Cymric line<br />
<strong>of</strong> silver exemplified by this spoon<br />
commemorating the coronation <strong>of</strong><br />
Edward VII in 1902. <strong>The</strong> design was<br />
commissioned from Archibald Knox<br />
(1864-1933), who has recently emerged<br />
from anonymity as the principal author<br />
<strong>of</strong> the company style. Knox supplied<br />
designs to Liberty from 1893 to 1912.<br />
initially for textiles, then for metalwork<br />
that, like the spoon, was <strong>of</strong>ten embellished<br />
with champleve enamel. Deriving<br />
an endless variety <strong>of</strong> interlaced ornament<br />
from the Celtic antiquities <strong>of</strong> his<br />
native Isle <strong>of</strong> Man, Knox formulated an<br />
unmistakably English version <strong>of</strong> <strong>Art</strong><br />
Nouveau.<br />
L. 8 in. Purchase. Andrew J. Crispo Gift.<br />
1979.69<br />
I
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Tbearhitc<strong>of</strong> H<strong>of</strong>fmann (1870-<br />
5r)ewas rin the forefront <strong>of</strong> the<br />
crtindtoward rectilinear modernism, far<br />
removed from French <strong>Art</strong> Nouveau, that<br />
appeared in Vienna at the turn <strong>of</strong> the<br />
century. This desk set, dating from 1905,<br />
the year H<strong>of</strong>fmann received the commission<br />
to build his masterpiece, the Palais<br />
Stoclet in Brussels, embodies his architectural<br />
vision. It illustrates his doctrine that<br />
aesthetic principles should be applied<br />
equally to architecture and the decorative<br />
arts. H<strong>of</strong>fmann insisted that an object, no<br />
matter its category or material, could<br />
attain the highest level through the quality<br />
<strong>of</strong> its design and workmanship.<br />
Inkstand, note-pad holder, pencil holder,<br />
candlestick, and seal. Mother-<strong>of</strong>-pearl,<br />
ebony leather, and silver, greatest height<br />
41/4 in. Purchase, Anonymous Gift,<br />
1977. 72.1-5<br />
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Josef H<strong>of</strong>fmann co-founded the Wiener<br />
Werkstatte in 1903 with the purpose<br />
<strong>of</strong> bringing together artists and craftsmen<br />
to raise the level <strong>of</strong> applied arts in Austria.<br />
In 1897 he had participated with other<br />
young artists, including Gustave Klimt,<br />
Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, and<br />
Koloman Moser, in the Vienna Sezession,<br />
which broke with the conservative<br />
Academy and began to hold independent<br />
exhibitions, in part motivated by the desire<br />
to revitalize the disdained minor arts. After<br />
a trip to England, where they visited<br />
Charles Robert Ashbee's Guild <strong>of</strong> Handi-<br />
craft, H<strong>of</strong>fmann and Moser convinced the<br />
banker Fritz Warendorfer to back a<br />
comparable workshop in Vienna. Under<br />
H<strong>of</strong>fmann's direction, the Werkstatte made<br />
and marketed a wide range <strong>of</strong> products,<br />
from jewelry to wallpaper, until 1932.<br />
<strong>The</strong> Wiener Werkstatte style followed an<br />
independent course, changing from the<br />
rigorous geometry <strong>of</strong> early works to a<br />
bizarre glamour that proved popular in the<br />
1920s. <strong>The</strong> impetus toward baroque<br />
extravagance came from Dagobert Peche,<br />
(1887-1923) who joined the organization<br />
in 1915. His personal and stylistic influ-<br />
ence was pervasive, and the work <strong>of</strong> his<br />
colleagues was immediately infused with<br />
the nervous brilliance that still radiates<br />
from the fawn improbably perched atop<br />
his jewel box (opposite). H<strong>of</strong>fmann, himself<br />
affected by Peche's decorative energy,<br />
abandoned the puritanical grids <strong>of</strong> his early<br />
work for shimmering surfaces, although<br />
this bowl (below) shows the master retaining<br />
his rational control <strong>of</strong> proportion.<br />
Jewel box: 1920. Silver-gilt, h. 151/8 in.<br />
Purchase, Anonymous Gift, 1978.8. Bowl:<br />
About 1920. Silver, h. 71/2 in. Gift <strong>of</strong><br />
Jennifer Johnson Gregg, 1976.415<br />
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<strong>Art</strong> Deco, succeeding <strong>Art</strong> Nouveau in<br />
France, flourished from the close <strong>of</strong><br />
World War I until the Depression. <strong>The</strong>se<br />
years, termed "les annees folles,"<br />
witnessed a frenzied quest for the good<br />
things in life that had been jeopardized by<br />
the war. Redoubled in the 1920s was the<br />
craze for fabulous elegance that had been<br />
touched <strong>of</strong>f by the sets and costumes <strong>of</strong><br />
Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, which first<br />
performed in Paris in 1909. Although<br />
<strong>of</strong>fshoots and imitations occurred elsewhere,<br />
<strong>Art</strong> Deco was quintessentially<br />
French, linked to the history <strong>of</strong> French<br />
decorative arts. Looking to the eighteenth<br />
century as the golden age, the 1920s style<br />
answered the postwar desire for luxury<br />
goods fashioned with consummate<br />
craftsmanship.<br />
French designers and craftsmen<br />
updated an established repertory with<br />
pared-down geometric shapes and the<br />
judicious application <strong>of</strong> stylized ornament.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y revived forgotten techniques and<br />
employed precious materials, yet their<br />
idiom was distinctly contemporary. This<br />
mirror and fan, for example, fulfill the qualifications<br />
