Modernism? was: Antiques?
Michael B. Hays
(Ronnie McKinley) wrote:
> As an example, and not picking on Gillam for the sake of it, his
> reference ... "Right now, 1950s deco is very hot, so must quality
> malls are happy to stock it" .... in a word bollix (sorry Gillam) but
> there ain't no such thing as 1950s Deco ... by the 1950s the Deco
> heyday and influential period had long gone. That's what I mean about
> an object belonging to it's period ..... I hope you follow this. :)
>
> The struggle to find a "new" collective style after neoclassicism was
> an ongoing endeavour throughout the rest of the 19th century and into
> the first 40 years of this century. Perhaps then, the discussion
> should be .... was there ever a *new* collective or international
> style after 1830? ..... if there WAS, then the objects belonging to
> that period, that "style" would and could be referred to antique,
> regardless of the time frame. Personally, I am not convinced there was
> ever a new style, only a regurgitation of what went before, even Wm
> Morris gave up in the end and Nouveau, was but a flash in the pan,
> perhaps Modernism (true Modernism) remains the last big hope for the
> future of the collector of antiques. :)
Dear Ronnie,
Since you brought up the term "Modernism", maybe you could be so kind as
to define it for me and give a few examples. I have a general impression
of how it is used when refering to the design trends of this century, but
there seems to be some confusion (possibly on my part) on how and when to
apply the term. "Mid-Century Modern", "Streamline", "Machine Age" and
"Danish Modern" are all words that have at one time or another been used
interchangably with "Modernism" in the different resources I have read.
It seems that since we are still so close to the time period we have yet
to agree on a definitive understanding of the many movements that were
going on then. Any thoughts from yourself or others would be appreciated.
Michael B. Hays
p.s. Weren't the French still clinging onto the Deco motifs into the
1950's?
Ronnie McKinley
>Since you brought up the term "Modernism", maybe you could be so kind as
>to define it for me and give a few examples. I have a general impression
>of how it is used when refering to the design trends of this century, but
>there seems to be some confusion (possibly on my part) on how and when to
>apply the term. "Mid-Century Modern", "Streamline", "Machine Age" and
>"Danish Modern" are all words that have at one time or another been used
>interchangably with "Modernism" in the different resources I have read.
>It seems that since we are still so close to the time period we have yet
>to agree on a definitive understanding of the many movements that were
>going on then. Any thoughts from yourself or others would be appreciated.
>
Hi Mike, if you have a look at one of my webpages at ....
http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~mckinley/modern.htm
You'll see from that page, confusion is the name of the game when it
comes to Modernism :) Anyways, have a read and visit the links, after
which we may be able to open the discussion up a little wider if you
like :)
On the French Deco question, sometimes the separation of what was old
fashioned Deco and what was really Modernism is not always that easy.
Was Lalique into Nouveau, Deco or industrial design? or just a
visionary that moved with the times?
Ronnie
=====
Michael B. Hays
(Ronnie McKinley) wrote:
> Hi Mike, if you have a look at one of my webpages at ....
>
> http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~mckinley/modern.htm
>
> You'll see from that page, confusion is the name of the game when it
> comes to Modernism :) Anyways, have a read and visit the links, after
> which we may be able to open the discussion up a little wider if you
> like :)
>
> On the French Deco question, sometimes the separation of what was old
> fashioned Deco and what was really Modernism is not always that easy.
> Was Lalique into Nouveau, Deco or industrial design? or just a
> visionary that moved with the times?
>
> Ronnie
> =====
So...., Modernism can refer to any of the multiple design movements
of this century (Bauhaus, Suprematism, International Style, etc...)
that were responding to the previous hierarchical distinctions made
between the fine arts and crafts, the materials used and mass production
methods? Combined with a technological utopian vision for the future
and a moral uplifting of the masses.
But where does leave the Moderne Movement?
As for Lalique, I would imagine that it embraced each of the stylistic
trends equaly as they came along while retaining those that kept the
coffers full. ;)
Michael B. Hays
Ronnie McKinley
>So...., Modernism can refer to any of the multiple design movements
>of this century (Bauhaus, Suprematism, International Style, etc...)
