under construction 5: 7.
Aesthetic tastes of decade; e.g.,
prevailing popularity of arts and crafts
design; neo-colonial revivalism-nativism
(Along
with this section in each chapter -- "Aesthetic Movements that
Impact on Amateur Woodworking" -- as a source of reference I created a
quick-and-dirty guide to Furniture Styles.) [Check Harvey
Green's "Americans and the Craft Revival: Culture and Crisis"
from Revivals! Diverse Traditions,
1920-1945: The History of 20th Century American Craft,
Janet Kardon,
ed.,New York: Abrams, 1995. pp 31-40; reviewed The
Real Thing: Imitation and Authenticity in American Culture, 1880-1940.
by Miles Orvell The
American Historical Review Vol.
96, No. 2 (Apr., 1991), pp. 615-616" addresses
these same
questions]
Gordon Russell,
The Things We See: Furniture West Drayton, England: Penguin Books, 1947,
page
34, briefly but insightfully sketches out for several centuries the
major furniture design styles that prevailed in England, emphasizing to
a greater extent the Victorian, Arts and Crafts, and Modernist periods,
stretching from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s. Russell elaborates on
his ideas in Looking at Furniture, London, Lund Humphries, 1964.
(With
the exception of furniture styles popularized by the Colonial Revival,
and Shaker, and other styles native to America, the styles Russell
introduces are reflected too in America.)
For
the 1920s and 1930s, a theory claims that modern design was
deliberately simple, as a response to the growing complexity of the
world. Modernist objects, including furniture, "look" different than
those that came immediately before them. Without ornament and overt
reference to historical style, these designs instead focus on
industrial processes to create objects "that simplified and dramatized
everyday life".
In international politics, between
WW I and WW II, isolationists and
supporters of the League of Nations
opposed one another, polarities that are
reflected in aesthetic counterparts.
Radical differences existed between
objects like furniture created by
craftsmen reviving
traditional American crafts and those
pieces created by artists affected by
modernist ideas of avoiding
over-decoration and in employing new
materials
Political isolationism was reflected in
"revivalism" ideologies, such as
the popular Colonial revival style, the
indigenous 'folk' handcrafts of Southern
Appalachia, and the expressions of
African-American, Hispanic, and Native
American communities.
In woodworker's manuals we see these
sentiments expressed in 1924, in
Reproduction of Antique Furniture,
by Herman Hjorth.
In the “preface,” Hjorth observes that,
A general refinement of the
public taste in matters
pertaining to art and
interior decoration is
making itself felt more and
more clearly. One of the
phases of this feeling and
desire for better things is
undoubtedly the realization
of the charm, beauty of
line, and individuality of
antique furniture.
Unfortunately the available
supply of genuine antiques
is so far below the demand
that only the favored few
can enjoy the possession of
artistic old pieces. For the
great majority reproductions
will have to do. If well
made and of true
proportions, they will be
found to be just as pleasing
as the originals, besides
being much stronger. The
higher class of furniture
factories are meeting the
demand of the times by
turning out many excellent merely common adaptations
but follow the original in
every detail. But
reproduction of antique
furniture need not
necessarily be confined to
professional
cabinet-makers. It may well
be undertaken by high school
boys, and many pieces can
even be made by students of
the eighth grade. Work of
this kind may at first
appear too difficult; but,
when the processes are
carefully analyzed, these
difficulties will disappear,
and the result will be ever
so much more pleasing and
satisfying than the usual
"Mission" type of furniture.
With this idea in mind, the
following material has been
compiled. The pieces of
furniture illustrated have
been selected for their
general simplicity and
adaptability to the average
home. They have been
photographed, measured, and
translated into working
drawings, thus making them
available for reproduction.
A few suggestions and a
short description of the
principal technical
difficulties involved in the
construction of each piece
have been added, as well as
a chapter giving a brief
outline of the art periods
and how to distinguish the
most important of them.
While the book is intended
chiefly for school use, it
is hoped that it may also
prove of interest to
cabinet-makers, amateur
woodworkers, and people in
general who are interested
in good furniture.
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Against this backdrop of nativistic, Colonial revival, are pluralist, multicultural, and
regional expressions of craft, some
strongly influenced by European
modernism. Labeled Craft in the
Machine Age: 1920-1945 by Janet
Kardon, at the American Craft Museum in New York, this movement is
the result of trans-Atlantic
interaction, where -- as seen in Chapter
4, a focus on artistic developments from the influx of
European émigrés and ideas, and the
direct experience of American artists
who traveled to Europe. [Link to piece
on Bauhaus]
The period from 1920 to 1945 falls between the decline of the
Arts and Crafts movement and the craft industry that emerged in the post-WW II era and the
revival of the Arts and Crafts movement in the 1960s.
