Pioneers in Design Exhibit Their Best
Written By: Margaret Hohly
Under the title “Experimentals,” one of the most unusual exhibitions ever shown in an art gallery is now open to the public at the Art Alliance. All the galleries are devoted to, the exhibit, which features pioneer work in materials and methods of expression.
New substances and designs to enhance the charm of the home have an important place in the show. The latest designs of Charles Eames, a leading exponent of home fashions are shown. His newest furniture, a series of chairs, are ingeniously constructed of plastics and fiber glass. Salterini is showing attractive chairs combining non-rust metal, for the frame, with rush and rattan seats and backs.
The firm of La Verne Originals, Inc., has the most fascinating coffee table seen in many a year. It is extremely long and very narrow. Its legs are made of metal hoops much like croquet wickets and the top of the table consists entirely of dowels. Several pieces of Russel Wright’s first furniture collection will also be on view.
There are lamps galore, but the one which gets our vote is topped by a large translucent white frame. The base is a piece of clear bent plastic. This lamp has an ordinary plug with an ordinary wire attached to it, but the wire seems to run from the wall socket right up to the base and then disappear, the light looks as if it functioned by osmosis. However, Zahara Schatz, its designer, will tell you that it took lots more than a magic wand to make it light. Actually the wire was stripped of its insulating material and the strands separated and worked in an intricate design between the two layers of plastic. It’s a beautiful conversation piece for any modern living area.
If you live in a city apartment and don’t want to subject a real canine to its confining area, there is a large, perky dream dog about the size of the biggest French poodle, made entirely of aluminum wires. His expression is alert and attentive and his coiled wire tail is ready to wag happily at you.
The latest trends in wall paper will be exhibited by Kayser and Allman. One paper, made by a new technique in blueprint wall paper processes called “Serendae.” Another called “The Little Golden Book Paper’’ is done in a design repeating illustrations from the book of the same title. Finally, there is Williamsburg scenic paper made by at new silk screen process.
Newest in floor coverings and interior decorating fabrics are also displayed. Most of the carpeting shown is man-made fabrics including orlon, rayon and nylon. There is one carpet which is machine-woven to simulate hand carving.
One entire gallery will be devoted to the work of Rolf Nesch. He has combined several techniques to produce what he calls metal prints. Begining with a copper plate, he draws his basic design with an etching tool, but from there on he departs from accepted forms and works toward a truly three-dimensional effect by soldering pieces of metal wires, screening and other metal pieces to the plate. Often these additions are flexible giving an almost mobile-like quality to the whole. His use of color is also unusual and bold.
Throughout the show, which lasts until June 10, there will be a series of lectures on print making, the latest developments in plastics and the latest trends in French music. A program of experimental movies also will be shown.
The Evening Bulletin - Philadelphia
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