Serious Play: Design in Midcentury America
September 28, 2018–January 6, 2019
Baker/Rowland Galleries
Baker/Rowland Galleries
Serious Play: Design in Midcentury America explores the projects of over 40 designers who advocated for playfulness and whimsy within their creations for corporations, domestic interiors, and children. The exhibition presents play as a serious form of inspiration, experimentation, and problem solving. In midcentury America, such playful design occurred against the backdrop of a booming consumer market and as a counterbalance to Cold War–era anxiety. Furniture, toys, textiles, films, posters, ceramics are among the objects featured.
Co-organized with the Denver Art Museum
Carton City built from Eames Storage Unit (ESU) boxes by Charles and Ray Eames, 1951. © Eames Office LLC (eamesoffice.com)
Lucia DeRespinis for George Nelson Associates, Eye clock, 1957. Manufactured by Howard Miller Clock Company. Collection of Jay Dandy and Melissa Weber. Photo by John R. Glembin.
Charles and Ray Eames, Eames Storage Unit (ESU), c. 1949. Manufactured by Herman Miller, Zeeland, Michigan. Denver Art Museum: Funds, by exchange, from Mr. and Mrs. John C. Mitchell II, Calvina Morse Vaupel in memory of Calvin Henry Morse, Mrs. George Cranmer, Charles E. Stanton, Charles Bayly Jr. Collection, Mrs. Claude Boettcher, Dr. Charles F. Shollenberger, Mr. Ronald S. Kane, Frances Charsky, Dorothy Retallack, Mrs. Alfred B. Bell, Charles William Brand, Doris W. Pritchard, Mrs. F. H. Douglas, Mrs. Calista Struby Rees, and Jane Garnsey O’Donnell, 2017.208. © Eames Office LLC (eamesoffice.com). Photo © Denver Art Museum
Charles and Ray Eames, Sofa Compact, 1954, with Colorado Plaid textile designed by Alexander Girard. Manufactured by Herman Miller, Zeeland, Michigan. Denver Art Museum: Gift of P.R.D. Roberts in memory of his mother, Marie Ponzi Roberts, 1995.43. © Eames Office LLC (eamesoffice.com). Photo © Denver Art Museum.
Charles and Ray Eames, stills from Parade, 1952. Eames Collection, LLC. © Eames Office LLC (eamesoffice.com)
Charles and Ray Eames, stills from Tops, 1969. Eames Collection, LLC. © Eames Office LLC (eamesoffice.com)
Charles and Ray Eames, stills from Tops, 1969. Eames Collection, LLC. © Eames Office LLC (eamesoffice.com)
Charles and Ray Eames, stills from Tops, 1969. Eames Collection, LLC. © Eames Office LLC (eamesoffice.com)
Charles Eames with the Solar Do-Nothing Machine, 1957. © Eames Office LLC (eamesoffice.com)
Alexander Girard and John Neuhart, Textiles & Objects announcement, 1961. Screenprint on textured off-white paper. Herman Miller Archives. Image courtesy of Herman Miller Archives.
Alexander Girard, armchair for Braniff International VIP lounge, ca. 1965. Collection of George R. Kravis II. Photo courtesy of Wright.
Alexander Girard, Village textile, 1945. Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum: Gift of Alexander H. Girard, 1969-165-59. Photo credit: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum / Art Resource, NY.
Irving Harper for George Nelson Associates, Ball clock, 1949. Wood and steel. Manufactured by Howard Miller Clock Company. Collection of Jody and Dick Goisman. Photo by John R. Glembin.
Irving Harper for George Nelson Associates, Kaleidoscope clock, 1959. Manufactured by Howard Miller Clock Company. Collection of William and Annette Dorsey. Photo by John R. Glembin.
Irving Harper for George Nelson Associates, Kite clock, 1953. Manufactured by Howard Miller Clock Company. Collection of Jay Dandy and Melissa Weber. Photo by John R. Glembin.
Irving Harper for George Nelson Associates, Paddle clock, 1957. Manufactured by Howard Miller Clock Company. Collection of Jay Dandy and Melissa Weber. Photo by John R. Glembin.
Irving Harper for George Nelson Associates, Pleated Star clock, 1955. Manufactured by Howard Miller Clock Company. Collection of Jay Dandy and Melissa Weber. Photo by John R. Glembin.
Irving Harper, George Nelson & Associates, for Herman Miller Inc., Marshmallow sofa, 1956. Milwaukee Art Museum, Purchase with funds from the Demmer Charitable Trust and Wayne and Kristine Lueders, M2017.53. Photo by John R. Glembin.
Ray Komai, Masks textile (green colorway), 1948–49. Screenprint on cotton. Manufactured by Laverne Originals. Collection of Edgar Orlaineta. Photograph by Edgar Orlaineta.
Isamu Noguchi, Play Sculpture, Moerenuma Koen (Moerenuma Park) in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, n.d.Photographer unknown. © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.
Isamu Noguchi, Alcoa Forecast Program Tables, 1957. Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: Gift of Torrence M. Hunt, Sr., 2004.9.1-2. Photograph by Tom Little. © 2018 The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York /Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.
Isamu Noguchi, study model for Play Cubes (4-Cube element), c. 1965–68. The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York. © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.
Isamu Noguchi, study model for Play Module A, c. 1965–68. The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York. © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.
Isamu Noguchi, study model for Play Module B, c. 1965–68. The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York. © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.
Isamu Noguchi, Study model for Play Sculpture, ca. 1965–68. The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York. © The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY.
Publicity photograph, House of Cards, 1952. Archival image courtesy of Eames Office LLC. © Eames Office LLC (eamesoffice.com)
Paul Rand, Subway Posters Score, 1947. Lithograph on paper. Collection of Merrill C. Berman. Image courtesy of Merrill C. Berman.
Paul Rand, Interfaith Day: Sunday, September 27, 1953. Screenprint on paper. Collection of Merrill C. Berman. Image courtesy of Merrill C. Berman.
Related Rotations
UWM Design Challenge
September 28, 2018–January 6, 2019
Kohl’s Art Generation Studio
Kohl’s Art Generation Studio
See toy models designed and constructed by students in the School of Architecture and Urban Planning program at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. The students took inspiration from the designers represented in Serious Play.
Sponsored by:
Brady Corporation Foundation
ACSA Portmanteau Designs: Play with the Rules
October 11–November 4, 2018
Baumgartner Galleria
Baumgartner Galleria
Explore design proposals, which in execution are the scale of a portmanteau (or carry-on suitcase), submitted to the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) for its fall conference “Play with the Rules.”
Presenting Sponsors:
This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts
Supporting Sponsors:
In Memory of L. William (Bill) Teweles
BSI
Melinda and Ken Krei
The Terri and Verne Holoubek Family Foundation
Anonymous
Image:
- Ray Eames with the first prototype of The Toy, 1950. © Eames Office LLC (eamesoffice.com)