In those intervening decades, America was introduced to a variety of European designs, including hybrids from
moderne and "zigzag" styling to Scandinavian Modern, the International Style, and Italian influences. (On the latter see the page on Mario Dal Fabbro;
on the attempts by woodworking magazines
to define and address modernist tastes
for furniture in projects by amateur
woodworkers, see
Appendix 13: Defining Modernistic
Furniture Design for Amateur
Woodworkers in the 1930s
According to the material culture historian, Kate Carmel
in "Against the Grain: Modern American Woodwork",
page 74:
As
distinctive American styles began to evolve, the sleek machine
aesthetic and the exigencies of industrial production were of much
greater interest to designers than the charms of natural wood or the
idiosyncrasies of handcrafted objects. Yet this period is important to
the history of American woodworking, not only for the pioneering of
interesting shapes, methods of construction, and materials made
possible by the machine but also for the endurance of wood as a favored
material for craftspeople and, ultimately, the renewal of public
interest in organic beauty and in the unique handcrafted object as an
antidote to the anonymity of mass production.
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During
this period, woodworking was marked by a wide fluctuation in levels of
skill, often dictated by variations in modern styling. In the creation
and production of wood furniture and objects (whether decorative or
functional), some very distinct models emerged. In the 1920s, designers
working in the decorative moderne or zigzag style provided drawings to
established artisanal firms for refined execution using traditional
skills. Beginning in the 1930s, craftspeople skilled in the fabrication
of wood models and prototypes were employed in the emergent field of
industrial design, which addressed the need for uniform
construction techniques and the use of more economical materials.
A striking aspect of modernism was the de-emphasis of expert carving
and craftsmanship as standards of quality and their eventual
replacement by simplified forms designed for large-scale production.
The
potential of new wood products was frequently explored and expanded by
architects and craftspeople working in studio settings. Craft training
became the basis for industrial design education, setting standards of
quality and providing modelmaking skills. Many modern architects,
continuing an Arts and Crafts tradition, controlled all aspects of a
project, favoring simple built-in and free-standing furniture of their
own design, constructed by carpenters on the building site. Finally,
and least common of all, there was the artist-craftsperson who
conceived and made unique functional objects. The fusion of the
many branches of modernism and the various modes of execution gave rise
to a confusing plethora of hybrids that prevents a simple line of
development in this narrative.
Early Modernist American Furniture
Furniture
of the early 1920s shows striking links with the Arts and Crafts
movement as well as with the first wave of modern style.
(Sources:The designs of the British Industrial Arts instructors,
Percy A Wells and John Hooper
, and the designer-woodworker, Gordon Russell, helped promote and
popularizes these elaborations on Arts and Crafts designs.
Another study of early modernist American furniture is Marguerite Smith's 1947 master's thesis, "Modern Design in Ameican Domestic Furniture, 1925 to 1945".
Only 50-pages of double-spaced typecript -- accompanied by photos by
Smith and clippings from magazines -- Smith briefly but
capably outlines the contributions of major players and analyzes
the threads of development, noting in particular that these designers
were tuned into the applications of their designs in mass produsction
settings.
Janet
Kardon,
Craft in the Machine Age,
New York: H.N. Abrams, in association with
the American Craft Museum, 1995,
especially Kate Carmel's
chapter "Against the Grain: Modern American
Woodwork", page 74+; Noel Riley, ed.,
Elements of Design:
A Practical Encyclopedia of the
Decorative Arts From the Renaissance to the
Present
new York: free press, 2003.)
Popular Science Monthly "modernistic" blueprints.[image coming]
[When I get this
image uploaded it will show how, in 1933, as part of its "Home Workshop
Blueprints" service, a mailing service, at $.25 each, readers could
order from a selection of about 30 projects at least five projects that
incorporated a "modernistic" design. In October, 1933, on pages 82-83,
Herman Hjorth has an article -- with diagrams and photos -- on how to
design a "Smoking Stand", "designed on simple modern lines".]
("Modern" or "Modernist", evidently are then sort of like code words for the
rectilinear styles that emerged from the Bauhaus movement. Nowhere, though, I located where Popular Homecraft, Popular Mechanics,
Popular Science, Home Craftsman,
Deltagram,
and so forth has given readers a background on the historical origins
of the style. Evidently the style was so pervasive that the editors of
these periodicals thought an explanation was superfluous, and not
necessary or useful. However, Popular Homecraft presented its readers with a little more background than any of the other woodworker's magazines.
I have gathered some of this evidence into a single, which you can view by clicking on this link. )
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