<strong>of</strong> the traditional objet de luxe,<br />
but convey a strikingly modern chic.<br />
<strong>The</strong> great 1925 Paris Exposition sponsored<br />
by the French government marked<br />
the apogee <strong>of</strong> <strong>Art</strong> Deco. Machinery and<br />
copies <strong>of</strong> earlier works were specifically<br />
excluded from this mammoth festival that<br />
focused world attention on current French<br />
luxury production. An abbreviation <strong>of</strong> its<br />
<strong>of</strong>ficial title, "I'Exposition Internationale<br />
des <strong>Art</strong>s Decoratifs et Industriels<br />
Modernes," was coined in the 1960s,<br />
when <strong>Art</strong> Deco was rediscovered by<br />
collectors. <strong>The</strong> success <strong>of</strong> the Exposition<br />
was overwhelming. Few were aware <strong>of</strong> the<br />
pioneering work <strong>of</strong> the Bauhaus between<br />
1919 and 1933, which was to define the<br />
perimeters <strong>of</strong> modernism for several<br />
decades. To the public <strong>of</strong> the 1920s,<br />
modern meant French or French-inspired.<br />
Fan: 1925. By Georges Bastard (1881-<br />
1939). Mother-<strong>of</strong>-pearl, I. 8%/ in. Mirror:<br />
1921. By Raymond Templier (1891-1968).<br />
Silver with niello, gold, and carnelian, h.<br />
41/2 in. Purchase, Edward C. Moore, Jr<br />
Gift, 25.208, 23.1 72.ab
ormal elegance permeated <strong>Art</strong> Deco,<br />
down to the smallest item. <strong>The</strong> spontaneous<br />
convolutions <strong>of</strong> <strong>Art</strong> Nouveau were<br />
abandoned in favor <strong>of</strong> tightly organized<br />
patterns, such as the flower, volute, and<br />
raindrop configurations on these vases,<br />
confined within simple, <strong>of</strong>ten spherical or<br />
ovoid shapes. Geometry ruled throughout,<br />
but arcs and ovals yielded over a decade<br />
to angles. <strong>The</strong> influence <strong>of</strong> recent trends<br />
in painting was reflected in the gradual<br />
replacement <strong>of</strong> stylized flowers with cubist<br />
motifs. Small, unique objects, like these<br />
vases, executed in a wide variety <strong>of</strong> techniques,<br />
played an important role in the<br />
larger context <strong>of</strong> interior design. <strong>The</strong>y<br />
were <strong>of</strong>ten used, with theatrical flair, as<br />
the focal points for entire ensembles<br />
by artistes decorateurs, the master<br />
designers and interior decorators who<br />
dominated <strong>Art</strong> Deco.<br />
(Left to right) Vase: About 1923. By Jean<br />
Dunand (1877-1942). Brass plated with<br />
silver, h. 10/4 in. Vase: 1925-30. By Rene<br />
Buthaud (b. 1886). Glazed stoneware, h.<br />
131/2 in. Vase: 1925. By Emile Lenoble<br />
(1875-1939). Glazed stoneware, h. 121/2<br />
in. Jar: About 1929. By Henry Simmen<br />
(18 79-1963); cover by Mme O'Kin<br />
Simmen. Glazed stoneware, wood, and<br />
ivory h. 6 in. Purchase, Edward C. Moore,<br />
Jr. Gift, 23.206,69.289.1, 25.210,29.127.2ab<br />
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Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann (1879-<br />
1933) was generally acknowledged<br />
as the leader <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Art</strong> Deco style. <strong>The</strong><br />
artiste decorateur par excellence, he<br />
showed furniture in the salons <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Societe des <strong>Art</strong>istes Decorateurs from<br />
1913 and undertook interior design with<br />
his own firm <strong>of</strong> Ruhlmann et Laurent<br />
after the war. His pavilion, tellingly titled<br />
"I'Htel d'un Riche Collectionneur," was<br />
the most popular exhibit at the 1925<br />
Exposition. Ruhlmann used ebenisterie.<br />
the technique <strong>of</strong> veneered furniture<br />
perfected in eighteenth-century France,<br />
to execute designs distilled from earlier<br />
furniture forms. <strong>The</strong> <strong>Metropolitan</strong>'s desk<br />
and file cabinet were commissioned<br />
by David David-Weill, president <strong>of</strong> the<br />
National <strong>Museum</strong>s <strong>of</strong> France, for use<br />
in his own home, where they.were<br />
surrounded by the eighteenth-century<br />
art <strong>of</strong> which David-Weill was a<br />
renowned collector.<br />
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Desk: About 1918-19. Amboyna, ivory.<br />
and sharkskin, I. 4 7/2 in. Purchase.<br />
Edgar Kaufmann. Jr. Gift, 1973.154.1.<br />
File cabinet: About 1918-19. Amboyna<br />
and ivory. h. 271/2 in. Purchase, Bequest<br />
<strong>of</strong> Collis P Huntington. by exchange,<br />
1973.154.3. Chair: 1918-28. Amboyna,<br />
silvered bronze, and leather, h. 29% in.<br />
Purchase, Bequest <strong>of</strong> Mr. and Mrs.<br />
Graham F Blandy. Bequest <strong>of</strong> Jeanne<br />
King de Rham, in memory <strong>of</strong> her father,<br />
David King, and Gift <strong>of</strong> Vera Bloom, in<br />
memory <strong>of</strong> her father, Congressman Sol<br />
Bloom, by exchange, 1973.154.2
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lawless quality was maintained in<br />
Ruhlmann's workshops, where the<br />
highest paid artisans in Paris were<br />
employed under his close supervision. <strong>The</strong><br />
extravagant prices he asked were justified<br />
by the elegance <strong>of</strong> his concepts and their<br />
superb execution. Details <strong>of</strong> the work<br />
reveal the lengths to which Ruhlmann was<br />
willing to go to realize his exquisite<br />
designs. To further enhance the effect <strong>of</strong><br />
