Mid-Twentieth Century Craft and Design

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Randolph Young
5 years ago
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1 Mid-Twentieth Century Craft and Design In the years following World War II, the United States experienced a resurgence of interest in all aspects of craft and design. During this period of dramatic economic growth, artists working in disparate regions of the country produced well designed objects for use or display in homes built in the new modern style. The works presented here exemplify some of the fine objects produced during this dynamic period. Front Row Gertrud Natzler ( ) and Otto Natzler ( ) Folded Bowl, ca Earthenware with gray blue glaze Gift of Devra Miller Breslow, Steuben Glass Company Designed by John Drewes ( ) Olive Dish, 1939 Colorless lead glass Gift of Marcia and Don Yust,

2 Center Edwin Scheier ( ) and Mary Scheier ( ) Footed Vase, ca 1967 Ceramic Gift of Devra Miller Breslow, Back Row Faith Zink Porter (Born 1942) Plate: Colemanite Blue, ca Stoneware Gift of the artist, William Manker ( ) Footed Bowl, ca Earthenware Gift of Andrew Rolle,

3 Hudson Roysher Decanter Set ca Silver and Sumatra cane Lent by Martin Roysher and Allison Wittenberg Renowned for his spare, modernist aesthetic, Roysher influenced several generations of Southern California silversmiths through his teaching, writings, and workshops. Best known for his ecclesiastical silver produced for churches, he also created useful forms for his family, friends, and individual clients. This decanter set is a handsome example of Roysher s early work that he kept for personal use.

4 Edward Weston at The Huntington After nearly thirty years as a professional photographer, Edward Weston ( ) was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1937, renewed in Suddenly, Weston had the means to travel some twenty thousand miles through the American West, shoot twelve hundred negatives, and print a good number of them, a laborious process given his exacting standards. Weston called this body of work almost exclusively landscapes an epic series and, mindful of his legacy, wished to give it to a museum. In the end, examples from the Guggenheim series made up about one-half of the gift of five hundred photographs that he personally selected, printed, and mounted for The Huntington. Taken as a whole, the gift is a summary of his life s work, though not without its gaps. While well known for his nudes, none appear in the Huntington s set. The stupefying level of detail, rich tonal variations, and startling reframing of the natural world that we thought we knew leave no doubt that Weston was no mere photographic technician photography s status as a true art was still in doubt during the 1930s and 1940s but an artist of the highest order. This gallery is dedicated to showing a rotating selection of Weston s gift. Because of the extreme sensitivity of photographs to light, they must be displayed for a limited period of time and under low light.

5 Robert Rauschenberg Throughout his long career, Robert Rauschenberg ( ) pushed the boundaries of art: he erased a drawing by Willem de Kooning; put a tire around a stuffed angora goat; roller-skated while attached to a parachute-like contraption; and took a quilt, hung it on a wall, splashed it with paint, and then titled it Bed. What ties together Rauschenberg s seemingly chaotic practice over the decades is his use of a surface whether canvas, paper, or printing plate on which he juxtaposes and overlaps seemingly unrelated images and objects. He was an inveterate collector of pictures (from magazines, newspapers, or books) and of things for example, the rubber cement brushes and table napkins applied to the painting, Global Loft (Spread ). Moreover, as demonstrated by the works on paper in this gallery, he at times repeats, reverses, or prints images in contrasting colors, then overlays them to reduce their legibility. Like a television flipping from channel to channel, Rauschenberg s work does not cohere into a single idea or point: it slides, or better yet, surfs from image to image without allowing one to pause. The works on paper exhibited here have been generously lent by the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation, New York.

6 Robert Rauschenberg Global Loft (Spread ) 1979 Solvent transfer on fabric and paper collage to wooden panels, with acrylic paint and three metal brushes Anonymous Gift in honor of Robert Shapazian Rauschenberg was born in Port Arthur, Texas, where, he said, it was very easy to grow up without ever seeing a painting. While serving in the United States Navy ( ) and living in San Diego, he visited The Huntington and, inspired by the paintings he encountered, realized that art was something a person could do for a living. Here, Rauschenberg divides the painting s surface into thirds, a traditional compositional device. Glue brushes and images of the earth from space appear in triplicate. The viewer is invited to contrast and juxtapose the painting s parts without resolving them into a single message or idea. There is no secret meaning or veiled allegory, just a process of endless combination and manipulation.

Murray Ave School. Art Appreciation Presentation: Robert Rauschenberg

Murray Ave School. Art Appreciation Presentation: Robert Rauschenberg Murray Ave School Art Appreciation Presentation: Robert Rauschenberg Lesson Plan Biography: (show picture 1, photo of him in his studio) Considered by many to be one of the most influential American artists