The best of Mid-Century Modern is on display and for sale this weekend
The show featured all that and more - Exhibitors displayed goods that spanned a period from the 1930's through the 1960's, and covered a number of diverse movements, from the Prairie school of Architecture to the Scandinavian influenced lines of furniture manufactured in the '50's and '60's.
The furniture classed as Mid-Century Modern is often referred to as Scandinavian Contemporary, being that a number of the primary designers were of Scandinavian extraction. Some of the biggest names, such as Eero Saarinen (tulip chair, St Louis Arch, tons of churches), Arne Jacobson (swan & egg chairs, SAS hotel) ) and Alvar Aalto (the still sleek Paimio chair, Finlandia Hall, those stools in every Apple store) were born in Scandinavian countries.
Eero Saarinen, one of the most influential architects and industrial designers of the 20th century, was born in Finland and immigrated to the United States when his father, noted architect Eliel Saarinen, moved to Chicago in the hopes of winning a building design competition (The senior Saarinen took second in that competition, but went on to design a number of buildings and had a huge influence on the look of 20th century architecture).
Not-so Scandinavian Mr. and Mrs Charles and Ray Eames (born in St Louis and Sacramento, USA), college chums of Eero and creators of the most well-known (and thus most overexposed) piece of furniture in history, the Eames chair, were very much a part of the Mid-Century Modernist movement, primarily on the West Coast. Their influence cannot be understated. Examples of their work was well in evidence.
Can you spot the Eames in this picture? Concentrate, it'll come to you.Other prominent architects and designers, such as Le Corbusier ( LC series of chrome and leather chairs, the Open Hand sculpture) Mies van der Rohe (of "less is more" and Barcelona chair renown) and Walter Gropius (Bauhaus) were also not of Scandinavian extraction, but their work was identified with the Scandinavian look simply because they all hailed from Europe and the clean lines and functionality of their designs was very similar.
I didn't see much of their work, which was a surprise.
The influence of late 19th, early 20th century Arts & Crafts pioneers such as the Stickley brothers, Frank Lloyd Wright, Harvey Ellis, C.R.Macintosh, the Roycrofters, and others is obvious in the clean lines and utilitarian designs. Much of the furniture considered Mid-Century Modern looks a lot like Craftsman design made thinner and curvilinear.
The art on display was a good mix of what was once termed Avant Garde and Industrial until the word Modernism was coined. The artists I most closely associate with Modernism are Piet Mondarian and Joan Miro, but I saw no examples of their work anywhere.
There was an art show featuring the work of contemporary artists influenced by Mid-Century masters. The works on display were worth the price of admission alone.
Alex Meyer, Mark Penner-Howell, Ryan Rice, Jonathan Saiz and Emily Moore all had pieces in the exhibit.
Every gallery in SoHo would be drooling at the prospect of putting this much talent in one place.
The Contemporary Modern artist SHAG (Josh Agle) had a very large display of his art. His work is reminiscent of the second generation of Warner Brothers animators as well as some off-the-board animators such as Gene Deitch and Shamus Culhane. Not only does SHAG incorporate the eye-pleasing palette of late-'50's, early '60's animation, but also the work of a number of Mid-Century architects in his paintings.
Ryan Rice creates visual puns, such as the two works he's standing with here, Crabapple and Venus Flytrap.
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Harley Earl, one of my favorite industrial designers, was sadly underrepresented. Although he was primarily an automobile designer (tail fins and the Corvette), his sleek, organic style influenced Mid-Century product designs in every form, from toasters to television sets to writing pens.
Tonight also featured the Miss Modernism contest, with six lovely and talented contestants vying for the chance to represent Colorado for 2012. The winner, a beautiful Burlesque queen with the moniker of Vivienne VaVoom, rocked nearly everyone right out of their chairs with a fabulous fan dance.
There is a Tiki lounge at the show for those who wish to imbibe as hipsters may have 50 or so years ago. A DJ is present with genuine vinyl, spinning everything from Sinatra to the Ventures.
Tonight there was also live music featured on the main stage, and the band far exceeded expectations.
The Sonic Archers played a poorly attended but great hour and a half set to close out the evening. It's not very often one gets to enjoy a decidedly professional ensemble of musicians who play not only their own well-crafted tunes, but covers of the Jam and George Harrison too.
I realize that the only only thing worse than criticizing a band's performance is criticizing their stage presence, but I have to be honest. The guys pretty much looked like four John Entwistles up there, and that is not a good thing. The whole Indie band look of black on black is way past it's due date. For this particular venue I would have suggested white vinyl shoes, khakis, and houndstooth jackets over chartreuse shirts. Actually, with their sound they might want to go with that kit full time.
Trust me on this one.
The show continues Saturday and Sunday, with the Daughters of Design (Celia Bertola, Carla (Eames) Hartman, and Susan Saarinen) speaking about childhoods spent with their respective creative parents on Saturday, and a full-on car show on Sunday.
Maybe Sunday Harley Earl will be given his due. Whatever the case, I highly recommend this show. Visit www.DenverModernism.com for details.
Hi Chris,
ReplyDeleteOn behalf of The Sonic Archers, I'd like to say:
thanks for the nice bits of your review of our show. The kind words were particularly well received following a show that presented the huge acoustic challenges associated with playing somewhere the size of an aircraft hanger.
We'd like to invite you to see us again, next time in a place a little more conducive to the enjoyment of live music (see our Facebook site for upcoming shows).
Being the only one in the band who bears a passing resemblance to John Entwistle, I'm not sure whether to be offended or not. Still, it could be worse: you could have said Keith Richards.
As for the white vinyl shoes, no self-respecting Mod would be seen dead in those!
Thanks again, hope to see you out at one of our shows soon.
Simon (A Sonic Archer)