luxury he contrasted ivory ornament<br />
against exotic wood veneers in seemingly<br />
simple designs that were extraordinarily<br />
difficult to execute, for example,the hairline<br />
ivory fillets on the drawers <strong>of</strong> the file<br />
cabinet and defining each facet <strong>of</strong> the<br />
torpedo-shaped leg <strong>of</strong> the desk(pp.20-21).<br />
23
cquired in 1923, Ruhlmann's fallfront<br />
desk (below) was the <strong>Metropolitan</strong>'s<br />
first important purchase <strong>of</strong><br />
twentieth-century decorative art. Ruhlmann<br />
was called "the Riesener <strong>of</strong> the<br />
twentieth century" and the claim bears<br />
up in comparing his works with those <strong>of</strong><br />
the favorite cabinetmaker <strong>of</strong> Marie<br />
Antoinette in the <strong>Museum</strong>'s collection.<br />
Convinced <strong>of</strong> Ruhlmann's merit, the<br />
<strong>Metropolitan</strong> wanted to acquire a showpiece<br />
adorned with a marquetry basket<br />
<strong>of</strong> flowers featured in the 1925 Exposition.<br />
That cabinet, however, was sold to<br />
the French State, and only after considerable<br />
persuasion did the artist agree to<br />
repeat the model (opposite page) for the<br />
<strong>Museum</strong>.<br />
Desk: Macassar ebony, ivory, and<br />
leather, h. 441/4 in. Chair: Macassar<br />
ebony and silvered bronze, h. 3312 in.<br />
Cabinet: Macassar ebony, rosewood,<br />
and ivory, h. 50/4 in. Purchase, Edward<br />
C. Moore, Jr. Gift, 23.174,25. 231.3,1<br />
24
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<strong>Art</strong> Deco style. <strong>The</strong> oriental method <strong>of</strong><br />
applying layer on layer <strong>of</strong> 'resins, which he<br />
had first used to decorate hammered<br />
metal vases, became his all-consuming<br />
craft. Dunand eventually had to employ up<br />
to one hundred Indo-Chinese assistants in<br />
his Paris workshop to help him complete<br />
orders for lacquer panels, screens, and<br />
furniture that flowed in from architects,<br />
artistes decorateurs, and private clients.<br />
This pair <strong>of</strong> screens, titled Battle <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Angels: Crescendo and Pianissimo, was<br />
commissioned for the music room <strong>of</strong> Mr.<br />
and Mrs. Solomon R. Guggenheim's Long
Island home. Golden airborne figures<br />
designed by Seraphin Soudbinine (1870-<br />
1944), a favorite student <strong>of</strong> Rodin, charge<br />
through clouds interpreted by Dunand in<br />
shattered eggshell pressed into a damp<br />
layer <strong>of</strong> lacquer. Dunand was so lavish in<br />
his use <strong>of</strong> gold for angels that he was<br />
obliged to write requesting an additional<br />
500 dollars to cover his expenditure. <strong>The</strong><br />
heroic figural aspect <strong>of</strong> <strong>Art</strong> Deco never<br />
received great emphasis in France, but it<br />
was quickly adopted for architectural<br />
ornament in the United States, notably at<br />
Rockefeller Center.<br />
1925-26. Lacquered wood, h. 98 in. Gift<br />
<strong>of</strong> Mrs. Solonion R. Guggenheim,<br />
50.1023.4
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aurice Marinot (1882-1960) was<br />
the first artist <strong>of</strong> the modern<br />
period to master the arduous skill <strong>of</strong><br />
glassblowing. Originally a Fauvist<br />
painter, who participated in the 1913<br />
Armory Show, he became fascinated<br />
with the molten medium in 1911 on a<br />
visit to a glass factory owned by friends<br />
at Bar-sur-Seine. With these facilities put<br />
at his disposal he first worked on the<br />
decoration <strong>of</strong> finished pieces while<br />
apprenticing himself to the glassblowers,<br />
or gaffers. It was not until 1922<br />
that he felt he could exhibit glass he had<br />
blown himself. His interpretations <strong>of</strong> the<br />
life <strong>of</strong> the material, recording in the<br />
finished piece its transmutation from<br />
liquid to solid, earned him great esteem.<br />
Within simple shapes that relate to <strong>Art</strong><br />
Deco, he captured galaxies <strong>of</strong> change-<br />
able light and substance, surfaces<br />
exploding one within the other. Upon<br />
the closing <strong>of</strong> the Bar-sur-Seine factory<br />
in 1937, Marinot's work in glass<br />
ceased. It would be another 25 years,<br />
and then in the United States, before<br />
glassmaking would become available to<br />
the independent artist.<br />
Jar and bottle: 1925-29. H. 9 in., 43/4 in.<br />
Rogers Fund, 1970.198.2,3ab<br />
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he couturier Jacques Doucet was an<br />
extraordinary patron <strong>of</strong> the arts. In<br />
1912 he sold his collection <strong>of</strong> French<br />
eighteenth-century art at an auction that<br />
broke all records, and used the pr<strong>of</strong>its to<br />
acquire avant-garde works. He later<br />
constructed a studio in the Paris suburb<br />
<strong>of</strong> Neuilly specifically to house his paintings<br />
by Picasso (from whom he<br />
purchased the Demoiselles d'Avignon),<br />
Douanier Rousseau, Braque, Picabia,<br />
and Matisse, as well as his African art.<br />
This stool and table formed part <strong>of</strong> the<br />
furnishings <strong>of</strong> the studio, completed only<br />
months before Doucet's death in 1929.<br />
While the shape <strong>of</strong> the stool by Pierre<br />
Legrain (1889-1929) was certainly<br />
inspired by an African chieftain's throne,<br />
its crisp carving is French stylization. <strong>The</strong><br />
