AMERICAN MODERN 1925-1940: Design for a New Age - exhibition and catalog

Arts & Activities, Dec, 2000 by Mark M. Johnson

Art, by definition, can encompass an enormous variety of materials, forms and expressions. From a historical perspective, our attitudes about "what is art" have changed from time to time. Of course, we have the fine arts: painting, sculpture, architecture. Then we have craft: handmade and often functional, but distinguished from the former primarily because of the material from which it was made.

Historically, painting has usually been ranked as most esteemed within the hierarchy of art processes. On the other hand, something made of clay or wood might be categorized as decorative arts, a seemingly less valued product by terminology. Art works also encompass countless types of expression, materials and purposes, from the purely aesthetic to industrial applications.

Underlying all art, however, is design; all arts can be judged by the basic characteristics of integrity, clarity and harmony. As a standard, design quality can be applied to almost any product regardless of its medium, function, size, value or creation. Indeed, the basics of good design can be found in both unique, hand-crafted objects and those that have been commercially manufactured for mass consumption.

American Modern, 1925--1940: Design for a New Age, as an exhibition and catalog, documents this country's efforts and remarkable achievements in the area of design arts. This period begins with the great Paris Exposition des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in 1925, a time when America was judged by many to be lacking a national design identity. By the time the United States entered World War II, however, a pioneering group of American designers had developed a new style that was regarded as both modern and distinctly American.

Seeking not to be dependent on historical precedent or repetitious of popular European currents, American designers took these important influences and, utilizing new materials and technologies, fused them with a cleaner and more geometric style to create a design that reflected American life between the wars. The major characteristics of this modern design included: "simplicity, plain surfaces, unbroken lines, accentuation of structural necessity, dramatization of the intrinsic beauty of materials," and "the elimination of meaningless and distracting motives of the Past."

The goal was to create objects appropriate to early 20th-century usage, and to produce innovative yet affordable products that would appeal to a rapidly expanding middle class. Museum exhibitions, department stores such as Macy's, as well as trade and popular magazines touted the new modernist design wares to a rather conservative and traditional American audience, especially outside of the largest metropolitan areas.

Products were described as practical, livable, comfortable and well-crafted. Ultimately, the dynamic beauty of machines and the lure of speed captured the imagination of the American public. Streamline-styled products reflected the speed of transportation and the youthful energy of the age.

The curators of the American Modern exhibition and catalogue divided the design objects into seven categories based on the influence and style of the object. The first category, "Art Deco," documents those first generation modernist designers and designs that were heavily dependent on European styles. A classic example is Sidney Biehler Waugh's use of French Art Deco motifs in his beautiful "Gazelle" Bowl for Steuben.

"Skyscrapers" were recognized worldwide as uniquely American and suggested strength, daring, faith in the future and a rejection of constraints of the past. This boldness and optimism in design created a new vocabulary which was applied to almost everything from furniture to accessories. Paul Frankl wrote on the visual impact of skyscrapers and created a successful line of furniture loosely based on the setbacks of the towers in the soaring buildings in Manhattan including "Skyscraper" Bookcase.

Objects featured in "The Graphic Image" reflect the influence of European painting and sculpture in new American modernist typography, textile patterns and designs applied to the surface of functional objects such as Walter Dorwin Teague's elegant Camera and Box from 1930.

The "Penthouse" was America's ultimate symbol of success and suggested money, power, privilege, glamour and sophistication. This sleek, fantasy-filled lifestyle provided the imagery for books, fashion, films and modernist design. The chrome-plated Manhattan Cocktail Set by Norman Bel Geddes reflects not only the high-rise architecture but also the high-style materials in vogue during this period: chromium, glass and lacquer.

In Germany, artists and designers at the Bauhaus found beauty in pure, undecorated geometric forms to produce affordable household objects that were as aesthetically pleasing as they were functional. The "Geometries" of the square, triangle, circle, cube, cylinder and sphere were, in turn, embraced by American architects and designers. Following German prototypes, American designs became radically simplified, and the severity of the geometric designs necessitated the precision of machine manufacture. In Russel Wright's Spherical Vase, Planter and Cocktail Shaker, the stark geometry of the forms is complemented by the machined texture of the surfaces.