WHAT IS MODERN INDUSTRIAL DESIGN?
Museum of Modern Art Bulletin, Vol XIV No 1, Fall 1946
Edgar Kaufmann, Jr.
New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1946. First edition [The Museum of Modern Art Bulletin, Vol. XIV, No. 1, Fall 1946]. Stapled printed wrappers. 16 pp. 13 black and white images. Cover illustration by Herbert Matter, adopted from "Arts and Architecture." Interior unmarked and clean. Wrappers lightly dulled withh one small closed tear to lower corner [see scan], but a very good or better copy. Uncommon.
7.5 x 10 stapled softcover bulletin with 16 pages and 13 black and white photographs and diagrams. Includes work by Charles and Ray Eames, Eva Zeisel, Edward Wormely, William Armbruster, Dorothy Liebes, and Florence Forst. All Eames photography credited to Herbert Matter.
Excellent snapshot of the Charles Eames molded plywood furniture before Herman Miller contracted with Evans Plywood for distribution. A very unusual piece of original ephemera showcasing the most significant line of modern furniture ever produced.
Contents:
- The Department of Industrial Design
- What Is Modern Industrial Design?
- The Collections and Advisory Services of the Industrial Design Department
- Exhibitions of Industrial Design in the Museum of Modern Art
- Photographs of Industrial Design Exhibitions, 1946 (Charles Eames dining table and chair, arrangement of unit cases and bench, conversation chairs, coffee table, tilt-back chair; Eva Zeisel Castleton china-ware; Edward Wormley Dunbar upholstered furniture; William Armbruster coffee table; Dorothy Liebes Goodall fabrics; Florence Forst earthen-ware serving plate, tea cup, pitcher, and tumblers)
- Design Exhibitions of the Museum of Modern Art
- Design Exhibitions Especially Prepared with the Department of Circulating Exhibitions
- Design Publications of the Museum of Modern Art
- The Museum of Modern Art Bulletin (issues devoted to design were Machine Art, Nov. 1933; Bauhaus Exhibition, Dec. 1938; Useful Objects under $10, Jan. 1940; Posters for Defense, Sept. 1941, and Useful Objects in Wartime, Dec. 1942)
- Museum Staff for Design Activities
- Exhibitions (upcoming ones are: Fourteen Americans, Arch Lauterer, Modern Handmade Jewelry, Florine Stettheimer, Useful Objects 1946, and Henry Moore)
- Museum Notes
- Young People's Gallery
- Information for Members
Publications Art in Modern Ballet Organizational Changes 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.
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.