table is by an unsung master <strong>of</strong> <strong>Art</strong> Deco,<br />
Clement Rousseau (b. 1872), whose<br />
signature was discovered concealed in<br />
the structure by a <strong>Museum</strong> conservator A<br />
religious medal secreted under the<br />
tabletop was also uncovered and restored<br />
in place. For all their obvious preciousness,<br />
the table's materials are practical,<br />
since sharkskin is impervious to handprints<br />
and the rings left by wet drinking<br />
glasses. <strong>The</strong> design is also functional, in<br />
that the hairpin legs, which also serve as<br />
handles, make this luxury piece both<br />
portable and sturdy<br />
Stool. 1922-29. Rosewood, h. 12 in.<br />
Table. 1924. Ebony sharkskin, and ivory,<br />
h. 291/2 in. Fletcher Fund, 1972. 283.1,2<br />
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his <strong>Art</strong> D6co mural <strong>of</strong> 1934 was one<br />
<strong>of</strong> four covering the corners <strong>of</strong> the<br />
largest public room ever constructed on a<br />
ship, the Grand Salon <strong>of</strong> the liner<br />
Normandie. Jean Dupas (1882-1964), an<br />
illustrator and fashionable muralist, chose<br />
the history <strong>of</strong> navigation as his nominal<br />
subject, but the pr<strong>of</strong>usion <strong>of</strong> quasi-historical<br />
vessels and miscellaneous mythical<br />
creatures was clearly not meant to tell a<br />
story but to create an overwhelming<br />
effect. Passengers on the Normandie<br />
paid not so much for transportation as for<br />
atmosphere, and the first-class lounge<br />
was a temple <strong>of</strong> glamour<br />
<strong>The</strong> mirrorlike brilliance <strong>of</strong> the mural<br />
was achieved by an unusual technique <strong>of</strong><br />
glass decoration. Segments <strong>of</strong> the scene<br />
were painted on the reverse <strong>of</strong> panels <strong>of</strong><br />
plate glass. Gold and silver leaf were then<br />
laid on and a canvas backing affixed.<br />
Only lighting fixtures interrupted the vast<br />
expanse <strong>of</strong> the juxtaposed glass panels<br />
(the top rank <strong>of</strong> which could not be<br />
accommodated in the <strong>Museum</strong> gallery<br />
where the mural has been installed since<br />
1978). Each panel measures approximately<br />
four by two and one-half feet and<br />
weighs between fifty-five and fifty-seven<br />
pounds.<br />
Gift <strong>of</strong> Dr and Mrs. Irwin R. Berman,<br />
1976.414.3
<strong>The</strong> Normandie was the last great expression<br />
<strong>of</strong> French <strong>Art</strong> Deco. Government<br />
subsidies made it possible for the<br />
Compagnie Generale Transatlantique to<br />
begin in 1932 the building <strong>of</strong> a ship that<br />
was to be the largest, fastest, and most<br />
beautiful afloat. Such extravagance in the<br />
middle <strong>of</strong> the Depression was justified by<br />
the purpose the Normandie was intended<br />
to serve. Just as the 1925 Paris Exposition<br />
had wooed the world with French<br />
luxury products, so the Normandie was to<br />
lure Americans to the shores <strong>of</strong> France,<br />
by bringing to their doorstep the food,<br />
wine, furnishings, and decor for which<br />
France was famed.<br />
New York, which welcomed the<br />
Normandie with wild enthusiasm after her<br />
maiden crossing in 1935, was also to be<br />
the scene <strong>of</strong> her demise. Seized by the<br />
United States in World War II, the liner<br />
was being stripped for use as a troop<br />
carrier when sparks from an acetelyne<br />
torch started a blaze in the Grand Salon.<br />
Firefighting efforts caused her to capsize<br />
on February 10, 1942, at Manhattan's<br />
Pier 88, where she remained more than a<br />
year before she was righted and towed<br />
away for scrap. Fortunately, the murals<br />
had been removed before the fire.<br />
(Above) Rendering <strong>of</strong> the Grand Salon <strong>of</strong><br />
the Normandie. (Below) <strong>The</strong> Normandie<br />
in New York Harbor, about 1935-39<br />
34
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" continue to believe that the circle<br />
which explains the world in its entirety<br />
is the ideal figure, and the curve, which<br />
relates to it, is more noble than the<br />
straight line," wrote Jean Puiforcat<br />
(1897-1945) in a letter <strong>of</strong> 1933. Considered<br />
the last <strong>of</strong> the great French silversmiths,<br />
Puiforcat used his medium to<br />
search for a Platonic ideal <strong>of</strong> form<br />
through mathematical harmony He<br />
learned the craft from his father and<br />
began showing his own works in 1922.<br />
<strong>The</strong>y were fine examples <strong>of</strong> <strong>Art</strong> Deco<br />
objects, <strong>of</strong>ten incorporating semiprecious<br />
stones, but he came to look back on them<br />
as merely chic. In the 1930s he turned to<br />
austere exercises in pure volume and<br />
shape in which the only contrasts are, for<br />
instance, the spheres <strong>of</strong> clear glass that<br />
punctuate the base <strong>of</strong> the beaker (above)<br />
or the gilded areas on the covered bowl<br />
(opposite page). Although his work was<br />
sometimes criticized as mechanical, he<br />
rejected the machine as soulless, and<br />
realized seamless geometric forms<br />
through his consummate exploitation <strong>of</strong><br />
the silversmith's skills. His purism and<br />
craftsmanship made him acceptable both<br />
to Le Corbusier, the firebrand spokesman<br />
<strong>of</strong> the International Style in France, and to<br />
the conservative upholders <strong>of</strong> French<br />
