Dragonfly Woman

René Lalique, 1897 - 1898

Gold, enamel, chrysoprase, moonstones, diamonds

France

Notes: Piece is about metamorphasis. Meant to be worn on a woman's chest. The piece is a pun on words "damselfly" like a young woman, but also a dragonfly. Style: Pique-a-jour - allows for the style on wings so that light may pass through. cells of gold with glass. Remove glass when solidified. Wings meant to look like breasts. Twists woman's vision and makes her look monstorous.  Inspired by the dunstable swan jewel. Family badge. Also adapted to a smaller version. Less ornate. 

JOB

Alphonse Mucha, 1896 

Color Lithograph

France

Notes: Mucha was part of Salon de cent. Posters for artists. Mucha very involved in underground / cabaret. In this poster, he sensualizes smoking / rolling paper w. women. Style is very nouveau, free and feminine. This says that women can enjoy the same things men can too. Byzantine influence like mosaic. 

Paris Metro Station

Hector Guimard, 1896

Color Lithograph

France

Notes: Wrought iron doors and designs. Very sea-like design. nautical. reminiscent of jellyfish. Could also look like flowers, growing from the ground, or going tentacles. Transitional modernism. Morphing quality like noveau.

Porte Binet

Alfred Binet at L'Exposition Universelle,  1900

Paris

Notes: Moorish columns, influences of middle-east. Woman on top is seen as a whore, disturbing free spirited woman. Pavillions were revival-style. Building is flowing, curvy like art noveau. Was very exotic, humans were displayed like creatures in zoo. This expo was now selling to women (new buyers with money). Inside is statue of god representing new electricity. 

Ear Piece

Archibald Knox, 1905

Precious Stone and silver

United Kingdom

Notes: Knox is very influenced by celtic art. He was a major part of the gaelic revival. He was also influenced by Dresser. Cetic meets modern. Asymetrical, fitting for noveau / modern period. 

Havana Tobacco Company

Henry Van de Velde, 1899

Berlin

Notes: He loved socialism. He also loves art history and embraces industry. He felt that interior design is more democratic. Room is gesamkunstwerk, everything in it was designed by him. Even the cabinets, chairs, etc. Pipes are intentionally not hidden, beacuse it is a smoking room and relevant? Stylistic choice. 

H.O Havemeyer House

Louis Comfort Tiffany, 1892

New York

Notes: He is interested in a return to crafts. Havemeyer was the sugar king of NY. Lived in the "guilded age" and the age of greed. Has odd, sloping staircase which is entirely stylistic. He had too many influences in the home. Japanese & Byzantine & arts & crafts. rWhole design is different today, the grandchildren got rid of everything. Deco was in.  

Jack in the Pulpet Vase

Louis Comfort Tiffany, 1900 - 1905

Favrille Glass

USA

Notes: Hand wrought b/c arts and crafts movement. Favrille is old english for "hand -wrought". Takes on floral forms, flowing glass. Very much like the Cthulu vase. The glass has a natural luster 

El Temple Expiratori de la Sagrada Família

Antoni Gaudi, 1882

Barcelona

Notes: Very heavily influenced by nature. Flowing, curvy shapes which grow like plants. Mixture of gothic and l'art noveau. Never actually finished, still under construction. Made of concrete?

Poster for the Glasgow Institute of Fine Art

Margaret, Francis MacDonald, Herbert McNair, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, 1896

Poster

Scotland

Notes: Signature on side is like japanese, written vertically. Signature rose is seen in the print (Margeret), Very feminine figures, long flowing "noveau" hair. Long like japanese print. 

Dining Room at the Florentine Terrace

Margaret MacDonald, Charles Mackintosh, 1906

Scotland

Notes: Dining room is a very masculine room here. White ceiling is openess. Grid like trellises in back of room. Also very japanese influenced. Backs of chairs are cut differently. At the opposite end of the room oval shape, but in foreground, slit-shape, almost like an eye. Straight lines = masc. Curv = fem. Gesamkunstwerk. Even napkins match. 

Drawing Room at the Florentine Terrace

MacDonald / Mackintosh, 1906

Scotland

Notes: 

Poster for Secession XIII

Kolomon Moser, 1902

Poster

Austria

Notes: Very much like poster for glasgow. Geometric shapes are in, leads into

deco. For ver sacrum, magazine for the secession school. Poster was actually designed by the architect of the secession school, to show off his ability. Figures make the shape of the building

Postal Savings Bank

Otto Wagner, 1904 - 1906

Vienna

Notes: Screams "functional" Natural lighting is used plentifully. Also saves on cost of electricity. He was a minimalist, kept materials to the bare minimum of steel and glass. Led to modern architecture. Nothing is "hidden". Illusion of locomitives / railroad, implied since locomotive is a fairly new and exciting transportation.