>that were responding to the previous hierarchical distinctions made
>between the fine arts and crafts, the materials used and mass production
>methods? Combined with a technological utopian vision for the future
>and a moral uplifting of the masses.
>
>But where does leave the Moderne Movement?
>
If by the 'Moderne Movement' you really mean Art Deco, then Art Deco
design represented modernism turned into fashion. Yes? No?
Ronnie
=====
lee
McKinley) wrote:
>If by the 'Moderne Movement' you really mean Art Deco, then Art Deco
>design represented modernism turned into fashion. Yes? No?
I thought that "Moderne Movement" referred to the design principles of
"Art Deco" (a decorative style) applied to architecture.
Lee
Ronnie McKinley
>I thought that "Moderne Movement" referred to the design principles of
>"Art Deco" (a decorative style) applied to architecture.
>
The Style Moderne movement was also called Art Deco. In the decorative
arts and architecture that originated in the 1920s with roots going
back to c1900 when French designers reacted against much of the Art
Nouveau, and with it's exposure in Paris 1925 at the Exposition
Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes (as the
name drives) developed into a major style through the 20s/30s and
waned by the early 40s. Its products included both individually
crafted luxury items and mass-produced wares, but, in either case, the
intention was to create a sleek and antitraditional elegance that
symbolized wealth and sophistication.
That's my understanding of the style, but in any movement, or
collective style I don't see how one can separate the architecture
from the internal (interior) decoration. Be it Gothic from the Dark
Ages, or post-Modernism from the 1970s.
Ronnie
=====
Michael B. Hays
(Ronnie McKinley) wrote:
Alright... I'll take the cowards way out and get my copy of "The Thames and
Hudson Encyclopaedia of 20th Century Design and Designers" out and give it
a
try.
According to it, Moderne was a term used in the USA durring the 20s and 30s
to describe items stylisticaly between the Art Deco and and the Modern
Movement
with influenes from the Weiner Werkstatte. Its proponents used the newer
materials while being willing to be more decorative than the more severely
minimalistic items associated with the Bauhaus. It cites Donald Desky as
an
example. It says nothing about "Style Moderne" but I must assume this is
the
same thing.
Under Art Deco, it basicaly agrees with Ronnie. But refers to it as a
"tendency
in design" and an "artisanal style", not so much as a "movement". Ruhlman,
Lalique
and Dunand are given as major exponents. Supposedly the Modernist
criticised it
for being too opulent.
The "Modern Movement" is refered to as "Modernism" and is described as an
"interpretive"
concept" since it is also used to analyse music, literature as well as
cultural and
scientific expressions. They date this movement back to William Morris and
say that
it evolved into the "International Style" of Walter Gropius at the Bauhaus
and Meis
Van Der Rohe. The encyclopaedia then goes into a long description of the
main tenets
of the movement that are worth a read.
And just to make things even more confusing there is
"Modernisme/Modernismo". This
is said to be the Catalonian version of Art Nouveau and was from around
1880 to 1910.
This movement is best exemplified by Antoni Gaudi.
Whew!....That was fun! Thanks Ronnie for stirring up that can of worms. I
think
I'll run off and hide before someone wants to get into the many
permutations of Art
Nouveau.
Not afraid to pick up a dictionary when in a pinch,
Michael B. Hays
Ronnie McKinley
>According to it, Moderne was a term used in the USA durring the 20s and 30s
>to describe items stylisticaly between the Art Deco and and the Modern
>Movement
>with influenes from the Weiner Werkstatte. Its proponents used the newer
>materials while being willing to be more decorative than the more severely
>minimalistic items associated with the Bauhaus. It cites Donald Desky as
>an example
Hi Mike,
Donald Desky was an American industrial designer of some importance,
his most famous (major) contract was the interior decoration and
furnishings for Radio City Music Hall. His firm of consultants 'Donald
Deskey Associates' being founded in 1926. Other than the Radio City
Music Hall contract and his invention of a laminate called "Weldtex"
that is about my sum total knowledge of him. However, as far as I
understand, he was a part and parcel of the Deco, not Modernism.
