INDUSTRIAL DESIGN FROM JAPAN
Nathan Shapira [Curator/ Designer]
Los Angeles: UCLA Art Galleries, Dickson Art Center, University of California, Los Angeles, January 1964. Original edition. Slim quarto. Glossy printed saddle stitched wrappers. Printed vellum endsheets. 32 pp. Exhibition catalog fully illustrated in black and white. Nathan Shapira’s card laid in. Wrappers lightly spotted to spine edge, otherwise a nearly fine copy. Scarce.
8.5 x 9-inch saddle stitched exhibition guide with 32 pages of Japanese Industrial Design expertly curated and presented by Nathan Shapira. Includes work by Sori Yanagi, Yoshiharu Iwata, Seichi Makita, Kenji Fujita and others.
Artforum sent James Charlton to check out this show in 1964:
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN FROM JAPAN AT THE UCLA GALLERIES
“THE ROOM IS A COOL GLADE set with floating floodlit discs. Upon them glitter a bright new generation of objects from Japan: not red lacquer bowls but white Western china, neither gilded screens nor dancing fans but the personal, portable machinery of the contemporary world. Suspended silks and photographs seem anxious to remind us that these international-looking objects are truly Japanese.
“In exquisite refinements to human use, in little dramas played about an idea the national skills show best. The transistors under glass are textured to the hand, the grilles like open mouths about to speak. A tiny still camera has a square eye and viewer, a patterned disc for adjustment. In the Minolta zoom camera, the magazine at eye level reflects the contour of the viewer’s cheek, a cylinder grip puts all controls at quick and easy reach. Behind these range batteries of transcribers and recorders looking just as convincing or mysterious, or like weapons of commercial warfare.
“It is hard to judge machinery when it isn’t plugged in or turned on. One would like to know how the sewing machine named ‘Brother’ really works. Or rev the engine in the creamy Datsun roadster titled ‘My Fair Lady,’ done in black leather with a single sideways jumpseat. The big red 150-cc. Honda is an impressive piece of road sculpture from slanted seat to flared exhaust; one can see what happens here. Above it hangs a picture of the ‘Dream Train’ designed to hasten Olympic visitors to old Kyoto at 158 mph.
“Things least like our own get the most attention. A plywood stool of two bent leaves suggests both the gentle relex curves of temple roofs and the natural bifurcation of the part that fits it. A pretty plastic organ on pedestal instead of legs makes its own altar. A two-tone desk phone somehow remembers a traditional form.
“This collection of available products does not present all the new breed. The factories of Japan, often staffed with women workers, are out to mechanize the chores that kept them busy for so many centuries before. These appliances are small and very attractive, like obedient household pets. Besides those that squeeze and fry, purge and dry are machines for,doing things the West has scarcely thought of, all the while lighting up or humming in a most attractive way. Sometimes imagination aids mechanical powers. Caged in white wire, the blue transparent blade of an electric fan looks cool while standing still. Or the spare flame of an oil heater will cast magnificent reflections in its curved shiny shell.
“Fantasy and dedication work close together in Japan. An industrialist will find it possible to please the market while working toward a higher purpose: the remodeling, perhaps, of the entire country. Some awesome architectural drawings suggest what is in mind: an aerial geometry of urban building, hives hung in space, or screens of stacked round houses like piles of fitted dinner trays. These serious flights of fancy are fueled by a thousand years of fine design, by a calm and endless pondering of the dialogue between man and Nature, with whom the Japanese are on such good speaking terms.
“The exhibition helps to clarify these durable relationships. The restrained and gracious setting is the work of Jack Carter. Dr. Nathan Shapira conceived the showing and its elegant brochure.”
Nathan H. Shapira (1928 – 2009) was an internationally renowned design scholar, curator and critic who was a UCLA faculty member for more than 40 years. Professor Shapira was a member of the Department of Design faculty since 1963 in charge of industrial and interior design. He was an authority on design for developing countries, on architecture and design in Los Angeles, and on Italian design throughout the United States and Europe.
He won many national and international design awards, addressed major international design conferences and contributed to leading international design periodicals, including Abitare, Construire, Domus, ID Magazine and Ottagano. His professional practice included graphic design, product design, packaging, architecture, interiors and exhibition designs.
He had a special interest in design for social responsibility and its relationship to industrial design and advanced technologies. His research and writings frequently addressed the theory that technology has widened the gap between rich and poor societies and that design could alleviate this problem. He maintained that future designers must concern themselves with the quality of life, not merely the decorative arts.
In 1987, the city of Trieste, Italy, honored him with the title of "Cavalieri," the Italian equivalent of a knighthood, for his curatorial direction and exhibit of "The Quest for Continuity" exhibit and other contributions to Italian society, culture and design. He also served as a research fellow at the universities of Trento and Bologna in Italy.
Most recently, Professor Shapira served as a consultant to the Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles and a guest writer for the international architecture and design bilingual monthly, Ottagono, published in Italy. [UCLA]