Modernism to pre-war luxury and power: 1900s to 1945
The first half of the twentieth century was a time of political and economic upheaval across much of Europe and also in Asia. At the end of World War I, Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles, which resulted in the loss of a significant part of its territory, limited the size of the German army, and imposed massive reparations. It was not until 1933, when Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) became the leader of Germany and democracy was abolished in favor of Fascism, that a massive rearming process took place. In Russia, the Civil War (1918–21) led to the creation of a Soviet government headed by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870–1924) and later to the Communist regime of Joseph Stalin (1879–1953). In Italy, Benito Mussolini (1883–1945) seized power as a Fascist dictator, promising to create a “New Roman Empire.”
The history of China in this period was also one of political turmoil and endless wars. Decades of struggle preceded the establishment of the Communist Party in 1921 and followed it with fighting between the Communists and the ruling Nationalist party, the Kuomintang (KMT). Throughout the 1930s, the increasingly militaristic Japanese empire also continued its push into Chinese territory.
Wenger Swiss Army Knife, 1970. The multifunctional knife and tool was originally developed in 1908. The knife is held in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Deutscher Werkbund: 1907–35
The Deutscher Werkbund was founded in 1907 in Munich as a response to widely held worries that Germany’s rapid industrialization and modernization were coming at the cost of its national culture. It involved artists, architects, craftsmen, industrialists, politicians, and designers. Its main leaders were Hermann Muthesius (1861–1927), Henri van de Velde, Peter Behrens (1868–1940), Karl Ernst Osthaus (1874–1921), and Friedrich Naumann (1860–1919).
Peter Behrens
Peter Behrens (1868–1940) initially worked as a painter, illustrator, and bookbinder. At the turn of the century, however, he was one of the leaders of architectural reform and was a major designer of factories and office buildings in brick, steel, and glass. In 1907, AEG (Allgemeine Elektricitäts Gesellschaft) retained Behrens as artistic consultant. He designed the entire corporate identity (including logotype, product design, and publicity) and for that he is considered the first industrial designer in history. Behrens was never an employee for AEG but worked in the capacity of artistic consultant, and in 1910 designed the AEG Turbine Factory. Fan (model GB1), 1908 (right).
Alvar Aalto vase, 1936, produced by Iittala. It was first shown in the Finnish Pavilion at the International Exhibition in Paris, 1937.
The Werkbund was primarily interested in the link between the artistic and the economic aspects of mass production. It was against revivalism and believed that architecture should be a representation of the zeitgeist, or “spirit of the age.” Industrial development was very much the spirit of Germany at this point and this was reflected in the works of the Werkbund. With this in mind, it set out to produce architecture that utilized mass production but still made use of craftsmanship. Handcraft and art were still to be used, but in a way that complemented the spirit of modern Germany. The founders set out to prove that through cooperation between the applied arts and industry a national style in tune with the modern age could be developed.
Marcel Breuer
Marcel Breuer (1902–81) is best known as one of the early twentieth century’s most influential furniture designers. At the Bauhaus, Breuer became one of the first apprentices to join the new furniture workshop. His first piece was the hand-carved and painted Romantic Chair (also known as the African Chair). By 1923 his work, most notably the Wood-Slat Chair, was increasingly influenced by the abstract aesthetic of De Stijl. Firmly established as one of the most prolific members of the Bauhaus, and a protégé of its director Walter Gropius, Breuer eventually ran the furniture workshop at the new Bauhaus in Weimar, where one of his first projects was the 1926 Steel Club armchair (later renamed the Wassily, after the Bauhaus teacher Wassily Kandinsky). Wassily Chair (model B3), 1927 (right).
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969) was one of the most important designers of the Modern movement, and his architecture is famous for its transparency and clarity. He designed one of the most influential buildings in history, the German pavilion at the World Exhibition in Barcelona in 1929, and also created the Barcelona Chair, a design icon made of flat strips of chromed steel welded together by hand and with leather upholstery. Between the 1940s and 1960s, van der Rohe designed some of his most famous buildings, including the Farnsworth House, Illinois (1946–50), the Lake Shore Drive Apartments, Chicago (1950–52), and his masterpiece, the famous 37-story bronze and glass Seagram Building in New York (1954–58). Barcelona Chair, 1929 (right).
Bauhaus: 1919–33
The Bauhaus, which translates literally as “building house,” opened in Weimar in 1919 and, under its first director Walter Gropius (1883–1969), integrated magnificently the disciplines of art and design under one roof. The Bauhaus made an invaluable contribution to the Modern movement in design because it brought highly creative and talented thinkers and practitioners together in one place.