The Wiener Werkstätte was basically an Austrian equivalent of the
English Arts and Crafts Movement. Was founded by Josef Hoffmann (and
Moser) in 1903 as a cooperative workshop, the business dissolved in
1932 as a result of financial difficulties.
> It says nothing about "Style Moderne" but I must assume this is
>the same thing.
Yes I think this is the same thing, perhaps the American term?. But
"Style Moderne" is the same thing as Art Deco, if you refer to my
previous post, the name drives from the first major collective
exhibition in Paris 1925 namely 'the Exposition Internationale des
Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes'
Among the formative influences on Art Deco were Art Nouveau, the
Bauhaus, Cubism, and Sergey Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Decorative
ideas came from American Indian, Egyptian, and early classical sources
as well as from nature. Characteristic motifs included nude female
figures, animals, foliage, and sunrays, all in conventionalized forms.
>Under Art Deco, it basicaly agrees with Ronnie. But refers to it as a
>"tendency
>in design" and an "artisanal style", not so much as a "movement".
You are right it was not in the true sense a "movement" it was a
'style' although many designers and artists crossed-over between the
two and played with both in style concepts.
>
>The "Modern Movement" is refered to as "Modernism" and is described as an
>"interpretive"
>concept" since it is also used to analyse music, literature as well as
>cultural and
>scientific expressions.
The Modernist aim was the search of a *totally* new style (as had been
the object of most of the 19th century theorist ) in architecture and
design but with a radical approach. The movement was not founded by
one single person but by many and all with different ideas. After WW1
these architects and designers shared such ideas, made clear that the
goal was not a new style to add to the museum of historical styles,
but an inevitable and rational response to Modern needs using Modern
materials. Idealism, iconoclasm, puritanism, socialism and, for some,
revolution were all involved in this pursuit. Nothing to do with the
approach held by the Art Deco which was merely a fashion.
> They date this movement back to William Morris and
>say that
>it evolved into the "International Style" of Walter Gropius at the Bauhaus
>and Meis
>Van Der Rohe.
The term International Style, was first used in 1932 by Henry-Russell
Hitchcock and Philip Johnson in their essay entitled ..... 'The
International Style: Architecture Since 1922' .... which served as a
catalog for an architectural exhibition held at the Museum of Modern
Art. In the 1930s and '40s the International Style spread from its
base in Germany and France to North and South America,
Scandinavia, Britain, and Japan.
Ironic maybe, but Modernism, which disowned academics and
institutions, invented its own, the Bauhaus was the first, but others
appeared and their products were to be collected by the New York
Museum of Modern Art c1928 onwards.
As to your reference ........
>
>And just to make things even more confusing there is
>"Modernisme/Modernismo". This
>is said to be the Catalonian version of Art Nouveau and was from around
>1880 to 1910.
>This movement is best exemplified by Antoni Gaudi.
Modernismo, was a late 19th and early 20th-century Spanish-language
literary movement, begun in the late 1880s by the Nicaraguan poet
Ruben Dario.(there's one for Rich) While the movement had no manifesto
or organized principles, it stemmed from a reaction against the wider
bourgeois conformity and materialism of Western society. Don't know
anything about it in detail. :)
There is another term applied to Modernism, coined after the second
World War, that of 'Modernismus' recognized as the doctrine of the
coming establishment. Maybe this is your reference?
As it cites on my webpage on the subject ... "It is somewhat hazardous
to speak of Modern furniture and design as though we were certain just
what this means in terms of style and could determine the exact moment
of birth. We can do neither quite precisely" and concludes "Design is
never fixed & stable, but always changing. One phase merges into the
next, creating new forms which often surprise and delight. To define
these as a new style we must wait for the perspective of experience."
Ronnie
======
"man I still love the romanticism of the 18th century"
=======================================
Rich Maxson
Modernismo, was a late 19th and early 20th-century Spanish-language literary
movement, begun in the late 1880s by the Nicaraguan poet Ruben Dario.
(there's one for Rich) While the movement had no manifesto or organized
principles, it stemmed from a reaction against the wider bourgeois
conformity and materialism of Western society. Don't know anything about it
in detail.
