Tag Archives: Art Deco

Art Deco and Modernism at the Brooklyn Museum

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Eastern Parkway entrance to the Brooklyn Museum.

The main entrance to the Brooklyn Museum on Eastern Parkway. Photo by Virginia Rollison from Timeout.com

The Brooklyn Museum, in its namesake borough of New York City, is a must destination for anyone with an interest in Art Deco. The museum’s collection encompasses many areas, but its decorative arts section is truly fantastic. Chris and I did visit the museum back 2016 and will revisit again once the pandemic is behind us. But the museum is currently open to visitors with reduced hours and limited number of admissions. Before visiting please check their website for their guidelines.

 

The Brooklyn Museum antecedents date back to 1823. The famed architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White designed the neoclassical building for the museum’s permanent home in the Park Slope section of the borough. Construction took place in stages between 1895 and 1927, with the museum doors opening in 1897. The museum is New York City’s third largest and holds over 1.5 million works in its collection. And the breadth of the their catalog is enormous. It embodies the artistic heritage of world cultures. It ranges from Egyptian and African art through works from the 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th and 21st centuries and disciplines from painting, sculptures and decorative arts. And the Brooklyn Museum’s collection of Art Deco and Modernist pieces is one of the best anywhere.

 

The Brooklyn Museum in 1910. Image from The New York Historical Society / Getty Images.

Museum of Arts and Science (Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences; Brooklyn Museum), Brooklyn, New York, New York, 1910. (Photo by Geo. P. Hall & Son/The New York Historical Society/Getty Images)

 

The Williamsburg Murals

One of the major pieces of modernist art in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum are the Williamsburg Murals. During the mid-1930s, New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia began a campaign to remove slum housing. Replacing them were new, low rent apartments having lots of natural light, green spaces and community rooms. One of the first of these projects, the Williamsburg Houses, was built between 1936 and 1937.

Architect William Lezcase (1896 – 1969) wanted art work to be part of the basement community rooms. Commissioning artists through the WPA’s Federal Art Project four individuals created the works for these spaces. But these are very unlike the usual WPA murals going up concurrently in Post Offices across the United States. Unlike the local history theme of most WPA murals these are bold and abstract, reminiscent of Bauhaus art. The commission for these works went to four American abstract artists, Ilya Bolotowsky, Balcomb Greene, Paul Kelpe and Albert Swinden. These were the first public murals of this kind in the United States.

 

Albert Swinden mural, circa 1939. From the Williamsburg Houses.

Untitled, oil on canvas. Williamsburg Mural by Albert Swinden, circa, 1939. Image from brooklynmuseum.org.

 

As the years passed the community rooms became offices or storage spaces and the murals suffering from neglect were painted over. Their rediscovery beginning in the late 1980s is an amazing story of art restoration. These murals on now on loan to the Brooklyn Museum from the New York City Housing Authority.

 

 

Untitled by Iyla Bolotowsky, one of the Williamsburg Murals.

Untitled by Iyla Bolotowsky on display at the Brooklyn Museum. Image from tru-vue.com.

 

Below are a few of the great objects in the museum’s collection.  Some of these pieces are on display in the Decorative Arts section on the fourth floor. While other not currently on exhibition are viewable in the Luce Visible Storage and Study Center on the fifth floor.

Ronson Touch-Tip

Circa 1935 Ronson Touch Tip lighter.

Louis V. Aronson. Cigarette Lighter, “Ronson Touch-Tip,” ca. 1935. Chrome and black-enameled metal, 3 3/8 x 4 3/8 x 2 1/4 in. (8.6 x 11.1 x 5.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of David A. Hanks.

Catalog Description

“Ronson Touch-Tip” model, streamlined, tugboat shaped tabletop lighter (a) with wick holder (b). Flat chrome-plated base rounded at one end, square at the other end. Incised all around with two parallel bands painted black. Chrome-plated turret-like top rounded on one side. Side elevation of top is quarter round curved down in back to meet base. All the vertical planes of the top are painted black. Three parallel chrome bands curve around the sides of the front extending about 1/3 of the length. On the horizontal plane at very top are a knob (b) attached to a flint that fits into hole and a finger depressor to activate mechanism.

 

Polaroid Desk Lamp Model #114

Walter Dorwin Teague Polaroid Desk Lamp, Model #114, 1939.

Walter Dorwin Teague (American, 1883-1960). Desk Lamp, Model #114, ca. 1939. Aluminum, plastic, 12 3/4 x 11 1/2 x 10 1/4 in. (32.4 x 29.2 x 26 cm). Brooklyn Museum, H. Randolph Lever Fund.

