Posts Tagged ‘le corbusier’

ALTHOUGH THE Art Deco style had its origins and greatest success in the West, it also found voice in the East.
INDIAN GLAMOUR
Despite a strain of social conservatism and an economy that remained sluggish and underdeveloped, Indian designers welcomed the aesthetic ideals and stylish visual viewpoint promoted by the fashionable modern taste for Art Deco favoured by the colonialists. Appreciation for, and support of, the Art Deco style was also fostered by designers who had emigrated to India from Central and Eastern Europe, taking with them a
keen knowledge of the style, along with a calculated eye to receiving patronage from wealthy, cultivated, and influential benefactors.
At the heart of the Art Deco style in India was Mumbai (then called Bombay), the centre of international communication and a thriving port. Here, the mercantile classes and the Westernized ruling communities came together with the development of the Back Bay area between 1929 and 1940. The Development Trust insisted that all the buildings conform to the same architectural style to ensure “uniformity and harmony of design”. The style was an elegant, streamlined, yet decorated
form of Art Deco. By the end of the 1930s, Bombay contained nearly 300 cinemas, all of which were glamorous Art Deco palaces, both inside and
out. The sophisticated and luxurious residences commissioned by wealthy Indian princes also reflected the Art Deco style. The furniture often combined the “high-style” French Art Deco with native decorative traditions.
EAST ASIAN AFFINITY
During the 1920s and 1930s, a lot of the Japanese and Chinese architecture, interiors, and furnishings were inspired by the Art Deco style. Much of Art Deco’s inspiration — simple design,
spare, nature-inspired decoration, and the use of sumptuous, exotic materials such as lacquer, ivory, and mother-of-pearl — came from the traditions of East Asia in the first place, so there was
already an affinity between the two.
Throughout Japan, and especially in Tokyo, economic and industrial development after World War I was accompanied by democratization and cultural change. Western ideas were promoted through exhibitions and’
The abstract curving lines are executed in different
The curved, geometric handle enuilales tho linc, of the top of tl)(, ctrl and lock, the
The outer frame is created from one continuous piece of bent Wood publications, and by Western designers themselves. The Tokyo earthquake of 1923 left a devastated city ripe for renewal, and many of the new buildings reflected the Art Deco style. Numerous cinemas, cafes, and dance halls were built, their interiors filled with modern materials such as aluminium, glass, and stainless steel.
In China’s thriving metropolis of Shanghai the spirited Art Deco style was appropriated and assimilated by
The Umaid Bhawan palace, Jodhpur, India
Known as the “Paris of the East”, Shanghai was a prosperous and cosmopolitan city of business and pleasure. The American Art Deco style dominated in the new high-rise hotels, apartment blocks, offices, department stores, cafes, and restaurants.
The 12-storey Cathy Hotel, built by Palmer & Turner in 1932, set the tone, with its green pyramidal roof and Art Deco features. The Grand Theatre, designed by Czech-Hungarian emigre Laszio Hudec, was a monument to Hollywood glamour with its sparkling Art Deco interior, complete with a  lohby and neon lighting.

This large Chinese screen has a striking central panel made of jade, which is carved to depict a pavilion and figures under pine trees. The panel is set within a fretwork frame. c-1930.
JAPANESE CHEST
CHINESE HARDWOOD CABINET
of the two outer drawers. The upper shelf above each drawer is formed from a piece of wood cut out of the side of the chest and bent horizontally. Black lacquer is used to define the outer rim of each of the doors and to set off the abstract design that decorates them. The curving, asymmetrical patterning in shades of red, orange, and gold blend with the overall streamlined form of the chest as well as contrast with its symmetry. 1937.
This boldly curving, geometric chest features a trailing smoke design in gold and coloured lacquer. It was designed by the leading Kyoto lacquer artist Suzuki Hyosaku 11, who was a member of Ryukeiha Kogefkai (the Streamline School Craft Association). Continuous pieces of bent wood create the outer frame, the frames of the two central doors, and those
The case of this cabinet is rectangular in outline with rounded corners. Two panelled doors open onto two sections, one with two shelves. The case stands on moulded bracket feet. c.1930.
CHINESE JADE TABLE SCREEN
The drawer handle is shaped like the individual elements of the patterns.