Never one to ignore a gauntlet tossed:
Rubén Darío was the pseudonym of Félix Rubén García-Sarmiento (1867-1916),
Nicaraguan poet, journalist, and diplomat, born in San Pedro de Metapa. He
established, in Buenos Aires, a Spanish-American literary movement known as
the modernist movement, characterized by simplified style and imagery
suggestive of the French symbolists. Latin American modernism is the
synthesis of three European movements: romanticism, Parnassianism [Ronnie?],
and the symbolist movement.
Your observation that his "movement" was in reaction against things western,
is partly true. What seemed to drive Darío was a nationalistic and ethnic
pride in Spanish South America. He was decidedly non-political in his
writings and actions, but a strong anti-US feeling, roiled just beneath the
surface. He became vocal when the US engineered the Panama Canal treaty.
His Spanish-American passion is reflected in the following poem in 1904, "To
Roosevelt," translated from Spanish, as a corollary to the Monroe Doctrine
which Teddy Roosevelt had invoked to justify the use of U.S. military to
"police" Latin America:
It is with the voice of the Bible, or the verse of Walt Whitman,
that I should come to you, Hunter,
primitive and modern, simple and complicated,
with something of Washington and more of Nimrod.
You are the United States,
you are the future invader
of the naive America that has Indian blood,
that still prays to Jesus Christ and still speaks Spanish.
You are the proud and strong exemplar of your race;
you are cultured, you are skillful; you oppose Tolstoy.
And breaking horses, or murdering tigers,
you are an Alexander-Nebuchadnezzar.
(You are a professor of Energy
as today's madmen say.)
You think that life is fire,
that progress is eruption,
that wherever you shoot
you hit the future.
No.
The United States is potent and great.
When you shake there is a deep tremblor
that passes through the enormous vertebrae of the Andes.
If you clamor, it is heard like the roaring of a lion.
Hugo already said it to Grant: The stars are yours.
(The Argentine sun, ascending, barely shines,
and the Chilean star rises...) You are rich.
You join the cult of Hercules to the cult of Mammon,
and illuminating the road of easy conquest,
Liberty raises its torch in New York.
But our America, that has had poets
since the ancient times of Netzahualcoyotl,
that has walked in the footprints of great Bacchus
who learned Pan's alphabet at once;
that consulted the stars, that knew Atlantis
whose resounding name comes to us from Plato,
that since the remote times of its life
has lived on light, on fire, on perfume, on love,
America of the great Montezuma, of the Inca,
the fragrant America of Christopher Columbus,
Catholic America, Spanish America,
the America in which noble Cuahtemoc said:
"I'm not in a bed of roses"; that America
that trembles in hurricanes and lives on love,
it lives, you men of Saxon eyes and barbarous soul.
And it dreams. And it loves, and it vibrates, and it is the daughter of the
Sun.
Be careful. Viva Spanish America!
There are a thousand cubs loosed from the Spanish lion.
Roosevelt, one would have to be, through God himself,
the-fearful Rifleman and strong Hunter,
to manage to grab us in your iron claws.
And, although you count on everything, you lack one thing: God!
--
Rich Maxson
Speaking Softly Antiques
Ronnie McKinley
> Latin American modernism is the
>synthesis of three European movements: romanticism, Parnassianism [Ronnie?],
>and the symbolist movement.
Parnassianism? .... Post-Romanticism poetry an offshoot of
Romanticism rather than a reaction against it. With German roots but
the principal development was to be seen in France, it concentrated on
the purely formal elements of poetry, on aesthetics, and on "art for
art's sake," it changed the direction of French poetry as well as
having much influence abroad. ... check out Charles Baudelaire.
Ronnie
=====
"everything that is not art is ugly and useless"
==================================
Michael B. Hays
I thought that I would start up a new game of "What is it?" using an item
that I picked up a few years ago. I have posted two views at
http://www.dnsppp.net/hays/coppermask_frontal
http://www.dnsppp.net/hays/maskside-back
I have a reasonably researched idea of what it is and will pass on what I
know about it after a few days of guessing.
Have fun!
Michael B. Hays
Questions:
1) What decade was it manufactured?
2) What style would you say this was and why?
3) What was it used as?
4) Where was it used?
