The 22nd annual Modernism: A Century of Style and Design opened to a packed house and a night filled with tributes emanating from a variety of sources on November 15 at the Park Avenue Armory.
First and foremost, it was the “incomparable” Modernism exhibitors who paid homage by presenting iconic designs of past Twentieth Century masters. It was Sanford Smith’s Modernism and the Brooklyn Museum, collaborating once again, that bestowed accolades and awards on two great American designers. Most important, however, was the large and appreciative crowd that paid its respect by gobbling up the stellar merchandise at this innovative Twentieth Century design fair.
Modernism and the Brooklyn Museum have partnered a longtime commitment to furthering the appreciation of Twentieth Century decorative arts by honoring designers past and present, and by looking to the future, with the presentation of two annual awards honoring outstanding work in design.
Wendell Castle, whose furniture designs have expanded the possibilities of both wood and fiberglass, was on hand to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award. Jonathan Adler, the potter and retailer, was presented in absentia the Young Designer Award.
With an amazing selection of exquisite forms representing the complex and numerous periods between 1905 and 2005, there is much to dazzle the eye on the floor of this important fair. Buyers could have toured the show in any number of ways †by dealer, by decade, by designer or, as it turns out, by desks, with the latter category emerging as a quiet tour de force.
James P. Infante of New York City covered the gamut with his display of decorative arts representing Modernism during its early stages. As dealer Donald Gajadhar explained, “Our buyers want to see the origins of Modernism in objects.” A Gustave Serrurier-Bovy mantel clock, 1901, Belgium, of wood, brass and glass reflected the trend of the period and also was a precursor of the trends that followed. A tall Hagenauer sculpture of a musician, circa 1930s, reprised high style Art Deco. It was here, too, that the power of the desks began to reveal itself. An exotic offering by Carlo Bugatti, circa 1898, with decidedly Moorish overtones, comprised several woods and, with a writing surface of parchment, laid the historical foundation.
Modernity of Stockholm made its second appearance at Modernism with a presentation focused on postwar design. Dividing the booth into what Modernity proprietor Andrew Duncanson referred to as the “living room” and “dining room” was a custom made desk from English architect/designer John Pawson. Known for creating multifunctional furniture, Pawson created the attractive desk as a two-person work station. Dominating another section of the booth was a 1973 Jean Pierre Viot circular table with ceramic top and heavy aluminum legs.
Several aisles over, Ophir Gallery, Englewood, N.J., mined the Art Nouveau period with a display of lamps by the Tiffany Studio. A Duffner & Kimberly hanging lamp, with a rare signed brass tag, was suspended majestically above a table, while Christofle silver champagne coolers, circa 1900, could not be overlooked. “Au But,” a bronze by Alfred Boucher, circa 1890, was termed the artist’s “first great success,” with this piece depicting three nude runners intensely struggling to be first across the finish line.
New York City dealer Mark J. Weinbaum Fine Posters and Prints bridged the decades and modern starts with Russian, European and American posters. “Catalina,” for instance, a vibrant poster in landscape format by Otis Shepard, was color coordinated with a 1920 Roger Broder work. But it was the Bauhaus 50th Anniversary poster, 1969, by Herbert M. Baer, that reminded one just how deep the roots of International Style run.
Aero of Helsinki featured exclusively Finnish design. In the forefront of the booth was a rare Pamiro chair in birch by the architect/designer Alvar Aalto for Artek. The 1930s design was, according to Juhani Lemmetti of Aero, the “first chair made of curved plywood.”
Other laminated bentwood furniture included a selection of classic chaise longue chairs featured in the stand of Denver dealer Z Modern. The offering included a couple of Marcel Breuer long chairs, including the desirable “Isokon” upholstered version. The most desirable of the lounges was a Bruno Mathsson “Pernilla,” chair designed in 1934 for Karl Mathsson. An example with rear wheels, the lounge chair was made during the first six months of production, after which the inclusion of the rear wheel was discontinued. Two Robert Mapplethorpe prints depicting female nudes were offered from the booth, including a unique gelatin silver print from 1982, “Lisa Lyon,” and an unpublished silver gelatin print of a Japanese woman.
