The Jazz Age American Style in the 1920’s at the Cooper Hewitt Museum until August 20, 2017. Poster for the exhibit on the fence outside the museum grounds.
One of the current exhibits at the Cooper Hewitt Museum, The Jazz Age, American Style in the 1920s, is a must see for any lover of Art Deco. The Cooper Hewitt, a division of the Smithsonian is the only museum in the United States devoted exclusively to historical and contemporary design. The Cooper Hewitt’s home is in the former Andrew Carnegie mansion at 5th Avenue and 91st Street, New York City. Completed in 1903 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966, the Cooper Hewitt opened there in 1976.
The Cooper Hewitt Museum and garden. Image from cooperhewitt.org
The Jazz Age Exhibition at the Cooper Hewitt Museum, New York City.
The Jazz Age is an exhibition in collaboration with the Cleveland Museum of Art. Encompassing all aspects of mid-1920’s through mid-1930’s modern design from furniture, to clothing to jewelry to art the exhibit is so large that it takes up two floors of the Cooper Hewitt. Going up the main staircase to the exhibit there are two large panels of wall covering from the Ziegfeld Theatre (1927-1966).
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- Joseph Urban’s mural panels for the Ziegfeld Theatre. Painted by Lillian Gaetner.
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- The Joy of Life mural panels from the Ziegfeld Theatre.
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- Ziegfeld Theatre panels by Joseph Urban on display at the Cooper Hewitt.
The interior of the Ziegfeld Theatre, showing a portion of Joseph Urban’s mural The Joy of Life. Image from Pinterest.
The panels are oil on canvas and are on loan from the collection of Richard H. Driehaus. Period photographs do not justice to the mural, it comes to life when seen in color. When entering the exhibit proper there is a remarkable mirror, lamp and console table.
Rose Iron Works mirror, console table and lamp, circa, 1930. On loan to the Cooper Hewitt from the Rose Iron Works Collection. Rose Iron Works, Cleveland, Ohio.
Paul Fehèr designed mirror for the Rose Iron Works, 1930.
Console table made by the Rose Iron Works in 1930. Designed by Paul Fehèr. Because of the Depression the table went unsold.
Paul Kiss Studio lamp circa, 1927. Purchased by the Rose Iron Works for inspiration when they began creating items in modern design.
Glass
Throughout the exhibit one can see many of the finest examples of glass produced in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Here are some examples that caught our eye.
French vase produced by Daum Frères, circa 1925 – 1930. Using animals as a decorative motif was popular in the Art Deco era. And especially popular was the leaping gazelle such as the one seen on this cased glass vase. This vase is on loan from the Dallas Museum of Art.
The Gazelle Bowl (Steuben Glass, Inc., 1935) designed by Sidney Waugh is prominently displayed on the second floor of the exhibit. This is one of the most iconic pieces of glass to come out of the era between the World Wars.
Steuben Glass’ Gazelle Bowl, 1935. Designed by Sidney Waugh.
The 1926 vase Tourbillons (Whirlwinds) designed by Suzanne Lalique went into production by René Lalique. Created through mass production pressing and hand-carving and accented with black enamel, it was a new look and technique in decorative glass. It was one of the French objects in Lord and Taylor’s 1928 Exposition of Modern French Decorative Art. One of the earliest shows in the United States of the new decorative style.
Tourbillons (Whirlwinds) Vase, 1926. Designed by Suzanne Lalique and put into production by René Lalique. Part of the Cooper Hewitt’s Product Design and Decorative Arts Department.
Another classic Lalique vase on display is the Beauvais Vase of 1931. Designed by Suzanne Lalique, like Tourbillons. It is part of the Cooper Hewitt’s Product Design and Decorative Arts department.
Suzanne Lalique’s Beauvais Vase of 1931. Put into production by René Lalique. Part of the Cooper Hewitt’s Product Design and Decorative Arts Department.
Two Walter Dorwin Teague designs for Steuben Glass made it into the exhibit. Teague hired on a one year contract to Steuben to make it the finest glass company in America. Using the then current Scandinavian trend of pale or colorless glass, one his designs was a spherical bowl. The bowl dates from 1932.
Steuben Glass bowl designed by Walter Dorwin Teague, 1932. In the Cooper Hewitt’s Product Design and Decorative Arts Department.
Walter Dorwin Teague’s Lens Bowl for Steuben Glass, 1932. Part of the Product Design and Decorative Arts department.
Teague derived his inspiration for the lens bowl from the glass lenses the Corning Glass Works produced from railroad signals and locomotive lights. Most of the glass Teague designed for Steuben ended production in 1933 when his contract with the company expired.
Ruba Rombic an Epic in Modern Art
In an enclosed case there are several pieces of this very rare glass. Designed by Reuben Haley for the Consolidated Glass Company, his inspiration came from items he had seen at the 1925 Paris Exposition. When debuted at the 1928 Pittsburgh Glass Fair one trade journal wrote:
“it is the craziest thing ever brought out in glassware . . . The first reaction is all but shock, yet the more pieces are studied, the more they appeal and there comes a realization that with all their distorted appearance they have a balance that is perfect and are true specimens of cubist art.”