Catalog Description

Desk lamp, Model #114. Low, hemispherical brown plastic (bakelite?) base with a cylindrical metal switch at the front and the lamp stem at the rear; wire cord attached through bottom rear of base. Stem is an aluminum cone tapering out from bottom, rising at a slight angle; four vertical slots at bottom rear of stem. Top of the stem is an irregularly shaped half circle punctured with circles and four screws with plastic heads that attach to the shade. Brown plastic shade in general shape of three-dimensional isosceles trapezoid with basically straight sides but rounded on all edges, and widest at the front. Shade slopes downward on top toward the front. Center of shade is slightly raised with four slots for ventilation along the rear and two on each side of the raised section. Interior of shade is spray-painted white and has two metal reflectors, curved one at back and flat one on inside top; underside covered with a thin, soft piece of green or brown plastic, held in place by a wire frame (intended to produce glare-free light).

 

E & J Bass Company Cocktail Glasses and Ice Bucket

E & J Bass Company Cocktail Glasses and Ice Bucket, 1928.

Elsa Tennhardt (American, born Germany, 1899-1980). Stem Glass, Part of Five-piece Set, Patented 1928. Silver-plated brass, 4 7/8 x 2 3/4 x 2 3/4 in. (12.4 x 7 x 7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Designated Purchase Fund.

Catalog Description

Cocktail glass on stem, silver-plated brass; part of a set with ice bucket, stem glasses, and salt and peppershakers. Glass has triangular base and irregularly shaped, curving stem that supports inverted cone-shaped bowl with three applied, triangular decorative motifs.

 

Russel Wright Coffee Urn

Spun aluminum coffee urn designed by Russel Wright, 1935.

Russel Wright (American, 1904-1976). Coffee Urn, ca. 1935. Spun aluminum and walnut, 16 x 13 x 8 1/4 in. (40.6 x 33.0 x 21.0 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Paul F. Walter.

Catalog Description

Coffee Urn. Spun aluminum, wood. Spherical form on cylindrical stand. Spherical wood knobs on metal cylinders for handles, final, and pourer. Narrow cylindrical spout at base of sphere. Metal percolator basket with lid in interior.

 

Air King Radio

Air King plaskon radio, 1933.

John Gordon Rideout (American, 1898-1951). Radio, 1930-1933. Plaskon (plastic), metal, glass, 11 3/4 x 8 7/8 x 7 1/2 in. (29.8 x 22.5 x 19.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Purchased with funds given by The Walter Foundation.

Catalog Description

Radio, plastic case with metal and glass parts. Rectangular, box-like form of light green plastic with two narrow steps attached to each side. The front decorated with series of seven vertical striations from top to bottom, and four horizontal ones near base. Black on/off and volume buttons to right and left near base and large green tuning knob at center of face. Near top is metal (brass?) plaque showing a male and a female figure in ancient dress placing their hands in middle of abstracted symbol (for radio wave?).

 

Revere Normandie Pitcher

Chrome plated pitcher designed Peter Muller-Munk for the Revere Copper and Brass Company.

Peter Muller-Munk (American, born Germany, 1904-1967). “Normandie” Pitcher, ca. 1935. Chrome-plated brass, 12 x 3 x 9 1/2 in. (30.5 x 7.6 x 24.3 cm). Brooklyn Museum, H. Randolph Lever Fund.

Catalog Description

“Normandie” pitcher of chrome-plated brass. Streamlined, in plan, a teardrop shape with a flat, strap handle curving out from lip of rounded rear side of pitcher, and down to same rounded side of base. Body of pitcher comes to a point at front end, forming a straight line running from pouring spout to base. Top of pitcher dramatically raking up from handle at rear to point of pouring spout.

 

Weil-Worgelt Study

The extent of the change in 1930s modernism in less than a decade is seen to best advantage by a comparison of the Williamsburg Murals to the Weil-Worgelt Study of 1930. The biomorphic forms of the murals would soon become a popular furniture trend starting in the late 1930s. While the study is an excellent of the pure early style of French modernism of the 1920s.

 

The Weil-Worgelt Study, 1928-1930.

