Think On It

Modern comes into its own

May 22nd, 2007

An article in the International Herald Tribune brings us up to date on what is happening to items of classic modern design. With the exception of a very few– as these things go– forward looking collectors, great modern design has suffered a good deal of neglect.

There was a brief flush of appreciation in the early mid-1900s, but overall the consuming public has rejected modern design for comfort-design that evoked their own or someone else’s past. Maybe they didn’t have the required confidence in their own taste or maybe they were more comfortable with giving the illusion that they came from families that passed their furniture down. Looking at the market for new furniture and objects of design, the hugest part was given to replica or copy or just plain fake period furniture, then cheap modern like IKEA, and last of all came the real thing. There seemed to be a sentiment that tried and true was the way to go, and every new version of charming reproduction design jumped onto shelter magazine pages and then into wish lists and finally into homes.

Now, slowly building, is a growing market for genuine pieces of invention from the minds of modern designers. Because so little was sold, the remains are few and the prices are becoming astronomical.

As a designer who did design furniture, I can say that the demand for it was slim at best and was meant to finish in eclectic rooms, as if perhaps it were not so shocking to see not-Chippendale if it kept company with Queen Anne. Over the centuries various designers had perfected various pieces. I always felt there was no reason to re-invent the wheel. I have a Sheraton chair and I used it to make sure every chair I designed was comfortable and safe. No chair I ever designed would tip over when you got up suddenly, thanks to Sheraton. You could sit in it for hours thanks to Sheraton. There were never that many demands for especially designed chairs because a chair is relatively impractical to make by hand. It takes a long time and extremely large pieces of highest quality wood. And even fifteen years ago a single chair designed and made to order cost many thousands of dollars. I feel privileged to have had any opportunities at all to design chairs.

Tables are easier and cheaper to do and there was a larger demand for them. I left the eastern part of the United States sprinkled with new tables. Overall, however, no one, and especially not I, left a large collection of designs never seen before. That’s the reason why the rising interest in modern design is so satisfactory to me. There’s little possibility that our era will get a name like Chippendale and kings and queens have long ago stopped being patrons of the arts. Most recent designers will pass the scene and if their designs live on many will remain entitled as anonymous designer. The avant garde mostly did not become famous.

Throughout the world are museums that feature great modern design, usually manufactured designs. Art furniture has been neglected in those collections. It’s worth the effort to see them, however, and to know that our era hasn’t been one in which invention died.

Here are a few links to museums in places you might find yourself.

Design Museum London

Moma New York

Wolfsonian Miami Beach, Florida

Various resources in Texas

Trapholt DK

Bauhaus Germany, which claims to be the world’s largest.

Monteral Museum of Fine Arts Montreal, CA

Other fine museums around the world feature expositions and shows. The Pompidou Centre in Paris is a reliable resource for great modern art, with changing features. The Metropolitan Museum in New York doesn’t exclude modern design, although it is not her strength. There are several Japanese museums that have wonderful collections but the links are to pages in Japanese, so I haven’t listed them.

No one knows better what there is to see than a native. It would give me a lot of pleasure if you would leave the names of other museums that show modern design objects. Who knows, I may one day be in your town and I would definitely go to see what has been recognized in your country.

The chair at the top of this post is the Aeron Chair designed by Don Chadwick and Bill Stumpf and manufactured by Herman Miller. I know this chair and find it just about the most comfortable way to work there is. It makes part of the collection in London. Another interesting note is that the 1970s are represented almost exclusively in Italian designs. That was the pinnacle of Italian design influence and is the reason I first came to Italy in 1973.

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