EVERYDAY ART QUARTERLY No. 7
A Guide To Well Designed Products
Hilde Reiss [Editor]
Hilde Reiss [Editor], Rolphe Dauphin [Staff photographer]: EVERYDAY ART QUARTERLY [A Guide To Well Designed Products]. Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, Spring 1948, Number 7. Original edition. Slim quarto. Thick photo illustrated stapled wrappers. 16 pp. Illustrated articles and advertisements. 75 black and white images. A very influential publication and quite uncommon.Wrappers worn and rubbed. Center signature loose from staples and laid in. Typed address to rear panel, but a very good copy.
8.5 x 11 softcover magazine with 16 pages and 75 black and white images. This issue of Everyday Art Quarterly offers a magnificent snapshot of the blossoming modern movement after World War II. A very desirable, truly amazing vintage publication in terms of form and content: high quality printing and clean, functional design and typography and excellent photographic reproduction make this a spectacular addition to a midcentury design collection.
This issue of Everyday Art Quarterly remains the primary reference for the seminal Modern Jewelry Under Fifty Dollars exhibit -- the exhibit responsible for a profound and lasting affect on the modern jewelry movement and it's artisans (Art Smith credited the 1948 Walker show with drawing national attention to his work and making it possible for him to sell his pieces in several craft shops across the country in addition to his own store in New York). The magazine contained a review of the exhibit, photographs of most of the jewelry, and a list of the participating artists with addresses.
- Where To Buy Well-Designed Objects: profiles thesse cutting-edge retail establishments: Richmond Bradshaw, Inc.; New Design, Inc.; Baldwin Kingrey, Inc.; Alexander Girard; Robert M. Kasper and Pacific Shop; Crossroads, Inc.; and Frank Brothers.
- Furniture of Today: designed by Alice Roth, George Nelson, Charles Eames, Dan Cooper, Edward Wormley and Alvar Aalto.
- Modern Jewelry Under Fifty Dollars: The 2nd Annual Exhibition of Contemporary Jewelry at the Walker Art Center in March 1948, was a legendary show of innovative modernist jewelry exhibited on the walls of the Center's gallery as wearable art. Here are 5 pages and 42 b/w images of contemporary jewelry designed by Marianna Pineda, Walter Rhodes, Fanny Hillsmith, Evelyn Balch, Franz Bergmann, Paul Lobel, Hurst & Kingsbury, David Aaron, Fred Farr, Bess Diamond, Art Smith, Pearl S. Shecter, Claire Falkenstein, Caroline Gleick Rosene, Bob Winston, Margaret De Patta, Adda Husted-Andersen, Keith Monroe, Sam Kramer, Harry Bertoia, Zahara Schatz, Doris Hall, Ward Bennett, Philip Morton, Rima, Frank Lee, Richard Raseman, William Dehart, Louis MacMillen, Winfield Fine Art & Jewelry, and Phyllis Wesley Jacobs. Includes short biographies of the designers and artisans.
- Useful Gift: Eva Zeisel and many others.
- Everyday Art In The Magazines: articles about modern design published in such magazines as Arts & Architecture, Interiors, Progressive Architecture and others.
- Addresses: for designers, manufacturers, distributors, etc.
From the magazine: "Designers have used new materials and new forms to produce objects suited to our present-day way of life. In jewelry design, however, few changes had been seen ... the same stars, clusters, rosettes, floral motifs, and other traditional shapes that have been used for centuries." The magazine then goes on to recognize a new jewelry movement -- one where artists and craftsmen were beginning to experiment with new jewelry forms, not only using the traditional metals of gold and silver, but also aluminum, brass, copper, plastics, and ceramics. The craftsmen creating these new designs were offering them from their studios and from specialty shops to a receptive public.
The reviewer made these comments, "Jewelry is worn for two reasons: for it’s preciousness, or for it’s decorative value. Precious stones or genuine pearls are, above all, a sign of the affluence of the wearer and must be judged by different standards. But jewelry made of less valuable materials – costume jewelry – should be regarded as part of the wearer’s clothing; its main function is to enhance a person’s appearance, to be genuinely decorative. The majority of the pieces in the exhibition achieve this desirable decorative quality. Others are more in the nature of miniature sculpture."
Of the thirty-two jewelers exhibiting at the Walker, ten were from New York which was a stronghold of modernist jewelry shops, Paul Lobel and Art Smith on West Fourth Street, Sam Kramer on West 8th Street. Seven were from California. "Although many Modernist jewelers in New York operated their own shops, most California metalsmiths marketed their jewelry through craft galleries, outdoor art festivals, and other venues sympathetic to the cause of modern art." Margaret De Patta, and Bob Winston were from the San Francisco Bay Area. There were several exhibitors from the Midwest; Ohio, Minnesota, and Illinois; one from New Jersey; one from Washington, D.C.; one from Michigan; and one from Massachusetts.
Everyday Art Quarterly was published by the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis starting in 1946. The editorial focus aimed to bring modern design to the masses through thoughtful examination of household objects and their designers. Everyday Art Quarterly was a vocal proponent of the Good Design movement (as represented by MoMA and Chicago's Merchandise Mart) and spotlighted the best in industrial and handcrafted design. When the magazine became Design Quarterly in 1954, the editors assumed a more international flair in their selection of material to spotlight.