The first major survey of mid-century modern design with over 300 items of furniture, ceramics, metalwork, fashion, textiles, and industrial and graphic design. From Rudolph Schindler and Richard Neutra’s architecture to the adaptation of WWII technologies for peace-time domestic use, it shows California’s influence on the whole of American material culture.
The exhibition is divided into four sections: “Shaping,” “Making,” “Living,” and “Selling.”
“Shaping” traces the origins of distinctive California modernism in the 1930s inspired by such European emigres as interior designer Paul Laszlo and Modernist architects Rudolph Schindler and Richard Neutra.
“Making” explores how California design shaped the material culture of the entire country before and after WWII. Furniture can be a good subject of art and innovation. By the rapid technological changes during wartime, Charles and Ray Eames developed a new technique for creating plywood and fiberglass furniture, which led to industrial mass production of modernist design with a commitment to quality and style.
The “Living” section forms the heart of the exhibition focusing on the modern California home, characterized by fairly benign weather and the fuzzy distinction between indoors and the outdoors with its wide open spaces.
Just take a look at the furniture in this 1951 cover of the L.A. Times Home magazine.
Well, it is worth seeing the full-scale re-creation of Eames House living room that takes full advantage of the vast and vertical space of the Resnick Pavilion.
“Selling” examines how California design spread all over the United States and the world through the commercial media, such as exhibitions, films, magazines and advertising. After a long walk through the exhibits, you end up in the gift shop displaying a selection of refined souvenirs, gifts and exhibition catalogues as if they are part of the exhibit. I like to believe that it is a playful mockery of Hollywood commercialism, exhibiting a wry sense of humor, as in notorious graffitti artist Banksy’s film “Exit Through the Gift Shop.”
