Why Not Modern Lamps, Too?
Written By: Joan Gahan
“People think nothing of having a modern car, a modern bathroom and a thoroughly modern kitchen. It’s about time for them to bring their living rooms up to date.”
Zahara Schatz, Jerusalem-born painter and lamp designer, was expressing an opinion enthusiastically shared by four other prize-winners in a lamp competition jointly sponsored by the Museum of Modern Art and the Heifetz Lamp Co.
Their lamps, which go on public exhibition tomorrow along with 10 other award-winning designs, are unusual in appearance, in some cases seemingly unprecedented.
May Seem ‘Peculiar.’
While no two of the lamps are alike, they all have a salient point in common: All of them may very likely impress visitors to the Museum and to Macy’s (where 10 of the 15 competition lamps are available) as “peculiar.”
In exclusive interviews, the World-Telegram and Sun put five of the designers against the wall, daring them to justify their designs, if they could, and explain the logic behind adjustable tripod bases, hyperboloid bulb casings and pivot shades on counterbalance shafts.
The four top winners, all of them young men from the Mid-West, were interviewed at the Museum. Miss Schatz, whose lamp won an honorable mention, was discovered hard at work in her studio. Yet, in essence, their views proved to be very much the same, their arguments similarly convincing to the ear.
‘But They’re Wrong.’
“I don’t say that we’re right,” insisted Joseph Burnett, a 27-year-old student of architecture who won first prize. “But I do say thatpeople who expect a contemporary lamp to look like a degenerated kerosene lamp are wrong.”
“We’re trying to do just what people once tried to do with candlelight and kerosene light. But we’re working with incandescent light.”
In the process of justifying their individual designs, the young men arrived at a general definition of a lamp: A means of controlling illumination from a specific source with the idea of providing as much flexibility as possible for different lighting needs, both general and specific.
Exceptionally Flexible.
Using this as a standard for further investigation, the features of the lamps which might otherwise be considered eccentric seem to explain themselves.
All of the lamps are exceptionally flexible, allowing for a shift in the direction of the light source itself and a complementary adjustment in the shade or reflector. The lamp which won a second prize for Anthony Ingolia can be used on a table or hung on a wall; the third prize winner, designed by James H. Crate, can be turned upside down or on its side, depending on the lighting needs of the moment; and a special prize floor lamp created by Gilbert Watrous stretches its long “neck” skyward or down to the floor with equal ease.
Means to Something Else.
Like all of the young men, dark-haired Zahara Schatz is well aware of what public resistance the lamps may encounter.
“People will say the lamps are cold, merely because they have no decorations,” she sighed. “But a lamp is not to be looked at, like a piece of sculpture. A lamp is a means, a means to something else.” In this case, a means to versatile lighting.
New York World Telegram
Why Not Modern Lamps, Too?
Written By: Joan Gahan
“People think nothing of having a modern car, a modern bathroom and a thoroughly modern kitchen. It’s about time for them to bring their living rooms up to date.”
Zahara Schatz, Jerusalem-born painter and lamp designer, was expressing an opinion enthusiastically shared by four other prize-winners in a lamp competition jointly sponsored by the Museum of Modern Art and the Heifetz Lamp Co.
Their lamps, which go on public exhibition tomorrow along with 10 other award-winning designs, are unusual in appearance, in some cases seemingly unprecedented.
May Seem ‘Peculiar.’
While no two of the lamps are alike, they all have a salient point in common: All of them may very likely impress visitors to the Museum and to Macy’s (where 10 of the 15 competition lamps are available) as “peculiar.”
In exclusive interviews, the World-Telegram and Sun put five of the designers against the wall, daring them to justify their designs, if they could, and explain the logic behind adjustable tripod bases, hyperboloid bulb casings and pivot shades on counterbalance shafts.
The four top winners, all of them young men from the Mid-West, were interviewed at the Museum. Miss Schatz, whose lamp won an honorable mention, was discovered hard at work in her studio. Yet, in essence, their views proved to be very much the same, their arguments similarly convincing to the ear.
‘But They’re Wrong.’
“I don’t say that we’re right,” insisted Joseph Burnett, a 27-year-old student of architecture who won first prize. “But I do say thatpeople who expect a contemporary lamp to look like a degenerated kerosene lamp are wrong.”
“We’re trying to do just what people once tried to do with candlelight and kerosene light. But we’re working with incandescent light.”
In the process of justifying their individual designs, the young men arrived at a general definition of a lamp: A means of controlling illumination from a specific source with the idea of providing as much flexibility as possible for different lighting needs, both general and specific.
Exceptionally Flexible.
Using this as a standard for further investigation, the features of the lamps which might otherwise be considered eccentric seem to explain themselves.
All of the lamps are exceptionally flexible, allowing for a shift in the direction of the light source itself and a complementary adjustment in the shade or reflector. The lamp which won a second prize for Anthony Ingolia can be used on a table or hung on a wall; the third prize winner, designed by James H. Crate, can be turned upside down or on its side, depending on the lighting needs of the moment; and a special prize floor lamp created by Gilbert Watrous stretches its long “neck” skyward or down to the floor with equal ease.
Means to Something Else.
Like all of the young men, dark-haired Zahara Schatz is well aware of what public resistance the lamps may encounter.
“People will say the lamps are cold, merely because they have no decorations,” she sighed. “But a lamp is not to be looked at, like a piece of sculpture. A lamp is a means, a means to something else.” In this case, a means to versatile lighting.
New York World Telegram