Gertrud Natzler (b, Austria 1908-1971, active Los Angeles), Otto Natzler (b. Austria 1908-2007, active Los Angeles), Bowl, 1943;Earthenware; Height: 3.5 in (8.8cm); diameter: 8.5in. (21.5cm), LACMA, Gift of Rose A Sperry 1972 Revocable Trust; © 2007 Gail Reynolds Natzler, Trustee of The Natzler Trust; Photo © 2011 Museum Associates/LACMA
Opening October 1st at the LA County Museum, this new exhibition examines the state’s key role in shaping the material culture of the country at mid-century. California Design features more than 350 objects as well as two period re-creations. Last week, we introduced the exhibit. Now here’s a closer look at the four sections: “Shaping,” “Making,” “Living,” and “Selling.”
Shaping California Modern
In the 1920s boom economy, California experienced extraordinary population growth. Millions of new residents needed homes and furnishings, and in the 1930s, buildings and their contents started to be made in modern ways and in modern styles. By the onset of World War II, these innovators’ designs for homes and furnishings were characterized by a particular kind of modernism, one rooted in California culture and conditions. The general qualities associated with the state (optimism and democracy, fearless experimentation, and a love of new technology) and those specific to design (an affinity for light and brilliant color, openness to Asian and Latin influences, and an advocacy of fluid spaces and cross-disciplinary approaches) made California’s best products distinctive.
Making California Modern
Margit Fellegi (1903-1975, active Los Angeles), Cole of Claifornia (Los Angeles, 1925-present), Womans Swimsuit and Jacket, c. 1950; Cotton; LACMA, Gift of Doris Raymond/The Way We Wore; © 2011 The Warnaco Group Inc. All rights reserved. For Authentic Fitness Corp,, Cole of California; Photo © 2011 Museum Associates/LAMCA
After 1945, the United States became the world’s strongest industrial, military, and cultural power. California played a key role in this development, having dominated defense and aerospace production during World War II. After the war, this escalated production had a galvanizing effect on the design and manufacture of consumer goods in the state. California’s material culture was shaped by the imperative to apply innovative wartime materials and production methods to peacetime use. For example, Charles and Ray Eames began working with molded plywood to make leg splints for the Navy around 1943, and produced their now-iconic furniture made with this material a few years later.
California artists working in traditional craft media also responded to the spirit of modernism and experimentation. These “designer-craftsmen,” as they became known—including Edith Heath, David Cressey, Sam Maloof, and Margaret De Patta—tried to adapt new methods of production to make their work more accessible to the new middle classes. Whether handmade or industrially produced, the goal was to provide well-designed homes and furnishings for the millions of California newcomers who craved them.
Living California Modern
Straub & Hensman Buff; Recreation pavilion, Mirman House, Arcadia, 1958; Photo by Julius Shulman, 1959; © J Paul Getty Trust. Used with Permission. Julius Shulman Photography Archive, Research Library at the Getty Research Institute
The heart of the exhibition focuses on the modern California home, famously characterized by open plans and furnished with products from companies such as Van Keppel-Green and Architectural Pottery. The distinctive vocabulary of the California house and its furnishings at mid-century emerged from a response to the benevolent climate, which permitted indoor/outdoor living. Coupled with new construction techniques and domestic applications for materials such as steel, this allowed space to be made more permeable by completely freeing the wall. The use of steel enabled windows to be floor-to-ceiling; the size of these glass panels was made possible by new technology developed during World War II.
Selling California Modern
Julius Shulman declared, “Good design is seldom accepted. It has to be sold.” He was referring to his own role in staging architectural photography, but as this section demonstrates, the statement could be equally applied to exhibitions, stores, advertising, publications, and film, which were the principal agents in disseminating modern California design.
By the end of the 1960s, the relentless optimism that had made California the embodiment of the good life became far more subdued. Counterculture protests and ecological and social justice issues challenged the very idea of consumerism and unbridled growth. These shifting beliefs, however, do not diminish the unprecedented and lasting contributions of California design at mid-century. This exhibition tells a story of the exhilarating innovation and optimism about building a better, modern world that made California loom large in America’s, and indeed the world’s, imagination.
