THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART NEW YORK
Arthur Drexler, Sir Herbert Read [preface],
Lora Lamm [Designer]
Arthur Drexler, Sir Herbert Read [preface], Lora Lamm [Designer]: THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART NEW YORK. Milan: La Rinascente, February 1958. First edition [unknown limitation, this example mechanically numbered 335]. Text in Italian and English. Square quarto. Thick screen printed card boards. Photo illustrated dust jacket. Publishers paper slipcase. 126 pp. 51 black and white photo illustrations. Multiple paper stocks. Book design by Lora Lamm. Jacket lightly worn and minor handling wear, but a very good copy in a good example of the Publishers plain cardboard slipcase. Rare.
8.25 x 8.25 monograph published by the Italian department store La Rinascente to commemorate the Museum of Modern Art Department of Department of Architecture and Design as the recipient of the Gran Premio Internazionale La Rinascente's Compasso d’oro in 1956, “Monografia ideata e realizzata da La Rinascente per sotto-lineare l’impotanza dell’opera del Museo d’Arte Moderna di New York .” [Spine title: Premio la Rinascente Compasso d’oro Museum of Modern Art New York].
Includes a preface by Sir Herbert Read, an essay by Arthur Drexler, the Director of the Department of Architecture and Design, a list of Architecture and Design Staff, an overview of the Design Collection, and an Exhibition History.
Includes work by Jacques Villon, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Pierre Bonnard, Hector Guimard, Maurice Denis, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Charles Knox, Theo Van Doesburg, Piet Mondrian, Gerrit Rietveld, Frederick Kiesler, Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, George Dexel, Herbert Bayer, Anni Albers, J. Hartwig, Marcel Breuer, Marianne Brandt, K. Jucker, William Wagenfeld, Earl Tupper, Eero Saarinen, Charles Eames, Antonio Bonet, Juan Kurchan, Jorge Ferrari-Hardoy, Bruno Mathsson, Alvar Aalto, Hans Wegner, Emilio Cerri, Marcello Nizzoli, Raymond Loewy, Josef Hoffmann, Elis Bergh, Edith Heath, Allan Adler, Charles McCrea, James Prestini, Ernst Lichbau, Otto & Gertrude Natzler, Karl Krehan, Carl Harry Stalhane, Paolo Venini, Magnus Stephensen, Tapio Wirkala, Man Ray, Pietro Chiessa, Richard Blow, Ivo Paannaggi, El Lissitzky, Leo Lionni, Paul Rand, Alvin Lustig, Herbert Matter, Rudolph De Harak, Will Burtin, and others.
Features exhibition photography from Machine Art [1934], Alvar Aalto Architecture And Furniture [1938], Organic Design In Home Furnishings [1941],Useful Objects [1945], Mies van der Rohe [1947], Anni Albers Textiles [1949], Lobmeyr Glass [1949], Marcel Breuer Exhibition House in the Museum Garden [1949], Gregory Ain Exhibition House in the Museum Garden [1950], Swiss Posters [1951], Eight Automobiles [1951], Le Corbusier Architcture Painting Design [1951], Good Design [1951], Posters From The New York Times [1951], Olivetti Design In Industry [1952], Recent Acquisitions [1953], Thonet Furniture [1953], Play Sculpture [1954], Junzo Yoshimra Japanese Exhibition House [1954-55], Matisse Chasubles [1955], Textiles and Ornamental Arts of India [1955], Textiles USA [1956], and Buildings For Government And Business [1957].
Terence Riley noted that the early tastemakers at MoMA understood their job was to separate "the wheat from the chaff." Few people rose to that challenge with more vigor than Philip Johnson, the young head of the Department of Architecture and Design. Alfred Barr's insistence on including Architecture and Design as a fully functioning department within MoMA was a radical curatorial departure, which seems only obvious today.
“The world’s first curatorial department devoted to architecture and design was established in 1932 at The Museum of Modern Art. From its inception, the collection has been built on the recognition that architecture and design are allied and interdependent arts, so that synthesis has been a founding premise of the collection. Including 28,000 works ranging from large-scale design objects to works on paper and architectural models, the Museum’s diverse Architecture and Design collection surveys major figures and movements from the mid-19th century to the present.
“Starting with the reform ideology established by the Arts and Crafts movement, the collection covers major movements of the 20th century and contemporary issues. The architecture collection documents buildings through models, drawings, and photographs, and includes the Mies van der Rohe Archive. The design collection comprises thousands of objects, ranging from appliances, furniture, and tableware to tools, textiles, sports cars—even a helicopter. The graphic design collection includes noteworthy examples of typography, posters, and other combinations of text and image.” [MoMA]
The Italian department store La Rinascente played an important part in the setting up of the Compasso d’Oro: A prize for good industrial design. Reopened after the war only in December 1950, La Rinascente was the leading department stores chain in Italy, with branches in all the major cities. La Rinascente offered a vast array of products, from toys to furniture, make-up to sport accessories. The firm thereby had a “natural” concern for the quality, functionality and aesthetics of their goods.
Being a company selling products of such great diversity, La Rinascente possessed valuable knowledge about the state of Italian industrial production, and was also an active importer. This led to another, and possibly more idealistic, motivation for their engagement; the desire for a national industry capable of making better products and of competing better with imported goods.
The prize itself—designed by Albe Steiner—was awarded the product, by assigning the golden compass to the producing company, and the silver compass, accompanied by 100000 lire, to the designer. One year later, in 1955, two additional awards were established; the Gran Premio Nazionale and the Gran Premio Internazionale. These were not intended for products, but for persons, companies or institutions that had contributed to the promotion of design in, respectively national and international context. Marcel Breuer received the first Gran Premio Internazionale La Rinascente's Compasso d’oro in 1955.
Lora Lamm (Switzerland, 1928 – ) followed the path of many notable Swiss designer when she moved to Milan to work for the renowned Studio Boggeri in 1953. After a few small projects for wrapping paper and chocolate wrappers, she was given the opportunity by fellow artist Max Huber to work in advertising and communications at the high-end La Rinascente department store founded in Milan in 1865. In 1958, Lora Lamm became head of La Rinascente’s creative department, where she worked until 1962, impressing her very personal style on catalogs, poster ads, brochures, and various other advertisement material. Her playful work captured the spirit of Postwar Italy with a mixture of graphics, photography and typography and was in great demand from clients such as Elizabeth Arden, Pirelli and Olivetti.