Goldman and Salatsch Bank Building

Adolf Loos, 1910

Vienna

Notes: Loos was commisioned by Franz Josef to build this for the Imperial palace. He was outraged at how modern it was, and hated the plain exterior. Loos had to put window boxes on the windows last minute to make it look less plain. He believed ornament was crime, and that putting any sort of ornament on this building would be pirimitive / uncivilized. 

Sitzmaschine for the Pukersdorf Sanatorium

Josef Hoffman, 1904

Austria

Notes: Goal was gesamkunstwerk in its setting; unify building with its settings. Implies adjustable "Morris Chair". Squares and grid shapes are typical of the Viener Werkstätte. successful alliance between industry and designer. 

Plant Stand for the Pukersdorf Sanatorium

Koloman Moser, 1903

Austria

Notes: 

Vase

Josef Hoffmann, 1905

Painted sheet metal

Austria

Notes: for Wiener Werkstätte. 

Electric Kettle for AEG company

Peter Behrens, 1911

Germany

Notes: Teapot has no open flames. Electricity is new, people are interested and now buying. First industrial designer to market electricity w/ products. Modern design, behrens was pre-jugend. Tea kettles came in lots of different colors. Variety in catalong, can choose. Styles to match other appliances. 

Cathedral of the Future

Lyonel Feiniger 1919

woodcut

Germany

Notes: Reminiscent of the arts and crafts movt. Symbol of the medieval period. Deco influences, very modern design. Geometric shapes. Heavily cubist influenced. Applying art to something useful.  

Red and Blue Chair

Gerrit Reitveld, 1917 - 1918

Painted wood

Notes: Form =/= function. The chair is reshaping you, uncomfortable. Based on Piet Mondrian's work. Destijl meets chair. 

Porcelain Plate

Nikolai Suetin, 1923

Russia

Notes: Russian constructivism, communism growing. Pure geometry. Not art but idea. "Pieces coming together" Red square = blood. 

Teapot

Marrianne Brandt, 1924

silver and ebony

Germany

Notes: Ebony is heat resistant. Originally hand-made but then made commercial (unfortunately not many). Constructivist-inspired shape because she spent a lot of time with Laszlo Mohóly Nagy.

Bauhaus Dessau

Walter Gropius, 1925-26

Germany

Notes: Originated as new type of design school. Bauhaus could no longer afford to operate in Weimar. Meant to look like a factory. Was immediately influential. Made cheap, manufactured goods. Under pressure from the national socialists. They were very afraid of communists / marxists. 

Wassily Chair

Marcel Breur, 1925

Chrome Painted Steel and Canvas

Notes: Made with bicycle tubes and rubber. Seat and back are cantelever-support on butt but not on seat... It's like you're suspended in space. Light and air moves around the body. Essence of Modernism. Manipulation of space. Like a box in space.

E1027

Eileen Gray 1926-1929

France

Notes: Gray's vacation home in southern france. Gray designed all furniture in house. She pioneered modern movement in architecture. Her home was visited often by Le combusier, who admired it a lot. He "vandalized it" with his murals. Destroyed now, horrible condition.

Men's Smoking Room, RCA music hall

Donaly Desky, 1928

New York

Notes: Russian constructivism, communism growing. Pure geometry. Not art but idea. "Pieces coming together" Red square = blood. 

Savoy House

Le Corbusier, Pierre Jenneret, 1930

France

Notes: made with reinforced concrete. International style, refined modern architecture. expresses Le corbusier's 5 points of modern architecture. WWII damaged it severely. Large columns give you flase perception. You think house is bigger than it actually is. 

B306Chaise Lounge 

Le Corbusier and Charlotte Perriand

"pony" skin and chrome-plated steel

France

Notes: was to design a series of chairs to furnish Maison La Roche, a house he was designing in Paris. Inspired by sleeping.  Inspired by the graceful curves of 18th century French daybeds

Pencil Sharpener

Raymond Lowey, 1943

chrome-plated steel

USA

Notes: Inspired by the "future", space-age. Rocket shape is implied, (movement is implied). turning the handle may be reminiscent of exhaust spiraling away from the body as it propels forward. very similar to his locomotive designs. 

Coldspot Refridgerator for Sears 

Raymond Lowey, 1935

USA

Notes: Sears hired lowey to give the fridges that popular streamlined design. Sears wanted to create 4 foot fridges and sell them at the price of 6 foot fridges. First time sears is selling HH appliance for looks rather than performance. Borrows manufacturing materials from automobiles (aluminum, etc). Captialism by sears inspired the fridges change every year, like one would re-design a car. 