tradition.<br />
Beakers: 1934. Silver and glass, h. 41/2 in.<br />
Silver h. 4 in. Purchase, Edward C.<br />
Moore, Jr Gift, 34.105.2,3. Covered bowl:<br />
1930-40. Silver and silver-gilt, h. 97/8 in.<br />
Purchase, Edgar Kaufmann, Jr Gift,<br />
1972.5<br />
37
he impact <strong>of</strong> the 1925 Paris Exposition<br />
was strongly felt in America.<br />
French imports were followed by imitations<br />
and adaptations, but the Depression<br />
stanched any development along the lines<br />
<strong>of</strong> luxury craftsmanship. Designers <strong>of</strong> the<br />
1930s, following the Bauhaus example,<br />
turned in the direction <strong>of</strong> industry and<br />
were welcomed for the marketing advantage<br />
their treatment <strong>of</strong> a product might<br />
gain.<br />
An entirely new style resulted that is<br />
more properly entitled Moderne, sleekly<br />
formulated to evoke French chic, but as<br />
American as <strong>Art</strong> Deco was French.<br />
Moderne was the look shared by<br />
Hollywood sets and electric toasters, by<br />
Raymond Loewy's locomotives and<br />
Donald Deskey's furniture for the Radio<br />
City Music Hall. Streamlined forms with<br />
glossy surfaces were assembled out <strong>of</strong><br />
polished metal, glass, and Bakelite on<br />
factory assembly lines. <strong>The</strong> result<br />
depended on the skill <strong>of</strong> a new artistic<br />
pr<strong>of</strong>ession, that <strong>of</strong> the industrial designer<br />
Participating in the enthusiasm for what<br />
was sometimes called "beautility," the<br />
Chase Brass & Copper Co. <strong>of</strong> Waterbury,<br />
Connecticut, made ornamental objects,<br />
like the candlesticks and bud vase (opposite<br />
page), from standard elements <strong>of</strong><br />
pipe and sheet metal that comprised the<br />
mainstay <strong>of</strong> its business. This decorative<br />
dalliance, begun in 1931, terminated with<br />
war production. Gilbert Rohde, working<br />
for the Herman Miller Furniture Co. in<br />
Zeeland, Michigan, also from 1931, introduced<br />
the Moderne line with designs<br />
such as this electric clock. <strong>The</strong> consequences<br />
were lasting. Rohde's innovative<br />
furniture was so well received at the<br />
1933-34 Chicago Century <strong>of</strong> Progress<br />
fair that Miller phased out traditional<br />
models and continues to this day as a<br />
leading manufacturer <strong>of</strong> progressive<br />
designs.<br />
Bud vase. 1936. Chrome, h. 83/4 in. Gift<br />
<strong>of</strong> Penelope Hunter-Stiebel, 1979.345.<br />
Candlesticks: 1931-41. Designed by<br />
Reimann. Copper, h. 6 in. Clock. About<br />
1935. Brazilian rosewood and chrome, w.<br />
163/4 in. Purchase, <strong>The</strong> Chace Foundation,<br />
Inc. and Edgar Kaufmann, Jr Gifts,<br />
1976. 382.4,5,3
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T he Moderne style found its most<br />
complete expression in vehicles. <strong>The</strong><br />
1930s were the years <strong>of</strong> the classic automobile,<br />
the luxury train, the first commercial<br />
passenger airplane. An iconography<br />
grew up around speed. Streamlining<br />
reduces air resistance in a meaningful way<br />
only at extremely high speeds, but it<br />
became a device symbolic <strong>of</strong> the modern<br />
age. With the additional emphasis <strong>of</strong> wraparound<br />
banding it was applied to everything<br />
from cameras to building fagades.<br />
This aesthetic is reflected in aspects <strong>of</strong><br />
the interior decor <strong>of</strong> Rockefeller Center,<br />
the most ambitious architectural accomplishment<br />
<strong>of</strong> the decade. Immediately after<br />
the Wall Street crash, John D. Rockefeller,<br />
Jr, undertook this New York real-estate<br />
venture as a personal investment in the<br />
future. Between 1930 and 1939 a city<br />
within a city was erected on a plot<br />
bounded by 48th and 51st streets and<br />
Fifth and Sixth avenues. In this complex,<br />
the building facing Saint Patrick's Cathedral<br />
was designated the "International<br />
Building," symbolizing Rockefeller's<br />
interest in a world community Officially<br />
opened on May 1, 1935, it houses consulates,<br />
international firms, and the U.S.<br />
Passport Agency<br />
In 1978, when Rockefeller Center Inc.<br />
began the installation <strong>of</strong> 28 high-speed<br />
automatic elevators to serve the 38-story<br />
tower <strong>of</strong> the International Building, one <strong>of</strong><br />
the original cabs was carefully dismantled<br />
for the <strong>Metropolitan</strong> by the Westinghouse<br />
Elevator Company<br />
<strong>The</strong> elevators benefited from the same<br />
attention Rockefeller's team <strong>of</strong> architects<br />
lavished on all public areas <strong>of</strong> the<br />
complex. <strong>The</strong> design <strong>of</strong> the cab visually<br />
alluded to the mechanical advances that<br />
allowed the elevator to travel at record<br />
speed. By a process patented as Metylwood,<br />
thin sheets <strong>of</strong> Spanish elm were<br />
applied directly to the steel sections that<br />
bolted together to form the cab. <strong>The</strong><br />
veneer, laid on so that the grain ran horizontally,<br />
was divided into registers by<br />
strips <strong>of</strong> metal (a copper, zinc, and nickel<br />
alloy known as German silver), polished to<br />
a satin finish. <strong>The</strong> back corners <strong>of</strong> the cab<br />
were rounded <strong>of</strong>f to make a continuous<br />
wrap. An innovative ventilation system was<br />