Steele Antiques, East Hampton, N.Y., offered American, French and Scandinavian furnishings that dealer Russell Steele characterized as “organic designs.” Whitney tables, Oscar Niemeyer chairs commissioned by the Communist party in France and American Dunbar chairs were set off by Ruth Francken paintings.
Gal’ere, West Palm Beach, Fla., exhibiting at the fair for only the second time, showed Dunbar tables, two with Italian glass tops, one with Tiffany tile. A pair of polished steel floor lamps with hexagonal planes by Gabriella Crespi drew strong interest. Gal’ere also offered several Bertoia bushes. Gal’ere dealer Kurt Ducovna captured the tenor of the show while reflecting on the merchandise in his display when he stated, “Great things sell for great prices.”
French designer Raphael Raffel was represented with a 1949 private commission that was prominently displayed by New York City dealer Pascal Boyer. Created for a champagne maker in Reims, France, the mahogany case pieces were finished in beka lacquer. Nothing short of luxe were the armchairs in Boyer’s booth. A silver leather chair by Marco Zanuso, the Italian postwar designer, was overshadowed only by two from the French designer Ramos. Upholstered in gold leaf leather that was then varnished, the chairs had the color of polished copper pennies.
Lost City Arts dealer Jim Elkind had a center booth that conveniently opened on both sides of the aisle, providing enough space for the dealer to display two massive bronze gong-shaped Bertoia Sonambient sculptures. A large dimpled rectangular piece titled “Orion,” Elkind said, “is the only piece Bertoia ever signed his name to.” The monumental sculptures had been a commission for a Greek concert hall, completed just a few years before Bertoia’s death.
Peter Loughrey Fine Art and Design of Sherman Oaks, Calif., featured Picasso ceramics, all with faces, and expressive sculptures by Jan de Swart. Interestingly, De Swart’s idiosyncratic works were created for his personal pleasure. Having developed the rubber nipple baby bottle top, the artist did not need to bow to commercialism. In recent years, appreciation for his work has grown, related the dealer.
Brent Dzekiorius of New York’s Johnson Trading Gallery was a first-time exhibitor at Modernism. Concentrating on furnishings that explored the depth of the American Crafts movement of the 1960s to the late 1970s, Dzekiorius was careful to point out that forms evolved differently on the East and West Coasts. Representative of East Coast sensibility was a George Nakashima lamp and David Ebner chest of drawers. The West Coast influence was evident in the free flowing works of John Nyquist and Art Espenet Carpenter.
At Johnson Trading, the sleeper was not a desk, but a Wendell Castle-designed door. Sculptural splits of ebonized maple crisscrossed their way through negative space, making it look as if it were a portal to another world. Indeed, it could have defined the line between the furniture and the Mario del Fabro sculptures displayed behind it. Del Fabro is perhaps best known for his books on Modernist furniture.
Mark McDonald, New York City, occupied two adjacent booths at the fair, one of which was dominated by a massive six-panel glass mosaic screen, circa 1941, made for one of Miami’s Lawrence Murray Dixon-designed hotels. McDonald’s display across the aisle featured a 25-foot-long comprehensive storage system by George Nelson that ran the length of the rear wall of the booth. A Frank Lloyd Wright table from the Mosberg House, South Bend, Ind., put the aesthetic into perspective, while Frank Gehry’s prototype “Easy Edges” corrugated cardboard chairs †once sold by Bloomingdale’s as disposable furniture †drew both smiles and accolades.
But it was a trio of Rudolph Schindler pieces at McDonald’s, a chair, table and desk, that stole the show. The table was displayed with its top cantilevered; it took but a light push, however, to return it to a centered position. The matching partners’ desk was the “piece de resistance,” according to the dealer, an “understated form of enormous function.”
