May 9 - October 29, 2000
Gallery for Modern Design and Architecture,
Lila Acheson Wallace Wing, first floor
A Century of Design, Part II: 1925-1950 — the second in a four-part series of exhibitions at The Metropolitan Museum of Art surveying design in the 20th century — will display more than 50 objects from the Museum's collection to demonstrate the dynamic rise of Modernism and its influence on public perception of everyday objects, such as furniture, housewares, and decorative objects. On view in the Museum's Gallery for Modern Design and Architecture from May 9 through October 29, 2000, the exhibition will follow the advancement of design in Europe during the second quarter of the 20th century — from Art Deco through the influences of the Bauhaus school, Functionalism, Russian Constructivism, and organic Scandinavian design.
Key objects in all media — including furniture, metalwork, glass, ceramics, textiles, and drawings — by such leading figures of Modernist design as Marcel Breuer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Alvar Aalto, and Charles and Ray Eames, will be arranged thematically and stylistically.
Focusing on significant developments in European design, A Century of Design, Part II complements American Modern: 1925-1940 —Design for a New Age, an exhibition of more than 150 objects tracing the parallel rise of a distinctively American modern design aesthetic, which will be on view from May 16, 2000 through January 7, 2001, in the Helen and Milton A. Kimmelman Gallery.
Unabashedly opulent and luxurious, the Art Deco style — named after the 1925 Paris Exposition des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels — continued to dominate French taste during the late 1920s and '30s. It offered a look that was sleek and modern yet still suggestive of elegance and refinement. Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann, the foremost Parisian designer of the period, is represented by a gilt bronze and alabaster lamp and a sideboard (ca. 1922), made of macassar ebony, ivory, and silvered bronze, exemplifying the Art Deco emphasis on exquisite craftsmanship and costly and exotic materials. Equally sumptuous is a silver bowl (1934) by Jean Puiforcat raised on a polished glass disc. The exhibition also includes furniture and decorative objects by Louis Süe, André Mare, and René Jules Lalique, whose clients included many of Paris's leading couturiers and other tastemakers.
Not everything in France was Art Deco, however. A small but influential group of designers and architects were breaking new ground. Charlotte Perriand's aluminum, steel, and wood cabinet and Eileen Gray's hanging lanterns made of sheets of perspex and mercury-glass balls explored an entirely new aesthetic.
Founded in 1919, the Bauhaus, Germany's state-run school for architecture and the applied arts, advocated an approach to design that was the antithesis of the Art Deco luxury style. Believing that practical and economic objects should also be beautiful, Bauhaus designers promoted the use of industrial materials and explored the problems of mass-production for middle-class homes. In theory and practice they propounded the virtues of Functionalism, which asserted that the form of an object should be strictly determined by its intended use and materials.
"The Bauhaus played a seminal role in design and architecture in the 20th century," commented J. Stewart Johnson, Consultant for Design and Architecture in the Metropolitan Museum's Department of Modern Art and curator of the exhibition. "During its brief existence, from 1919 to 1933, and particularly after it was closed down by the Nazis, its masters and students spread their concept of modernism internationally, and in so doing to a great extent shaped the world we live in today."
The exhibition includes works by such Bauhaus luminaries as Marcel Breuer, whose "Wassily" armchair (1925), made of tubular steel and canvas upholstery, was designed for and named after his fellow Bauhaus teacher, the painter Wassily Kandinsky. Bauhaus director Ludwig Mies van der Rohe — who gave the world of design such aphorisms as "God is in the details" and "less is more"— is represented by his famous "MR" chair. Introduced at a 1927 Stuttgart exhibition, this ingenious and graceful design, with its distinctive S-shaped profile and cantilevered seat, has remained in production ever since.
Among the Bauhaus-designed household objects on view is a silver and ebony tea-infuser and strainer (ca. 1925) by Marianne Brandt. Although a mere three inches high, the clean, uncluttered lines of its geometric form make it an object of stately elegance.
By the mid 1930s, the severity and uncompromising utilitarianism of Bauhaus-inspired design was being challenged by a group of Scandinavian designers who advocated a greater emphasis on natural materials and "organic" forms. Hard-edged, geometric lines now gave way to softer, more irregular "biomorphic" shapes. Laminated wood, bent into flowing lines, replaced steel and glass. Furniture was now shaped to more closely accommodate the human body. The exhibition features works by noted Finnish designer and architect Alvar Aalto, including his "31" armchair (1930 - 33), made of molded plywood and black painted bentwood, and Swedish designer Bruno Mathsson's "Pernilla" easy chair and footrest (1941).
Following in the footsteps of these Scandinavian designers, the American architect and furniture designer Charles Eames experimented with further techniques for plywood-molding—many of them developed during his work for the U.S. Navy during World War II. The exhibition includes one of his signature designs, the LCW lounge chair (ca. 1946), developed with his wife and fellow designer Ray.
The exhibition is curated by J. Stewart Johnson, Consultant for Design and Architecture in the Museum's Department of Modern Art.
Continuation of the series
The series of exhibitions continues with A Century of Design, Part III: 1950-1975, from November 2000 – April 2001, and A Century of Design, Part IV: 1975 – 2000, from May – October 2001.
# # #
April 11, 2000
Press resources