Nowhere was the desire for the fashionable and the modern better demonstrated than in the luxurious palaces designed by Western architects for the wealthy and sophisticated Indian princes.
One such palace, built with an eye for practical considerations as well as for the latest style, was built by the German architect Eckart Muthesius. Commissioned in 1930 by the Oxford-educated Maharajah of Indore, Yeshwant Rao Holkar, Muthesius designed an air-conditioned, “U”-shaped palace known as Manik Bagh. Containing private apartments, as well as a large ballroom, a banqueting hall, and guest rooms, it had a steel frame, concrete walls, and a wooden roof.
Muthesius was personally responsible for designing all the interiors and created a stylish and modern palace to Art Deco, resplendent with sparkling golden-yellow walls. Nearly all of the fittings that he designed, from
Manik Bagh side table This table was designed by Muthesius. The ultra-modern geometric form of the table echoes the “U” shape of the palace.1930-33.
floors and window frames to light fittings, switches, and door handles, were ordered from companies in Germany and shipped out to India. The furniture was bought from some of the best French designers, mainly from the Union des Artistes Modernes.
Muthesius furnished the palace with lavish pieces made from sumptuous materials. The Maharajah’s study contained fine Macassar ebony furniture by Emile-Jacques Ruldruann, while his bedroom featured an armchair by Eileen Gray and a chaise longue by Le Corbusier, covered in leopardskin. The beds in the palace were made of aluminium and chrome, and the deep leather armchairs had Frames of chrome-plated band iron and built-in reading lamps. There were also plush carpets by Ivan da Silva Bruhns, and silverware by Jean Puiforcat.
Tubular steel side chair This chrome-plated chair is covered in brilliant red vinyl and was commissioned by Muthesius for Manik Bagh. 1930-33.
JAPANESE SCREEN
This wooden screen was designed by Ban-ura Shogo. The spare, asymmetric pattern of flowers and foliage was created with different-coloured lacquers and is typical of Japanese design. It provides a decorous foil for the geometric shape of the screen. 1936.
JAPANESE RADIO
This wooden hyperbolic radio was designed by Inoue Hikonosuke. Lacquer was a favourite material for Japanese designers working in the Art Deco style. The powerful stylized flower shapes of luminous gold highlighted with silver foil stand proud against the glossy black-lacquer background. 1934.

The late 1920s saw the emergence of a Modern movement” of innovative American furniture designers. Inspired by European immigrants, including several key members of the Bauhaus, they explored new materials such as tubular metal. American Modernism was relatively small-scale, but it set the stage for a generation of industrial designers who from the mid-1930s reshaped interiors with enormous flair.
American Art Deco furniture falls into three broad categories: commercial copies of formal French pieces in exotic wood veneers and inlay; innovative and avant-garde work, which was never produced in large quantities and is scarce today; and industrially produced, mostly metallic and laminated wood furniture, based loosely on Bauhaus concepts. Produced from the 1930s until after World War II, this third category is much collected today.
PAUL T. FRANKL
Frankl (1886-1958), an Austrian architect and engineer, emigrated to the USA at the outbreak of World War I. He began designing and manufacturing furniture in New York City c.1920, working in a traditional European formal style. By the mid-1920s he was designing economical, compact, practical, modular furniture, inspired in part by the architect–designers Walter Gropius (1883-1969) and Le Corbusier (1887-1965). The best Frankl furniture (1925–c.1930), produced Linder the tradename “Skyscraper”, was inspired by the evolving New York skyline. Bookcases and tall cabinetry of stepped, rectilinear form are typical, often with a black, red, or pale-green lacquer finish with silver-leaf edging. Natural woods, including California redwood and oak, were also used, with a red, black, or silver trim.

Dressing tables, desks, and mirrors arc also found, often with mirrored-glass tops or shelving and Bakelite drawer-pulls, which suggest a slightly later date. Bookcase cabinets usually have simple wooden pulls. Skyscraper furniture was designed to be economical, and standards of cabinetry are basic.
During the inter-war years Oriental interiors were extremely fashionable in the USA, and Frankl produced lacquered furniture such as dining-chairs, cocktail bars, dressing-tables, and small tables, usually in black, pale green, or red with gold- or silver-leaf details, sometimes with brass fittings. This furniture is less popular than the Skyscraper range, because collectors prefer pure, Modernist lines, particularly if they evoke the works of the Dutch
painter Piet Mondrian, who was
also inspired by mid-1920s New
York architecture.
DONALD DESKEY
The designer Donald Deskey
(1894-1989) collaborated with Frankl during the late 1920s,
designing screens and large
cabinetry in lacquered and metallic-leaf finish with vivid, jazzy
decoration featuring zigzags. He also produced more mainstream designs for numerous other American manufacturers, working mostly in hardwood veneers. He is best known as the principal interior designer for New York’s Radio City Music Hall,
which preserves many of his pieces in situ. Pieces with Radio City provenance occasionally appear on the market and are eagerly sought.
Between 1927 and 1931 Deskey worked in partnership with Phillip Vollmer, designing furniture in Bauhaus taste, made of metal and glass, sometimes together with Bakelite and cork. Most of Deskey’s work is unsigned, but his designs are well recorded in contemporary catalogues, and many specialist dealers in the USA recognize them.
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) is one of the best-known and most influential American architects and designers. Any designs attributed to him command a premium, particularly the Modernist oak creations from the first decade of the 20th century. However, his later post-war commercial furniture, mostly oak and maple tables and low, horizontal seating, is currently of little more than decorative value.
Most of Wright’s work cannot be considered Art Deco, but some of his furniture of the inter-war years appeals to Art Deco enthusiasts. The best examples were designed for Wright’s residential buildings, and are therefore extremely scarce. Pieces for commercial interiors were made in larger numbers and are more common today. Enamelled metal furniture, such as that made for Wright’s S.C. Johnson Administration Building (Wisconsin) in 1937, and several types of wooden chair are relatively common on the market.

