AMERIKANSK BRUGSKUNST
[Udvalgt Af Museum Of Modern Art, New York]
Edgar Kaufmann, Jr. [introduction]
Edgar Kaufmann, Jr. [introduction]: AMERIKANSK BRUGSKUNST [Udvalgt Af Museum Of Modern Art, New York]. København: Kunstindustrimuseet, Juni 1954. First edition. Text in Danish. Slim Octavo. Thick printed photo illustrated wrappers. Unpaginated 48 pp. 16 black and white reproductions. A fine, fresh copy. Rare, with OCLC Worldcat locating only two copies worldwide.
5.75 x 8.5 stapled softcover catalog with 48 pages and 16 black and white reproductions. Catalog for an exhibition at the Kunstindustrimuseet, Kopenhagen from June of 1954 coordinated by the United States Information Service in Denmark. Catalog of an exhibition in Copenhagen of modern American design selected by MOMA in New York, with a 4-page introduction by Edgar Kaufman Jr. translated into Danish.
Photos of furniture, tableware, kitchenware, pottery, etc. designed by Charles Eames, George Nelson, Hal Painter, Katavolos Littell Kelley, Eugene F. Bunker, W. A. Welden, Rex Stevens, Joseph Gerber, Allan Gould, Richard Stambaugh, James Rosati, Frances Senska, Alan Adler, John Prip, James Prestini, Harry Bertoia, George Nakashima, Jens Risom, Russel Wright, Harry Osaki, Clayt Laughlin, Thomas Lamb, Harold Elborg, Frans Wildenhain, Dorothy Liebes, Eva Zeisel, Vladimir Kagan, Trudi and Harold Sitterle, Eleanor Forbes, and Don Knorr.
Edgar Kaufmann Jr. (1910 – 1989) studied painting and typography in Europe before serving as an apprentice architect at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin Foundation from 1933 to 1934. The Kaufmanns of Pittsburgh commissioned two of the iconic American residences of the 20th-century, Wright’s Fallingwater in 1936 and then Richard Neutra’s Palm Springs Desert House in 1946. Edgar Jr. joined the Museum of Modern Art in 1946 as director of the Industrial Design Department, a position he held until 1955. While at MoMA, he initiated the Good Design program (1950–1955) and was a strong proponent of uniform industrial design education standards.