5) Who designed it?
Tsu Dho Nimh
>Questions:
>
>1) What decade was it manufactured?
early 1930s
>2) What style would you say this was and why?
Loosely, Art Deco
>3) What was it used as?
Architectural ornament
>4) Where was it used?
Stuck on a wall ... perhaps a hotel lobby or a theater.
>5) Who designed it?
Kris Baker
>lively interchange I thought that I would start up a new game
>of "What is it?" using an item that I picked up a few years ago.
>I have posted two views at
>http://www.dnsppp.net/hays/coppermask_frontal
>http://www.dnsppp.net/hays/maskside-back
>I have a reasonably researched idea of what it is and will pass on
>what I know about it after a few days of guessing.
>Have fun!
>Michael B. Hays
OK....based on what *I* have seen (but not heavily researched),
I am guessing:
>Questions:
>1) What decade was it manufactured?
1920s/early 1930s
>2) What style would you say this was and why?
Egyptian modernism. Due to discovery of King Tut
tomb and popularity of such images/designs during
the 1920s/1930s.
>3) What was it used as?
Decoration
>4) Where was it used?
Movie theater - there are quite similar items decorating
The Egyptian Theater (recently restored) in Ogden, Utah -
and a similar theater in LA.
>5) Who designed it?
No idea.
Kris (probably way off base)
Smorgass Bored
What size is it?
Doug W.
~>*)))>< Big fish eat Little fish ><(((*<~
Marshall Schuon
>Since the Modernism/Deco question seemed to spark such a lively interchange
>I thought that I would start up a new game of "What is it?" using an item
>that I picked up a few years ago. I have posted two views at
>http://www.dnsppp.net/hays/coppermask_frontal
>http://www.dnsppp.net/hays/maskside-back
>I have a reasonably researched idea of what it is and will pass on what I
>know about it after a few days of guessing.
>Have fun!
>Michael B. Hays
>Questions:
>1) What decade was it manufactured?
I would say 1920's/30's
>2) What style would you say this was and why?
Art Deco
>3) What was it used as?
Decorative gilt plaster cast
>4) Where was it used?
Restaurant/hotel/theater
>5) Who designed it?
?
Marshall
Michael B. Hays
several correct answers.
Questions:
1) What decade was it manufactured?
1930's
2) What style would you say this was and why?
Deco, but I would say it has more of a Greek Archaic Era/ Kouros Boy
influence what with that idiotic grin on his face.
4) Where was it used?
Theatre. Hint: Think New York. The theatre is no longer in existance.
Which explains what I'm doing with it.
which leaves only the more obscure questions....
3) What was it used as?
Decorative wall mounted item is correct, but be more exact.
5) Who designed it?
And in answer to the question it is 1 foot long.
Michael B. Hays
Tsu Dho Nimh
>Goodness! No moss growing under people in this group. So far we have
>several correct answers.
>3) What was it used as?
> Decorative wall mounted item is correct, but be more exact.
Light sconce?
I'm not familiar enough with the NY theatres to get the exact
where, but a grinning guy with light rays coming out of the top
of his head as a wall-washer illumination sounds about right.
Michael B. Hays
Dho Nimh) wrote:
> >3) What was it used as?
> > Decorative wall mounted item is correct, but be more exact.
>
> Light sconce?
>
> I'm not familiar enough with the NY theatres to get the exact
> where, but a grinning guy with light rays coming out of the top
> of his head as a wall-washer illumination sounds about right.
Correct! As the responses have petered out, here is the final wrap up.
The item is an Art Deco style copper mask that I believe was designed by
Walter W. Kantack (1889-1953) for his firm Kantack & Company. My research
on
the piece has identified it as possibly being from one of the light
fixtures
created by his firm for the RKO Roxy Theatre (1932-52), Rockefeller Center,
that
was designed by Eugene Schoen.
The mask is comprised of a hollowed 3/4" thick ceramic base covered with
a thin veneer of copper. The interior has a copper like finish over the
ceramic
and two small loops (one at the base of the face, the other at the top)
that had
once been part of a larger mounting system.