Alavoine of Paris and New York. Weil-Worgelt Study, ca. 1928-1930. Lacquer, glass, leather, veneered panels, 119 x 201 1/2 x 176 1/4 in. (302.3 x 511.8 x 447.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Raymond Worgelt,

Catalog Description

Designed by the New York office of the Parisian decorating firm Alavoine, this elegant study, made for an elite client, was a conservative interpretation of the Art Deco style; this can be seen in the geometric paneling of palisander and olive wood veneers and the large abstract lacquer panel, designed by Henri Redard and executed by Jean Dunand. A small, concealed bar, with etched glass walls that salute France, is hidden in the corner in defiance of Prohibition, which forbade alcohol consumption in the United States from 1919 to 1933. Interestingly, while this room was furnished in the Art Deco style, the public rooms in the rest of the Worgelt apartment were furnished in a more conservative French eighteenth-century-revival style.

 

 

So if you love Art Deco and / or Modernism and you find yourself in Brooklyn, stop in at the Brooklyn Museum, you’re sure to enjoy your visit.

 

Anthony & Chris (The Freakin’, Tiquen’ Guys)

 

Vanished New York City Art Deco – The Richard Hudnut Salon

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Detail rendering of the entrance to the Richard Hudnut Salon.

Architectural detail drawing of the entrance to the Richard Hudnut Salon at 693 Fifth Avenue. From a June 1, 1931 advertisement in the New York Times. Image from proquest.com.

In June 1931 the Richard Hudnut salon opened its new building at 693 Fifth Avenue. Here was another business contributing in making the ten block stretch from 50th to 60th Streets the most posh shopping center in the United States. It was New York’s equivalent of the Rue de la Paix in Paris or Bond Street in London. This is where all the high society ladies came to shop, lunch and gossip. And the chic, new Hudnut salon became one of their popular destinations. Ladies could purchase cosmetics, perfume, get a manicure, facial treatment or take exercise classes. The 1939 film The Women, perfectly parodies the Hudnut salon as the fictitious Sydney’s * (See Note).

 

Richard Hudnut circa, 1900.

Richard Hudnut, circa 1900. Image from cosmeticsandskin.com.

The son of a New York City pharmacist, Richard Hudnut (1855 – 1928) made his fortune as the first American to achieve international success in the cosmetic industry.  And after graduating from Princeton University, Hudnut went to France to investigate their perfume and cosmetic companies. Upon his return to the United States he established his company of selling French style makeup and perfumes to American women. He registered his name as a trademark in both France and the United States. And he transformed his family drugstore into a a cosmetics showroom. Hudnut eventually became so successful that he maintained business headquarters in New York City and Paris. Once making his fortune he retired in 1916. Hudnut sold his business to William R. Warner and Company. Under the new management the Hudnut company continued to flourish. So in 1930 they began construction of an elegant new Fifth Avenue showroom.

 

The commission for the building was awarded to two of the top architects of the time. This new Richard Hudnut Salon would be a collaboration between Ely Jacques Kahn (1884 -1 972) and Eliel Saarinen (1873 – 1950).

 

Ely Jacques Kahn, circa 1930.

Ely Jacques Kahn, circa 1930. Image from library.columbia.edu

 

By 1930 Kahn was one of the most prolific architects in New York City.  Working within the guidelines of the 1916 zoning resolution, his skyscrapers are text book examples of the set back style imposed by that law. Such buildings as 120 Wall Street, the Film Center Building, 100 Park Avenue and the Squibb Building are surviving examples of his best moderne work.

 

 

 

Eliel Saarinen, circa 1940.

Eliel Saarinen, circa 1940. Image from mfa.fi.

 

To label Finnish-American Saarinen just an architect is an understatement. Yes, he was an architect who had a major influence in the field. Similar to Frank Lloyd Wright, Saarinen often designed the interiors of his buildings along with the exteriors. Saarinen soon established himself as one of Finland’s top architects. After coming in second in the Chicago Tribune Tower competition, Saarinen and family moved to the United States in 1923. For the rest of his life, Saarinen continued as a leader not only in architecture but design as well.

 

The Architectural Forum said this about the collaboration:

If Ely Jacques Kahn and Eliel Saarinen should join forces in designing a shop building, the result would be interesting. As a matter of fact, they did and the result was. 

The Architectural Forum – September, 1931, Pg. 9.

Opening on June 1, 1931 the new Fifth Avenue building stood just north of 54th Street on a lot only 25 feet wide. The much larger Aeolian Building was right next door to the south. And whose ground floor tenant was the Hudnut cosmetic competitor, Elizabeth Arden.

 

New York Herald-Tribune ad ofJune 1, 1931 opening day advertisement for the Richard Hudnut Salon.