integrated into the design. In the same<br />
spirit as the wall banding, concentric<br />
circles <strong>of</strong> metal delineated a ceiling fan<br />
that has come to be standard. Ventilation<br />
grilles at floor and ceiling were designed<br />
as borders for the wraparound walls. <strong>The</strong><br />
elevator, exhibited in the <strong>Museum</strong>, stands<br />
as the visual symbol <strong>of</strong> technological<br />
advance, epitomizing the Moderne ideal.<br />
(Opposite page) Elevator in the International<br />
Building lobby 1978. (Above)<br />
Interior <strong>of</strong> elevator by Westinghouse<br />
Electric and Manufacturing Company; cab<br />
by W.S. Tyler Co. H. 8 ft. 1 in. Gift <strong>of</strong> Westinghouse<br />
Electric Corporation and Rockefeller<br />
Center, Inc., 1979. 110 a-j. (Above<br />
right) Entrance to the International<br />
Building with the figure <strong>of</strong> Atlas by Lee<br />
Lawrie, about 1937; photograph courtesy<br />
<strong>of</strong> Rockefeller Center Inc.<br />
41
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enmark entered the world market in<br />
the 1950s with furniture developed<br />
in conscious reaction to the clinical<br />
quality <strong>of</strong> Bauhaus design. During the<br />
German occupation, architects and<br />
designers for want <strong>of</strong> larger projects<br />
directed their energy toward work with<br />
furniture craftsmen. Giving attention to<br />
comfort and practicality, they developed<br />
clean forms that emphasized the<br />
sensuous appeal <strong>of</strong> the natural materials<br />
used. Later, as a result <strong>of</strong> the international<br />
success <strong>of</strong> the style known as Danish<br />
Modern, models that had originated in<br />
small workshops were adapted to larger-<br />
scale production.<br />
Hans Wegner (b. 1914) was trained as<br />
a cabinetmaker and went on to design a<br />
series <strong>of</strong> chairs that have become<br />
classics as much for their comfort as for<br />
their appearance. His method <strong>of</strong> using<br />
refinements <strong>of</strong> joinery as ornament can<br />
be seen in the <strong>Museum</strong>'s 1952 chair<br />
(opposite page), where the contrasting<br />
bars at the center <strong>of</strong> the back are actually<br />
mahogany joints that secure two pieces<br />
<strong>of</strong> walnut into a continuous crest rail.<br />
Finn Juhl (b. 1912) and Arne Jacobsen<br />
(1902-71) are both architects who have<br />
applied themselves to all aspects <strong>of</strong><br />
design. <strong>The</strong> moulded shells <strong>of</strong> Jacobsen's<br />
1958 Egg chair and Juhl's 1948 settee<br />
seem to float on supports constructed to<br />
give the illusion <strong>of</strong> defying gravity <strong>The</strong>se<br />
hovering shapes suggest an imagery<br />
appropriate to the inaugural years <strong>of</strong> the<br />
space age.<br />
Hans Wegner chair: Made by Johannes<br />
Hansen. Walnut, mahogany and cane, h.<br />
293/4 in. Arne Jacobsen chair: Made by<br />
Fritz Hansen. Ox hide and aluminum, h.<br />
38 12 in. Finn Juhl settee: Made by Niels<br />
Vodder Teak and leather, I. 55%/ in.<br />
Purchase, Edward C. Moore, Jr Gift,<br />
61.7.45,46,47<br />
43
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[n 1951 the industrial art <strong>of</strong> Finland<br />
ll<br />
l -f gained sudden international acclaim<br />
| when it<br />
t t swept the prizes <strong>of</strong> the Milan<br />
i ^ l Triennale. the prestigious exposition <strong>of</strong><br />
ii modern design. <strong>The</strong> outstanding<br />
I4 ib<br />
, i p J designers were Tapio Wirkkala (b. 1915)<br />
it i! /and Timo Sarpaneva (b. 1926) who<br />
$ I I<br />
I / | t1 i{<br />
became best known for ornamental<br />
; ! i ~ / ffl1 glassware. an industry that in Finland<br />
i<br />
; i p | f; U |j dates back to the seventeenth century.<br />
U f! ff | . Unlike the unique objects <strong>of</strong> Marinot<br />
and today's Studio Craft artists.<br />
conceived and executed by the artists<br />
themselves. Wirkkala's and Sarpaneva's<br />
works are designs turned over to skilled<br />
workmen for multiple production. <strong>The</strong><br />
distance between the graphic expres-<br />
, k h1@ " sion <strong>of</strong> the artist's concept and the<br />
meticulous repetition <strong>of</strong> the final<br />
!<br />
B I3|product 1i (<br />
imbues these works with a cool<br />
i<br />
i 1 i~ perfection.<br />
r: iiI llll Wirkkala vase (right): 1950. Designed<br />
1 a 4 j gi ^1 ll for Karhula-littala. H. 8'3/16 in.<br />
i i 111 Sarpaneva vase: 1953. Designed for<br />
Karhula-littala. H. 10 /2 in. Gift <strong>of</strong> Aarne<br />
imonen. Minister <strong>of</strong> Commerce and<br />
Industry <strong>of</strong> Finland. 56.31.1.3<br />
9 I
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Certain trends in American culture<br />
since the 1940s have led to the rise<br />
<strong>of</strong> today's Studio Craft Movement. Its<br />
exponents have effectively eliminated the<br />
division <strong>of</strong> labor between designer and<br />
craftsman and challenged the prejudicial<br />
distinction between the fine and decorative<br />
arts. <strong>The</strong>ir activities have been<br />
centered at institutions <strong>of</strong> higher learning,<br />
which have legitimized the choice to<br />
pursue craft disciplines rather than<br />
painting or sculpture and provided a<br />
place for the new breed <strong>of</strong> artistcraftsmen<br />
to study, work, and teach.<br />
Instead <strong>of</strong> the workshop or factory, the<br />
new milieu is the studio, where expressions<br />