There is a picture of two of the Kantack light fixtures (a male and a
female
that were sold at auction by Christie's) in the 1985 book "Art Deco in
America"
by Eva Weber.
In the next day or two I'll throw together a quick bio on Mr. Kantack and
post it on the newsgroup. I hope this was a fun as well as informative
exercise
for the few brave souls out there that dare to discuss 20th century design.
Michael B. Hays
Michael B. Hays
powers as an expressive medium than all other media." Kantack's company,
as a result of his relentless self promotion, was well-known for both its
radical modern designs and its dedication to handcraftsmanship. As a
member of both the Architectural League of New York and the American Union
of Decorative Artists and Craftsmen, which included such renowned designers
as Paul Frankl, Frank Loyd Wright and Donald Desky, Walter Kantack produced
some of the most innovative lighting fixtures of the 1920s. An example of
his work can be seen on page 86 of "Modern American Design", an official
publication of the AUDAC.
Walter Kantack (1889-1953) headed a lighting fixture design and
manufacturing company in New York from 1917 to 1942. Although the firm
also designed metal furniture and interior and exterior ornament, Kantack's
primary interest as a professional was the study of electric illumination
and the design of lighting fixtures. Over the course of his career,
Kantack wrote articles on lighting for such architectural trade journals
and mainstream interior design magazines as "House & Garden", "American
Architect", and "Interiors". In addition, from 1928 to 1933, Kantack &
Company published a quarterly magazine entitled "Kaleidoscope: Ever
Changing Lights, Shades and Forms". Kantack himself wrote the feature
article of each issue, which addressed issues of electrical light, while
the other columns dealt with such topics as modern design, metal alloys,
and the tools and technologies of pre-industrial craft.
Kantack's firm contributed lighting fixtures and illumination schemes to
many of the important modern design shows in New York during this period,
an accomplishment as illustrative of Kantack's promotional abilities as his
stature in the field. Among the venues where company designs could be
viewed were several of the Contemporary American Industrial Art exhibitions
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where Kantack designed the ceiling
fixture for an office designed by Raymond Hood for the 1929 show.
Among the firm's many public commissions, the lighting fixtures for the
1928 Lord & Taylor Modern Decorative Art Exhibition and for the Joslyn
Memorial Hall in Omaha, Nebraska (1931-32), illustrate an allegiance to the
radical dress of this revolutionary light source. The wall brackets that
Kantack and Ely Jacques Kahn designed for the main exhibition room in the
Lord & Taylor show were enormous panelled lights suspended just below the
ceiling at all four corners of the room. Composed of four frosted glass
panels, framed in aluminum, and cut on a dramatic diagonal, the fixtures
were designed to protrude from both of the corner walls and thus double the
surface area from which they reflected their somewhat diffused light. In
this gallery, then, it is not only the fixtures that contribute to the
decoration of the room, but the quality of the light itself.
In perhaps the highest accolade of his career, Kantack was awarded the
American Institute of Architects medal for craftsmanship in 1934.
Michael B. Hays
Ronnie McKinley
>Snip>
>In perhaps the highest accolade of his career, Kantack was awarded the
>American Institute of Architects medal for craftsmanship in 1934.
>
Hi Mike, great post, and I for one would like to thank you in taking
the time and trouble to submit the detailed information. Must admit, I
had never heard of Walter W. Kantack before, and couldn't find any
reference to him or his design work, so it was most interesting and
rewarding to read your post.
A nice conclusion to a subject that is sometimes neglected, and
perhaps, is viewed much of the time as falling outside the realm of
the normal antique discussion, which I think, is rather sad and
short-sighted. Hope you will engage in further discussion on
Modernism, and keep us all up to date with any further findings or
acquisitions. It's a subject that I have only taken some serious
interest in over these last couple of years, and would certainly be
keen to hear more, especially, from the US perspective which is not
always that easy to track down this side of the pond.
Once again, a job well done, many thanks :)
Ronnie
=====
JGROUND
>From: mcki...@netcomuk.co.uk (Ronnie McKinley)
>Date: 12/14/98 8:42 AM Pacific Standard Time
>Message-id: <367537d0...@nntp.netcomuk.co.uk>
Ronnie, and/or anyone that would care to share, would it be possible to give a
few examples of Modernism? I was hoping a list of Modernism examples might
enable this subject to be shared with more people, maybe it will elicit an
interesting discussion?