Richard Hudnut Salon opening day advertisement, June 1, 1931. New York Herald-Tribune, Pg. 32. Image from proquest.com.

 

The exterior design of the Hudnut salon fell solely to Saarinen. The narrow façade helped to make the building seem taller than its six stories. The only decoration of the marble clad façade were two implied pilasters and a simple friezelike pattern along the roofline.  At the street level two recessed bronze doors framing a shop window provided entrance to the salon. Elegant, raised Ambrac letters spelling Richard Hudnut were placed above the window. Saarinen’s clever trick of dividing the glazing of the upper floors into many panes, prevented the tenants from placing advertising in the windows.

 

The exterior the Richard Hudnut Salon, 1931.

The exterior of the Richard Hudnut Salon at 693 Fifth Avenue, 1931. Photograph by Nyholm & Lincoln. From the collection of The Museum of the City of New York.

Ground floor detail, Richard Hudnut Salon.

Ground floor detail of the Richard Hudnut Salon, 693 Fifth Avenue, 1931.(Photo by Irving Browning/The New York Historical Society/Getty Images)

 

As elegant as the exterior, the interior was even more so. Covering the terrazzo floor was a yellow and gray rug designed and woven by Loja Saarinen (wife of Eliel Saarinen). Adding to the richness of the salon was the casework and ceilings of zebra and primavera woods.

 

Door and woodwork detail on the ground floor of the Richard Hudnut salon.

Richard Hudnut door detail. This picture is a good example of the fine woodwork on the ground floor of the salon. Photograph by Nyholm & Lincoln. From the collection of The Museum of the City of New York.

A bold nickel silver frame surrounded the recessed gold dome of the lounge.  The woodwork and the bold metal work of circles and triangles was Kahn’s influence on the interior decoration. But all the elegant furniture is directly attributable to Saarinen.

 

1931 main room showroom and lounge.

Main floor showroom and lounge, 1931. Photograph by Nyholm & Lincoln. From the collection of The Museum of the City of New York.

 

Richard Hudnut Salon lounge ceiling detail, 1931.

Lounge ceiling detail showing dome and nickel silver frame, 1931. Photograph by Nyholm & Lincoln. From the collection of The Museum of the City of New York.

 

By taking a private elevator patrons gained access to the second floor reception. The mirror lined reception room led to the individual treatment rooms.

 

Second floor reception room.

Second floor salon reception room, 1931. Photograph by Nyholm & Lincoln. From the collection of The Museum of the City of New York.

Richard Hudnut Salon second floor reception room.

Another angle showing the second floor reception room and the decorative use of the wall mirrors, 1931. Photograph by Nyholm & Lincoln. From the collection of The Museum of the City of New York.

 

Dominating the ceiling of the reception room was a large light fixture. The mixed metal and glass, 8 point star infused the space with soft indirect lighting. It is likely this was another Kahn design.

 

Reception room ceiling light detail.

Reception room ceiling light detail. Photograph by Nyholm & Lincoln. From the collection of The Museum of the City of New York.

Second floor reception room lounge.

Lounge off the second floor reception room. Photograph by Nyholm & Lincoln. From the collection of The Museum of the City of New York.

Treatment room in the Richard Hudnut Salon.

The place to be pampered. A second floor treatment room of the Richard Hudnut Salon. Photograph by Nyholm & Lincoln. From the collection of The Museum of the City of New York.

 

In 1955 the Warner-Hudnut Company merged with Lambert Pharmacal Company. And it was around this time the Richard Hudnut Salon closed its doors. Today a Valentino designer store occupies the site of the salon and its neighbor to the north. While still an upscale establishment, it definitely lacks the elegance of the Kahn & Saarinen design of ninety years ago.

 

The Richard Hudnut Salon in 1948.

A 1948 photograph showing the Richard Hudnut Salon and its Fifth Avenue neighbors. The black and white doorway to the right is the Elizabeth Arden shop. Wurts Brothers photograph. Image from the Museum of the City of New York.

 

2019 view of 693 Fifth Avenue.

693 Fifth Avenue, June, 2019. Image from Google Maps.

 

* Originally I had mistakenly said the name of the fictitious salon in the movie The Women was Blacks. Laurie Gordon has correctly informed me that the salon in the film was Sydney’s. Thank you, Laurie.

Sources:

New York 1930: Architecture and Urbanism Between the Two World Wars

The Architectural Forum

Cosmeticsandskin.com

The New York Herald-Tribune

 

Anthony & Chris (The Freakin’, Tiquen’ Guys)