<strong>of</strong> a personal vision, in terms <strong>of</strong><br />
both functional and nonfunctional<br />
objects, can be realized in the traditional<br />
materials <strong>of</strong> ceramics, wood, glass, metal,<br />
and fiber.<br />
<strong>The</strong> upheavals <strong>of</strong> World War II helped<br />
create a matrix <strong>of</strong> American college<br />
campuses from which the movement<br />
grew to nationwide proportions from the<br />
isolated accomplishments <strong>of</strong> artists using<br />
craft techniques. Part <strong>of</strong> the impetus<br />
came from members <strong>of</strong> the Bauhaus who<br />
had been forced to flee Europe in the<br />
dark days <strong>of</strong> the 1930s. <strong>The</strong>y brought to<br />
American academia rigorously moral and<br />
intellectual theories <strong>of</strong> design. <strong>The</strong><br />
Bauhaus concept <strong>of</strong> the primacy <strong>of</strong> architecture,<br />
unifying all design, had the effect<br />
<strong>of</strong> raising the status <strong>of</strong> media relegated to<br />
the so-called minor arts. <strong>The</strong> shoddiness<br />
<strong>of</strong> the industrial environment soon<br />
became an important issue to a discontented<br />
postwar generation. <strong>The</strong>ir search<br />
for aesthetic enrichment led to an exploration<br />
<strong>of</strong> every branch <strong>of</strong> the arts,<br />
including preindustrial traditions, and<br />
eventually to the Studio Craft Movement's<br />
rejection <strong>of</strong> the more rigid, intellectualized<br />
aspects <strong>of</strong> the Bauhaus approach.<br />
James Prestini (b. 1908) was one <strong>of</strong> the<br />
early American practitioners and teachers<br />
<strong>of</strong> Bauhaus principles, to which he gave<br />
individual direction through his own fascination<br />
with the qualities <strong>of</strong> wood. In 1939<br />
he became woodworking instructor at the<br />
Chicago Institute <strong>of</strong> Design, founded two<br />
years earlier by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy as<br />
the "New Bauhaus." Prestini continued<br />
teaching the fundaments <strong>of</strong> pure form<br />
through four decades at Chicago and the<br />
University <strong>of</strong> Californi at Berkeley <strong>The</strong>se<br />
objects (left) are from a series <strong>of</strong> variants,<br />
ranging from flat trays to hollowed-out<br />
bowls, that evolved from Bauhaus exer-<br />
cises in the manipulation <strong>of</strong> materials.<br />
Employing lathe-turning, a basic carpentry<br />
technique, Prestini has created intellectual<br />
essays in which minimal form is used to<br />
focus the eye on the beauty <strong>of</strong> grain and<br />
color inherent in the wood.<br />
An even more direct link between the<br />
Bauhaus and the Studio Craft Movement<br />
is provided by Anni Albers (b. 1899), who,<br />
through her work, writing, and teaching,<br />
has been largely responsible for the<br />
acceptance <strong>of</strong> weaving as a contemporary<br />
art form. Weaving was the specialization<br />
she chose during her student years at the<br />
Bauhaus. When the institute was closed<br />
by the Nazis in 1933, she and her<br />
husband, the painter Josef Albers, settled<br />
in North Carolina to teach at Black Mountain<br />
College. This wall hanging, a detail <strong>of</strong><br />
which is shown below, was designed in<br />
Germany in the 1920s and rewoven for<br />
exhibition in the United States thirty years<br />
later It transfers to the tactile medium <strong>of</strong><br />
fiber the purist aesthetic <strong>of</strong> modern<br />
abstract painting.<br />
(Left, from top) 1940-50. Birch, curly<br />
birch, Mexican mahogany, diam. 159/16,<br />
8%, 1314 in. Gift <strong>of</strong> James Prestini, 69.164.<br />
9, 14, 7. (Below) Purchase, Edward C.<br />
Moore, Jr, and Everfast Fabrics, Inc. Gifts,<br />
69.134<br />
47
1<br />
j<br />
1.<br />
hough he refused to teach,<br />
Wharton Esherick (1887-1970) is<br />
recognized as a pioneer <strong>of</strong> the Studio<br />
Craft Movement, and his studio, now a<br />
museum, is a point <strong>of</strong> pilgrimage. Originally<br />
a painter, he became completely<br />
immersed in woodworking early in his<br />
career. In 1913 he established his<br />
retreat on a hillside near Paoli, a<br />
suburb <strong>of</strong> Philadelphia, and soon<br />
began to carve every aspect <strong>of</strong> his<br />
surroundings, from staircase to serving<br />
spoons, while producing furniture for<br />
friends who became his clients. His<br />
1962 cherrywood music stand demonstrates<br />
the freedom <strong>of</strong> Esherick's work,<br />
taking as its point <strong>of</strong> departure the<br />
conformation <strong>of</strong> the wood itself.<br />
H 43 in. Gift <strong>of</strong> Dr. Irwin R. Berman. in<br />
memory <strong>of</strong> his father. Allan Lake<br />
Berman. 1979.320<br />
t
lass has become a major medium <strong>of</strong><br />
the Studio Craft Movement since<br />
1962, when a seminar held at the Toledo<br />
<strong>Museum</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Art</strong> opened up the possibilities<br />
<strong>of</strong> glassblowing to the studio artist,<br />
ending its dependence on industry. <strong>The</strong><br />
seminar was led by the ceramic artist and<br />
educator Harvey Littleton (b. 1922), who<br />
has been the driving force in the development<br />
<strong>of</strong> what is virtually a new pr<strong>of</strong>ession,<br />
in which artists choose glass as their<br />
exclusive medium and master the<br />