I personally have seen this subject come up before, but feel I have nothing to
offer in terms of knowledge relating to Modernism but as I've said before, I
love to learn. Would you mind?
Thanks to Mike for his wonderful posts & maybe he could list a few more?
Joan
Michael B. Hays
(JGROUND) wrote:
> Ronnie, and/or anyone that would care to share, would it be possible to give a
> few examples of Modernism? I was hoping a list of Modernism examples might
> enable this subject to be shared with more people, maybe it will elicit an
> interesting discussion?
> I personally have seen this subject come up before, but feel I have nothing to
> offer in terms of knowledge relating to Modernism but as I've said before, I
> love to learn. Would you mind?
> Thanks to Mike for his wonderful posts & maybe he could list a few more?
> Joan
Dear Joan,
A wonderful introduction into this period of design can be found in the
book "Design 1935 - 1965, What Modern Was". The book was written to
accompany an exhibition of seminal objects from the magnificent collection
of the Musee des Arts Decoratifs de Montreal and includes such luminaries
of the field as Alver Alto, Marcel Breuer and Isamu Noguchi. You might
also want to find a copy of "The Machine Age in America 1918 - 1941" from
the Brooklyn Museum (another fine institution) to learn more about the
streamline designs of Donald Desky, Kem Weber and Gilbert Rohde. It
includes very detailed information on the influences of the fine arts,
architecture and industrial design on the objects produced durring this
period.
Yours,
Michael B. Hays
Gillam Kerley
>
> The item is an Art Deco style copper mask that I believe was designed by
> Walter W. Kantack (1889-1953) for his firm Kantack & Company. My research
> on
> the piece has identified it as possibly being from one of the light
> fixtures
> created by his firm for the RKO Roxy Theatre (1932-52), Rockefeller Center,
> that
> was designed by Eugene Schoen.
Michael:
Could you share with us a bit of your research methodology? What
information did you have when you acquired it, and how were you able to
trace its origins with this much specificity?
GK
Michael B. Hays
<gke...@execpc.com> wrote:
Dear Gillam,
My research methodology involved a lot of intensive background work at the
OSU architectural library, reading of origional source material on lighting
manufacturers, and travel to various exotic locals such as New Jersey to
track down surviving members of the Kantack lineage.
Actualy, it was mostly dumb luck. I stumbled across a picture of the mask
on page 86 of Eva Webers' "Art Deco in America" a few hours before the
auction was to end on Ebay. I hadn't saved it as a bookmark so I had to do
some crazed searching to find it and put in a last minute bid. It was only
later that I was able to hit the books and flesh out the rest of the
information.
I found a 1931 advertisement for the Kantack company in an issue of the
year end bulletin of the architectural league of New York. The
advertisement lauded the commission of the fixtures at the Roxy Theatre but
showed a mask that was slightly different from the two pictured in the text
I had read earlier. According to the Weber book the photo was done by
Christies in NY, but I have yet to contact them to find out if they have
any information on the materials and manufacturing methods for the piece
they most likely sold at auction.
There is the possibility that my mask was never actualy placed at the
theatre. It could have been a mock up done by the company durring the
planning stages of the commission or even a knick - knack shelf item sold
by the firm to customers of the theatre. And one can't ignore the
possibility that it is a cheap imitation done by a devotee of the style,
but the quality of the object seems to belie this train of thought (he says
hopefuly).
Anyway... the research continues and this is the most rewarding part of
aquiring an obscure object such as this mask. I hope this answers your
questions and thanks for asking. I enjoy potificating endlessly whenever
possible.
Yours,
Michael B. Hays
Gillam Kerley
>
>
> Anyway... the research continues and this is the most rewarding part of
> aquiring an obscure object such as this mask. I hope this answers your
> questions and thanks for asking. I enjoy potificating endlessly whenever
> possible.
Thanks, Michael. I'm glad there was an element of luck involved at the
start of the process. I think I would have been stumped after the
basics of style, material, and probably date of production.
GK