THE CRANBROOK ACADEMY OF ART
In 1925 the Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen (18731950) began work on the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, near Detroit, Michigan. In 1932 he became president and art director of the academy, serving there until his death. The building retains many of the original furnishings that he designed.
In most of Saarinen’s designs a formal, Scandinavian influence is evident in the elegant lines and relatively small scale, although some are comparable to the more organic style of the Wiener WerkstRte designer Dagobert Peche (1887-1923). Saarinen preferred rich wood veneers and natural materials, which he sometimes Used in combination with steel or polished metal.
The Cranbrook Academy, like the German Bauhaus school, is best known for its influential alumni. The most celebrated Cranbrook graduates from the 1930s are Florence Knoll (b.1917), whose name appears on much American Modernist furniture made under her direction; Charles Eames (1907-78), who designed laminated wood, leather, and fibreglass furniture for the Herman Miller Co. and others from the late 1930s; and Eero Saarinen (1910-61), Eliel Saarinen’s son, who collaborated with Eames as well as pursuing an independent career as both an architect and a furniture designer. Popular designs were produced over several decades (some are still made); earlier pieces can be identified by tags and generally higher-quality craftsmanship, as well as by wear and tear. Followers of Eames whose work is of interest to collectors include Gilbert Rohde (1894-1944), who designed Bauhaus-influenced tubular steel furniture produced by the Herman Miller Co., and George Nelson (1907-86).
OTHER AMERICAN ART DECO FURNITURE During the 1930s, American Modernism took root throughout the USA, partly because so economical a style of design was appropriate to a country in the grip of the Depression. Leading designers include Russel Wright (1904-76), Walter Dorwin Teague (1883-1960), and Raymond Loewy (1893-1986), who all specialized in industrial-style commercial products and lighting, using new materials such as aluminium, chrome, and plastic. Karl Emmanuel Martin (”Ke”) Weber ,1889-1963) studied under Bruno
Paul in Berlin before moving to California in 1914. He designed both individually commissioned and mass-produced furniture, typically in laminated wood, chromed metal, and sprung steel.
The architect Eugene Schoen 1880-1957) designed elegant furniture in Modernist materials including glass and nickel. Examples of tubular steel furniture influenced by the
Bauhaus include -pieces designed by Wolfgang Hoffman (1900-69), son of the famous Austrian designer Josef Hoffman (1870-1956), during the 1930s. Prestigious firms included John Widdicomb, Johnson Furniture, and Barker Brothers Furniture Co., all in Los Angeles, and S. Karpen of Chicago, all of which employed leading designers.

Paul T. Frankl
•    COLLECTING rarely found outside New York City; Oriental style is less popular than Skyscraper; collectors prefer signed pieces in unrestored condition; surface restoration is common as decoration is easily worn
Marks
Authentic Skyscraper pieces are stamped “SKYSCRAPER FURNITURE, Frank) Galleries, 4 East 48th Street, New York”
Donald Deskey
•    VALUE interesting provenance, such as Radio City Music Hall, adds greatly to value
•    COLLECTING Deskey-Vollmer signed pieces are more desirable than Deskey’s later, traditional designs; vivid, jazzy designs are very collectable – beware of fakes
Marks
Some pieces of Deskey-Vollmer have a metal tag
Frank Lloyd Wright
•    COLLECTING Art Deco style is less valuable than pieces from c.1900 to 1910, but more valuable than post-1945 pieces; original condition is all-important; provenance from notable interior schemes adds greatly to value
Marks
Wright furniture is rarely marked, but is well documented and easily identifiable through style
Saarinen and The Cranbrook Academy of Art
•    COLLECTING Saarinen: designs are scarce but well documented; Eames: very collectable, particularly early work
Other designers
•    COLLECTING identifiable pieces by lesser-known American designers are rare but still not greatly sought after; provenance is important in determining value; commercial furniture is less valuable than domestic
Marks
Pieces are rarely signed by the designer but may bear a maker’s or retailer’s mark; Weber pieces may bear a tag from Lloyd Manufacturing Co.