Tony Subal of Vienna was another of the dealers to feature a classic desk from the 1960s, combining glass and wood with enormous visual impact. Brass “O” fittings gave it an architectural presence. In another part of the booth, a sideboard designed and manufactured by Osvaldo Borsani, Italy, circa 1940s, was another eye-catcher. The ends of the sideboard were constructed of polished rosewood; the ribbed midsection and base, polished mahogany. The parchment top was set off by brass elements. Within an hour of the show’s opening, the sideboard was reported to have been sold.
Dansk Mobelkunst honored the work of designer Hans J. Wegner, who died earlier this year. The stand’s walls were decorated with large photos of the designer at work, while the interior of the booth featured classic Wegner chairs that clearly displayed the designer’s touch. There was a 1950 Halyard chair, the classic valet chair, the cow horn chair and the oak and cane chair, known simply as “The Chair.” The latter was used in the Nixon/Kennedy debates. Completing the retrospective of Wegner’s designs was a teak and oak desk from the early 1950s. It remained as fresh today, in both design and condition, as it was 50 years ago.
Liz O’Brien debuted her recently published volume, Ultra-Modern: Samuel Marx, Architect, Designer, Collector, and brought it to life with a collection of exquisite offerings by the designer.
Casati Gallery, Chicago, presented a retrospective of architect, artist, author, sculptor and designer Angelo Mangiarotti. Two white marble coffee tables from the “Eros” collection, 1971, headlined.
At Donzella 20th Century Gallery, New York City, a 1955 desk designed by Osvaldo Borsani was all drama. The rosewood desk with sculptural top stood on chrome legs and had a pivoting shelf, a bank of drawers and three pencil drawers. Nearby, a rare sofa by Taichiro Nakai, circa 1956, with an off-center back that “floated” over the generous seat, held sway.
Collage 20th Century Classics, Dallas, featured among its treasures a Fornasetti chair in the shape of a guitar. However, it was a desk by the Danish designer Bodil Kjaer that accounted for one of the great successes of the fair for the dealer. The 1959 design, a four-drawer desk of rosewood and stainless steel with a two-door rolling cabinet beneath, sold within minutes of the Brooklyn Museum benefit preview opening.
Domocile Fixe, Paris, festooned an entire wall with a collection of 33 Line Vautrin mirrors from the mid-1950s, including “Soleil a Paointes, no. 1,” 1955, a rare convex mirror in cream talossel and purple glass. A collection of “message” boxes by the artist were also among the offering, including “La Mer,” a gilt bronze box decorated in relief with rolling ocean waves across the top of the lid. A small sailing ship in relief was in the center of the waves, and then on the inside of the lid, a small school of fish was shown “underwater.”
Lawrence Converso’s booth was dominated by Ron Arad’s hand welded “Big Easy Chair,” circa 1968. A couple just off a long flight from Los Angeles made that booth its first stop.
With showstoppers everywhere, it took a second look to uncover the subtle richness that resided in Todd Merrill Antiques’ booth. The New York City dealer featured an exceptional oversized sculpture-front console designed †even signed †by Paul Evans, 1965. Boldly decorated welded steel doors containing organic elements accented with gold leaf, polychromed in greens, yellows, blues and ivory and various patinated finishes, opened to an interior finished in lacquer with highly unusual gilt fittings. The right side was outfitted with four gilt-faced felt-lined drawers with sculpted pulls. The console was mounted on a unique custom welded steel base.
Finally, an exquisite display of hand painted wall paper samples at Carolle Thibaut-Pomerantz’s booth recalled the artistry in the patterns of earlier periods. Prominent in its frame was a signed wallpaper sample by Ruhlmann.
If anything was missing from the show it was the sense of capriciousness that had marked the fledgling Modernism shows. Only one small display of futuristic toy ray-guns reminded viewers that the “playful” is a relieving and important aspect in today’s design heavy atmosphere.
As dealers prepared for a successful show, one final desk served as a reminder that Smith’s Modernism is but one of the battles in the ongoing campaign for customers. Studio 101 Decorative and Fine Arts, Santa Barbara, Calif., featured a leather covered desk with chair that mimicked finely crafted luggage.