Ruba Rombic was only in production for a few years. Due to the depression, Consolidated closed its doors in 1932. When they reopened in 1936 Ruba Rombic would no longer be part of their line. The cubism of the glassware, so avant-garde in the late 1920’s would have looked very dated by 1936 as streamlining became the popular new design form.
Ruba Rombic 10 inch vase in Jungle Green. Product Design and Decorative Arts collection – Cooper Hewitt.
Toilet Bottle in Smokey Topaz. Ruba Rombic was available in eight standard colors. Smokey Topaz and Jungle Green are the colors most commonly found. This bottle is part of the Cooper Hewitt’s Product Design and Decorative Arts collection.
7 inch vase in Jade (cased glass). Cased glass Ruba Rombic has a higher value than the clear colors of Jungle Green and Smokey Topaz. Product Design and Decorative Arts collection – Cooper Hewitt.
Furniture
So many iconic pieces of furniture were on display that it is hard to pick just a few for this post. But here are a few of our favorites –
Barcelona Chair
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chair (Model MR 90) of 1929. Manufactured by the Berliner Metallgewerbe in 1930. On loan from The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
This chair is often thought of as a Mid-Century Modern design. In actuality, van der Rohe created it in 1929 for the German Pavilion at the International Exposition, Barcelona, Spain. The chair so forward in its design that it is still in production to this day.
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- Exterior of the German Pavilion for the International Exposition, Barcelona, Spain. 1929. Photo from www. guggenheim.org
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- The interior of Ludwig Mies van der Rohde’s 1929 German Pavilion. Photo from http://thomortiz.tumblr.com/
Marcel Breuer’s B3 (Wassily) Chair
Marcel Breuer’s B3 Chair, better known as the Wassily chair. Designed in 1925 and manufactured in 1927, it was one of the first pieces of furniture to use tubular chrome steel. Tubular steel became a very popular modern furniture material during the interwar years. This chair is part of the permanent collection of the Cooper Hewitt.
Lounge, LC4
Designed by Le Corbusier, Charlotte Periand &
Pierre Jeanneret
Designed in 1928, the LC in the name stands for “long chair”. The lounge follows the human form. The LC4 is on loan from the Brooklyn Museum.
Corner Cabinet, ca. 1923
Jacques Ruhlmann
Corner Cabinet designed by Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann. Kingwood veneer on mahogany with ivory inlay. This piece is on loan from the Brooklyn Museum.
A corner cabinet designed by Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann in 1923 for the residence of A. Weitz of Lyon, France. Two years later Ruhlmann was one of the principal designers exhibiting at the 1925 Paris Exposition. His designs were a great influence at the start of the Art Deco era.
Skyscraper Bookcase Desk
Paul T. Frankl, ca. 1928
Frankl’s “Skyscraper” line of furniture captured the optimism and exuberance of the United States in the late 1920’s. The bookcase desk is quintessential of this line and how it mimics the setback look of then current construction trends.
Paul Frankl bookcase desk from his “Skyscraper” furniture line. On loan from the Grand Rapids Art Museum.
Donald Deskey
Table, ca. 1928
Donald Deskey table for the Ypsilanti Reed Furniture Company and Deskey-Vollmer, ca. 1928. Part of the Product Design and Decorative Arts department of the Cooper Hewitt Museum.
This table is a good example of Donald Deskey’s use of mixed media combining chrome with wood and a painted abstract detail.
K.E.M. Weber
Sideboard and Chair, 1928-29
Sideboard and chair designed by K.E.M. Weber in 1928. Green painted wood and faux leather. On loan from The Cleveland Museum of Art.
Los Angeles based industrial designer, architect and artist created this set in the late 1920’s. Pieces from this group can be seen in several films such as King of Jazz (Universal, 1930) and Trouble in Paradise (Paramount, 1932).
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- K.E.M. Weber 1928 desk in the 1930 Universal picture King of Jazz. Jeanne Lang and Laura Laplante. Image from Vitaphone Project Vitaphone News Vol. 10 No. 4
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- Madame Colet’s home office featuring a great Art Deco desk and a Kem Weber (1889 -1963) chair. Frame grab from The Criterion Collection DVD.
Airline Chair, 1934
1934 Airline Chair by K.E.M. Weber. Part of Cooper Hewitt’s Product Design and Decorative Arts Department.
One of the first assemble yourself pieces of furniture, K.E.M. Weber’s Airline Chair of 1934 is an iconic piece of streamline style furniture from the mid-1930’s. For more on Weber and this chair, check out this article by Ben Marks and Lisa Hix from Collector’s Weekly.
These are only a very few of the iconic Art Deco items in this amazing exhibit. If you like 20th Century design this is a don’t miss show. The exhibit runs through August 20th at the Cooper Hewitt Museum before moving to The Cleveland Museum of Art. In Cleveland land it will run from September 20, 2017 through January 14, 2018.
Anthony & Chris (The Freakin’, Tiquen’ Guys)