Twentieth Century Limited Locomotive

Henry Dreyfuss, 1938

USA

Notes: dreyfus designed the interior and exterior. This was a gesamkunstwerk. Designed the simplicity and functionality, unlike previous trains which were too complicated. Didn't cover the machinery, but didn't look overwhelming. Streamlined style. 

Futurama

Norman Bel Geddes, 1939

Worlds Fair, New York

Notes: people didn't view geddes as practical. Futurama at the world fair was very successful. Even had a talking robot named Electro. Future + diarama. Designed highways and buildings to be optimal for the future. Unfortunately the design is flawed, and would create more traffick. Had automated hgihways and vast suburbs. GM built prototype, supported Geddes' idea."world of tomorrow". Aim is to rebuild society. Rooftops in futurama had landing pads for hover vehicles, farms that artificially grew food etc. Spectators took a ride on the airplane which held 522 people, and watched the diarama go by. Like disney ride. Recovering from the great depression.

(Eames and Saarinen) Chair

Charles Eames and Eero Saarien, 1941

Molded wood, foam rubber, upholstery, legs

USA

Notes: Totally covered wood upholstered. Meant to be a high luxury item, replace the classic arm chair. Still holds onto upholstery; plastic isnt seen yet b/c seen as uncomfortable. Didn't go into production b/c of war. Made b/c of design competition by MoMA for "organic armchair" where all components would work well together. 

Museum Service

Eva Zeisel, 1942-43

Porcelain

USA

Notes: Commisioned by the museum of modern art. No ornamentation, smooth sides. Looking for clean break from typical ornamented stuff. Designed for first show to feature a female designer. 

Town and Country Dinner Service

Eva Zeisel, 1942 -43

earthenware

USA

Notes: Name taken from the popular magazine. Designs are supposed to represent mother with her children. Organic, flowing designs became popular fast. Meant to be practical and lighthearted. Abstract organic sculptures. This shape has been mimiced before (the schmoo). The salt and pepper shakers are meant to "lock" into each other, and thus has produced a plethora of rip-offs.

Chair

Charles Eames 1946

Plywood, rubber shock mounts, chrome-plated steel

USA

Notes: Designed for Herman miller co. Surprising very comfortable (which is rare in modern design). Rubber shocks allowed chair to extend backwards slightly. Donated to MoMA by eames. upholustory looked "un-designed" as described by Ray eames. 

Ball Wall Clock

George Nelson, 1948

Wood and Metal

USA

Notes: VERY post-modernist. fun. Obvious "nuclear" age implications. Rare that there are no numbers on the clock; it is implied that the viewer already knows where the numbers are. Designed one day after Nelson had a bit too much to drink. Drew design on drafting paper (And even he thought it was silly), but became popular. Could be planetary, most likely nuclear. 

Chair

Verner Panton, 1960-67

molded plastic

Denmark

Notes: FIRST completely molded, one piece plastic chair. High design item, very popular, expensive. Stackable, so encouraged more people to buy. Striking colors (which don't fade over time). Cantelever base allows for feet to be tucked in. Also very supportive of body weight. Sleek style reflected the space age. 

Sacco

Piero Gatti, Casare Paolini, Franco Reodero, 1968

Leather and Polystryene berads

Italy

Notes: First bean-bag chair! Sacco was high-design item. Came in all sorts of colors. "Flexible and adaptable seating" literally contorts to anyone which sits in it. Universal. made with displaced foam beads. Helped pioneer Italian industrial designers. We havent heard of Italy before.

Proust Armchair

Alessandro Mendini for Studio Alchemia 1979

Painted wood and painted upholstery

Italy

Notes: Typical Rococo revival. Painted in pointilism to allude to Signac paintings. Chair inpsired by french author Marcel proust. Uses semiotics in the sahpes. "Can only be expressive on the surface of things" . Mendini cites baroque as central motif. 

Casablanca Sideboard

Ettore Sottsass (for Memphis Group), 1981

Wood and Plastic Laminate 

Italy

Notes: Designed totally for aesthetics (or lack of). Almost completely useless! Slanted arms are meant to hold wine bottles. Sponge painted on front. Doesn't attempt to solve anything Only made for humor / design. Too expensive for the average customer though. Ignored "form follows function" Flamboyant and post modern. Individuality and freedom. Designed for Memphis group, because this is what memphis is all about. 

Teapot

Michael Graves for Target, 1999

Stainless steel and Plastic

USA

Notes: Very popular item by graves. Has a bird whistle on the top which is fun, and quirky.