Yale Bulletin and Calendar

October 1, 2004|Volume 33, Number 5

On view in the exhibition is this vanity and ottomon, designed by Gilbert Rohde in 1933.

Exhibit features modernist furniture
of the Depression era

The ways in which modernist design was introduced into the American home during the 1930s is explored in a new exhibition opening Tuesday, Oct. 5, at the Yale University Art Gallery.

"Livable Modernism: Interior Decorating During the Great Depression" illustrates how certain American designers successfully combined the streamlined simplicity of modernism with the middle-class desire for comfort and familiarity in a time of economic and social disruption.

The exhibit includes examples of furniture, tableware and accessories by designers such as Gilbert Rohde, Russel Wright, George Sakier and Lurelle Guild, selected from the art gallery's renowned collection of American decorative arts and supplemented by loans from a private collection. Reproductions of 1930s advertisements and photographs of store displays are also featured in the exhibition to show how modernist products were marketed.

"Livable Modernism" accompanies a book of the same title that explores the ways modernist design was adapted for the living, dining and bedrooms of American middle-class homes during the Depression years. Kristina Wilson, assistant professor of art history at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, researched and organized the project during her two years as the Marcia Brady Tucker Curatorial Fellow in American Decorative Arts at the Yale Art Gallery.

The widespread popularity of Colonial Revival styles during the 1930s posed some challenges for furniture designers wishing to introduce modernism to middle-class America. Objects in the exhibition show how artists met this challenge. Russel Wright, for example, in his "American Modern Armchair," combined a skeletal bentwood frame with a deep reclining seat, upholstered in a nubbly, homespun-like material reminiscent of more familiar handicraft styles. In the scaled-down domestic life of Depression-era families, this piece and others created by modernist artists occupied less space in smaller rooms while creating an inviting environment, say exhibit organizers.

Similarly, American designers experimented with modern materials, such as tubular metal, and created smaller-scale furnishings for the dining room, of which Warren McArthur's "Rainbow Side Chair" and Alphons Bach's armchair are examples. Among the many dining accessories exhibited is Lurelle Guild's chrome-plated-copper canapé plate featuring a raised disc to hold a glass and a wing-like handle. Marketing it, the Chase Company wrote, "With this smart looking canapé plate, you can hold a cocktail, a canapé and a cigarette in one hand and shake hands with the other."

Modernism especially came into its own in the 1930s bedroom. Gilbert Rohde's "Vanity Table," composed of wooden drums supported by a slender length of tubular steel and its cushioned low ottoman, is exhibited with whimsically shaped clocks embodying a modernist flair.

A lecture and symposium, "American Modernist Design, 1920-1940: New Perspectives" will complement the exhibition. It will be held on Friday evening and all day on Saturday, Oct. 29 and 30. Further details on this event will appear in a future issue of the Yale Bulletin & Calendar.

"Livable Modernism," which continues through June 5, is supported by the Friends of American Arts at Yale and an endowment created with a challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The book "Livable Modernism: Interior Decorating and Design During the Great Depression" was funded in part with a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in Fine Arts, and is published by the Yale University Press and the Yale University Art Gallery. It will be available for $45 in the gallery's Museum Store. To order, send e-mail to margaret.lowery@yale.edu or call (203) 432-7421.

The entrance to the Yale Art Gallery is now at Chapel and Howe streets in New Haven while the building, designed by Louis I. Kahn, is being renovated. Admission is free. The gallery is open Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Thursday until 8 p.m. and Sunday, 1-6 p.m. For recorded general and program information, call (203) 432-0600 or visit the gallery's website at www.yale.edu/artgallery.

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