gruelling skills <strong>of</strong> the gaffer Now retired<br />
from his post at the University <strong>of</strong><br />
Wisconsin. Littleton continues to produce<br />
powerful abstract works, such as his<br />
1976 Amber Crested Form, a giant folded<br />
tube <strong>of</strong> blown glass crowned with a<br />
second heavy gather A second generation<br />
<strong>of</strong> glass artists is represented by Tom<br />
Patti (b. 1943) whose novel method, used<br />
in Banded Flair <strong>of</strong> 1977, involves stacked<br />
plate glass, heated to the point that it can<br />
be blown into vessels in which vestiges <strong>of</strong><br />
the initial structure become decoration.<br />
,1<br />
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y<br />
./ /<br />
7,.j<br />
j//<br />
/<br />
.3F.<br />
I<br />
:<br />
Amber Crested Form. H. 16/2 in. Gift <strong>of</strong><br />
William D. and Rose D. Barker, 1978.438.<br />
Banded Flair. H. 4 3/ in. Gift <strong>of</strong> Douglas<br />
Heller and Josh Rosenblatt. 1978.25<br />
:
--,<br />
N o movement has had more than a<br />
handful <strong>of</strong> outstanding artists who<br />
give character to a style and direction to<br />
the production <strong>of</strong> others. Wendell Castle<br />
(b. 1932) has assumed this role since his<br />
graduation with a Master <strong>of</strong> Fine <strong>Art</strong>s<br />
degree in sculpture from the University <strong>of</strong><br />
Kansas in 1961. He has experimented<br />
with furniture as a form <strong>of</strong> sculpture, freed<br />
from structural convention. <strong>The</strong> laminated<br />
cherrywood blocks <strong>of</strong> his 1973 two-seater<br />
are built up to a solid structure and then<br />
carved awav anrl polished to an effect <strong>of</strong><br />
visual ;inrd-l tactile flow. Finlike pedestals<br />
.uu;prt angled bucket seats that accom<br />
;, i .int twCo neople in conversational<br />
proximity, an arrangement that .led John<br />
Russell to write in <strong>The</strong> New York Times.<br />
'Togetherness takes on a new dimension<br />
as we contemplate it Not since the 'indiscretion<br />
s<strong>of</strong>a' was perfected in the France<br />
<strong>of</strong> Napoleon III has there been a piece <strong>of</strong><br />
furniture that eggs us on so subtly to a<br />
joint and vertiginous well-being."<br />
W 6012 in. Gift <strong>of</strong> Dr and Mrs. Irwin R.<br />
Berman. 1977.225
4<br />
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51
Ascientist. Dominick Labino (b.<br />
1910). supplied formulas that would<br />
allow glass to melt at lower temperatures<br />
in small furnaces to the 1962 Toledo<br />
seminar that inaugurated studio glass.<br />
Labino was so drawn to the aesthetic<br />
potential <strong>of</strong> the material that in 1965 he<br />
gave up his position as a research executive<br />
in the glass industry to become a fulltime<br />
artist. Applying his knowledge <strong>of</strong><br />
chemistry. he creates magical effects.<br />
such as the color changes <strong>of</strong> the dichroic<br />
veils suspended in the 1977 Emergence<br />
in Polychrome (right)<br />
One <strong>of</strong> the most influential glass artists<br />
working today is Dale Chihuly (b. 1941).<br />
chairman <strong>of</strong> the glass department at the<br />
Rhode Island School <strong>of</strong> Design. On these<br />
three blown cylinders (below) Chihuly has<br />
fused patterns. inspired by Navajo<br />
blankets. by rolling the cylinders while<br />
they were still hot over colored glass rods.<br />
<strong>The</strong> intimate connection <strong>of</strong> these artists<br />
with their work. from conception through<br />
execution. is typical <strong>of</strong> and fundamental<br />
to the Studio Craft Movement. Broadly<br />
based across the United States. the<br />
movement has come <strong>of</strong> age. and the<br />
outlines <strong>of</strong> a style can be drawn to<br />
encompass the assertive individuality <strong>of</strong><br />
its practitioners. Studio Craft artists<br />
submit themselves to age-old disciplines<br />
in which mechanized tools can afford<br />
only marginal assistance. <strong>The</strong> struggle to<br />
give physical realization to an idea<br />
through the actual working <strong>of</strong> the materials<br />
imparts a residual dynamism to the<br />
object. In this process the established<br />
vocabulary <strong>of</strong> shapes is eschewed in<br />
favor <strong>of</strong> developing forms along lines indicated<br />
by the materials and techniques<br />
themselves. Occasionally. the resulting<br />
work takes on an organic form reminiscent<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>Art</strong> Nouveau. but a closer point <strong>of</strong><br />
reference is the more recent phenomenon<br />
<strong>of</strong> Abstract Expressionism.<br />
Metallic Serape. 1977. H. 93/8 in.<br />
Purchase. Joseph H. Hazen Foundation.<br />
Inc Gift. by exchange. 1977.132. Child's<br />
Bayetta on Peach. 1977. H. 5'/4 in. Gift <strong>of</strong><br />
Dale Chihuly 1977. 138. Wedge Weave.<br />
1976. H. 10'2 in. Purchase. Mr and Mrs.<br />
John H. Hauberg Gift. 1977.131 (Right)<br />
Emergence in Polychrorne. H. 8 1' in. Gift<br />
<strong>of</strong> Mr and Mrs. Dominick Labino.1977. 473<br />
ntering the final decades <strong>of</strong> the<br />
twentieth century with the decorative<br />
arts as vital as they were in 1900. we<br />
can look back on a succession <strong>of</strong><br />
vigorous styles and inspired individual<br />
works that can match the record <strong>of</strong> any<br />
earlier age.<br />
52
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