MID-CENTURY MODERNISM1945

- 1954
“The word modern means up to date; and to use the modern style means to take advantage of the technical achievements of the age. It means using the new materials and the new ways of construction that have been developed in recent years. It also means to study changes in our way of living and in our taste.”-- Phillip Johnson

In both originality and timing, the United States lagged behind Europe in the design of modern furniture. From the crafts period – with the exception of the Prairie School – not much new design ground was broken. American designers worked in European idioms, and even through the 1940’s the great styles came primarily from Europe. Imports dominated the market – furniture from Denmark and Finland, from Germany, France, and Austria. And then came Charles Eames. With his wife Ray, Eames began to work in a uniquely American style while building on the technological developments of the Scandinavians. Eames invented a technique for bending plywood into complex curves – taking the work done by Aalto a step further – while making leg splints in the United States Navy during World War II. Eames and his Cranbrook Academy colleague. Eero Saarinen, energized American design and sent it forward into new looks, new materials.

The chief designer of Herman Miller – which produces Eames’s work – was George Nelson. He also had new ideas to contribute – taking the sideboard idea, for example, and coming up with a new American furniture favorite, the wall unit. (This was also being done in Germany in the 1950’s by Hans Gugelot and Jurgen Lange.) Nelson developed a chair and a sofa that introduced a light note into modern furnishings: Coconut and Marshmallow, as they were called, dictated the shape of the 1950’s and predicted the 1980’s to come as well. They were a far cry (for some a welcome change) from the seriousness of earlier modern works.

Besides Herman Miller, the important furniture company in the postwar United States has been Knoll International – which was founded by two Cranbrook affiliates, Florence and Hans Knoll, in the middle 1950’s. They produced the work not only of Americans but also of Bauhaus designers, putting many classics of the 1920’s back into mass production.

ew York City’s Museum of Modern Art, founded in the 1930’s, was an important influence in the development of good design in the United States after the war. By sponsoring shows and competitions for innovative furniture designs, the museum stimulated many talented people and attracted worldwide attention. While the idea for “modern” was not new, Americans brought the idea to fruition. The idea of Mid-Century Modern had arrived…. ~ Excerpted from Modern Furniture Classics by Miriam Stimpson, 1987