Modern design in San Francisco

Many of those think-outside-the-box designers of the early modern period in Europe and the United States--Jean Dunand, Josef Hoffmann, Gerrit Rietveld, Mies van der Rohe, Paul T. Frankl, Frances Elkins, and others-got a lot of things right. They designed numerous up-to-the-second, cutting-edge objects that resonated with consumers because they were practical and creative, and took advantage of new materials that were intriguing and fresh. The inevitable flip side is that when some designers did not get it right, they produced junk, often in multiples. If only collectors of objects in the modern idiom all owned a copy of Edgar Kaufmann Jr.'s verbose but eminently useful pamphlet What is Modern Design? (which he wrote for the Museum of Modern Art in 1950), only the better material would survive in collections around the country today. As the curator of modern design at the museum and the son of the man for whom Frank Lloyd Wright designed Fallingwater--the most avant-garde house of its day-the younger Kaufmann had an influential voice in the design community. He outlined twelve tenets of modern design as he saw them and then addressed the age-old question "What is good design?" This pamphlet is ably cited by Jared Goss, guest curator, in the catalogue that accompanies this year's San Francisco Fall Antiques Show. The antiques show, comprised of nearly seventy dealers, is being held from October 25 to 28 at the Festival Pavilion of the Fort Mason Center and benefits the local charity Enterprise for High School Students. The preview opening takes place on Wednesday, October 24.

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The loan exhibition is entitled Taste for the Twentieth Century: Modem Design Classics from San Francisco Collections and features some fifty objects designed and made in Europe and the United States between the 1920s and the 1970s. Among the designers represented are Dunand, Hoffmann, Elkins, Carlo Bugatti, Steuben, and the Maison Jansen. Goss has chosen wisely. The objects on view include glass, ceramics, furniture, silver, sculpture, and lighting devices.

Goss, an associate curator in the Department of Nineteenth-Century, Modern, and Contemporary Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, has also written an essay for the show catalogue, which may be obtained by telephoning 415-989-9019. A lecture series has also been organized. To obtain information about the five speakers and their topics, telephone the number above or consult the Web site (www.sffas.org).

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