AN EXHIBITION FOR MODERN LIVING
Alexander Girard and W. D. Laurie, Jr., Saul Steinberg [Illustrations]
Detroit: Detroit Institute of Arts, 1949. First [only] edition. Quarto. Plastic comb binding. Stiff printed covers. Orange end sheets. 101 pp. Variety of paper stocks. Black and white photographs, diagrams and original illustrations. Out-of-print and never reprinted or reissued. Wrappers lightly worn and soiled, especially the rear panel. Plastic binding unbroken. ‘Detroit/November 1949’ inked to front free endpaper. Rarely found in collectible condition: this example is considerably better than the normally found: a very good copy.
8.5 x 11 softcover, spiral-bound catalogue with 101 pages and many black and white photographs, diagrams and original illustrations by Saul Steinberg. Exhibition catalog of the best of American postwar Modern design (circa 1949), including furniture, fabrics, household products, typewriters, cutlery, appliances, toys, interiors, glass etc. Articles by John Kouwenhoven and Edgar Kaufmann, Jr.
Scarce and important exhibition catalog of the Landmark postwar exhibition from September 11 to November 20, 1949. This exhibition has achieved legendary status in the pantheon of american modernism, due to Girard's stewardship and the site-specific custom room installations by Alvar Aalto, Bruno Mathsson, Jens Risom, Florence Knoll (ably assisted by Eero Saarinen, Franco Albini, Pierre Jeanneret, Abel Sorensen, Andre Dupres and Hans Bellmann), Van-Keppel Green, George Nelson, Charles and Ray Eames and others.
- Introduction
- The background of modern design
- Modern design in America now
- As Steinberg sees us
- Floor plan of exhibition
- Reproductions of selected objects in the exhibition
- Views of exhibition rooms
- general views of the exhibition
- Index of designers
- Index of exhibitors
- Acknowledgements
Designers and manufacturers represented in this catalogue include: Mies van der Rohe, Alvar Aalto, Steuben Glass, Libbey Glass, Eric Stromberg, Pipsan Sanson, Glidden Parker, Eva Zeisel, Red Wing Pottery, Alexander Giampietro, Maija Grotell, Beatrice Albert, Zanesville Stoneware, Fred Farr, Benjamin Baldwin and William Machado, Ray Eames, Alexander Girard, Schiffer Prints, Leo Jiranek, Herman Miller Furniture Company, Enrico Delmonte,Thonet, George Hansen, Harry Weese, Kurt Versen, Isamu Noguchi, Knoll Associates, Towle , Harry Osaki, Allan Adler, Harry Bertoia, Bernard Rudofsky, Margaret de Patta, Zahara Schatz, Bob Winston, IBM, Olivetti, Raymond Loewy, George Nelson, Howard Miller Clock Company, Tupper Corp., and many others.
From the Foreword: "It is very important for an art museum to show the work of modern designers. It enables us to see what is being done today in relation to what has been done, and to realize that the application of artistic intelligence and technical skill to solve the living problems of an age has always been characteristic of the arts in their best periods.
"Our collection shows the application of the arts of design to the needs (both practical and imaginative) of human life from the beginning of human history. Only in the brief period of "art for art's sake," in the XIX century, was "Art" supposed to have nothing to do with life. The juxtaposition of past and present may also show the thoughtful observer that, today as in the past, the problem is one of creative imagination. For life demands a situation not only for pressing practical problems, but asks the artist to create a setting and an atmosphere to express our ideal of what life should be-grave or gay, grand or simple, elegant or practical, as the case may be.
"But although the best modern design for the home is a subject of the greatest importance, circumstances prevented such an exhibition here until the J. L. Hudson Company, by its generous and public-spirited support, made one possible on a splendid scale worthy of the significance of the subject.
"America like every other country is being rebuilt. A whole new generation is building its homes. There is a flood of new inventions, new materials, new products. There is also a flood of new ideas-nothing less than a whole new approach to the design of homes and other things we live with. Some people are enthusiastic about these new ideas, some dislike them or question them. We have not attempted to interpret these ideas ourselves. We have chosen a group of able and distinguished designers and put these questions to them: What does the best modern design have to offer? Can you, using modern technology, modern materials, give us a new and better setting for our daily lives? Have you, or have you not, discovered a new style-a new ideal of beauty-which will be the expression of our age as other ages of the past created their styles? This exhibition is their answer to these questions.
"The designers in charge of the exhibition have drawn on the ideas of the whole contemporary world. It consists of objects actually in production-not dreams, but things actually available today. But it is not an exhibition of objects. They have made it, first of all, the exhibition of an idea-of how the best modern intelligence can serve our lives by solving the problems of the setting of our lives." — E. P. Richardson
Alexander Girard (American, 1907 – 1993) was born in New York City and raised in Florence, Girard was educated in Europe as an architect. He began practicing architecture and interior design in the late 1920s. The exhibition he curated for the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1949 —“For Modern Living”— celebrated postwar modernism. Girard developed a friendship with Charles Eames in the 1940s when the two men realized they had coincidently designed almost identical modern radio cabinets and were both experimenting with plywood chairs.
Girard became director of design for Herman Miller's textile division in 1952, a time when fabrics, especially in the office, tended toward the utilitarian, drab and pattern-less. “People got fainting fits if they saw bright, pure color,” Girard commented at the time.
At Herman Miller, Girard had the freedom to express himself. With primary colors, concise geometric patterns, and a touch of humor, he injected joy and spontaneity into his designs. During his tenure, he created over 300 textile designs in multitudes of colorways, wallpapers, prints, furniture, and objects. Girard's work with Herman Miller continued until 1973 and included spicing up the Action Office system with a series of decorative panel fabrics.
Girard's reputation soared in 1959, when his zestful interior design of the La Fonda del Sol restaurant in New York electrified the public. He designed the entire experience for the restaurant—interior, graphics, place settings, staff uniforms. Girard reprised the feat for Braniff International Airways in the mid 1960s, designing no less than 17,543 different items—from logo to lounge furniture.
While Girard focused his abilities at Herman Miller on the textile program, he had a long history of designing furniture for other projects and clients. For Braniff this included sofas, lounge chairs, café seating, and tables for its airport lounges. In 1967, these designs were commercialized into the Girard Group—his only collection of furniture for Herman Miller.
One of Girard’s biggest ventures with Herman Miller was the innovative yet financially unsuccessful Textiles & Objects store in New York City, opened in 1961. The store sold objects that he brought back in bulk from his travels around the world, as well as products made with his textiles such as pillows and tablecloths, and small furniture by other Herman Miller designers. The short lived store, seen by many as an exhibit rather than an enterprise, provided the experience Girard described as "seeing, touching, and remembering familiar associations and all the other intangible activities of the mind and soul."