Several of the most important individuals in the history of design were instrumental in the running of the Bauhaus at one time or another, such as Gropius, Marcel Breuer (1902–81), Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969), Johannes Itten (1888–1967), Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944), and Hannes Meyer (1889–1954). By 1923, the Bauhaus had staged a landmark exhibition that featured a number of important designs including Gerrit Rietveld’s Red/Blue chair of 1918 to 1923 and graphics incorporating the New Typography inspired by the Dutch art movement De Stijl and Russian Constructivism. This success was relatively short-lived and, when the Bauhaus’ budget had been slashed by half in 1924 and the Nazis seized power in Weimar in 1925, the Masters voted to break up the school and relocate it to Dessau.
With Nazism on the ascent, political pressure mounted, and in 1928 Gropius resigned. Both of his successors, Meyer and van der Rohe, spent most of their directorships mired in political strife before agreeing to dissolve the Bauhaus in 1933. Many of the Bauhaus Masters emigrated to the United States to escape persecution. In 1938, a retrospective of Bauhaus design was held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, which reinforced the school as the most important design institution of the twentieth century.
Modernism—The International Style: 1914–39
Modernism was the dominant force in twentieth-century Western culture, influencing art, music, literature, and design. The main characteristics of this movement were its emphasis on experimentation, formalism, and objectivism. As the century began, the Modern movement in design believed it was necessary to create buildings and products that expressed the spirit of a new age and that would surpass the styles, materials, and technologies of earlier work. The aesthetics of the Modern movement in architecture and design differed radically from what had gone before. Modernist designers felt nineteenth-century architecture and design was usually either oppressively bound to past styles or annoyingly picturesque and eclectic.
Some architects, enraptured by the powerful machines that were developed in the late nineteenth century, sought to devise an aesthetic that conveyed the sleekness and energy of a machine. This aesthetic crystallized in the International Style of the 1920s and 1930s. “Truth to materials” and “form follows function” were two of this movement’s most representative mottos. Modernism gained momentum after World War II, when its theories were particularly influential in the planning and rebuilding of European towns and cities that had been destroyed in the war, and also in the building of North American cities.
Art Deco: 1920–39
Art Deco was an eclectic decorative arts style that first appeared in Paris in the first half of the twentieth century. Characteristics of the style manifested themselves in a range of decorative arts and architecture from as early as 1910, and spread across the Western world until the 1940s. The Art Deco style made its first large-scale public appearance, drawing an estimated audience of more than 16 million, at the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes held in Paris in 1925. The fact that the name “Art Deco” was drawn from the title of this exhibition highlights the significance attributed to the event in launching the style.
The Art Deco style drew inspiration from an eclectic range of sources including the Bauhaus, avant-garde movements such as Cubism, Russian Constructivism, and Italian Futurism, American developments in industrial design and architecture, and even the principles of aerodynamics. The range of material affected by the Art Deco style was as eclectic and far-reaching as the influences that shaped it—interior and product design, textiles, furniture, jewelery, fine art, sculpture, photography, film, and architecture all exploited, and in turn furthered, the remit of the style. The 1980s witnessed the revival of much of Art Deco’s excess and exuberance in the works of Post-Modern designers such as Robert Venturi, Hans Hollein, and Charles Jencks.
Radio Wireless, Ekco AD-65, designed by Wells Coates, 1932. Bakelite, named after its inventor Leo Baekeland, was the first plastic to be used for making radios, and was ideal for the Art Deco-style designs of the 1920s and 1930s. It was useful for its mouldable and good electrical insulating properties.
Streamlining: 1930s
Streamlining evolved in the United States in the 1930s, a decade that has often been referred to as the “streamlined” decade. Streamlining—literally, the shaping of an object, such as an aircraft body or wing, to reduce the amount of drag or resistance to motion through a stream of air—was applied to a vast array of products, from buses to prams, coffee machines to pencil sharpeners, and was widely employed by designers. Key figures during the era were Raymond Loewy (1893–1986), Norman Bel Geddes (1893–1958), Henry Dreyfuss (1904–72), and Walter Dorwin Teague (1883–1960).
The use of streamlining in the design of products quickly became widespread and the main designers involved became household names. Harold van Doren, for instance, observed in 1940: “Streamlining has taken the world by storm” and Raymond Loewy became the first designer to be featured on the front cover of Time magazine with the strapline “He streamlines the sales curve” (see p. 160). Streamlining added value to products at little or no extra cost and helped American manufacturers stimulate their sales figures and regain healthy profits during the difficult years of the Depression following the Wall Street Crash.