From Fusty to Fresh

The radical evolution in design that changed the way Americans saw common objects--from domestic appliances to buildings--occurred within 15 years of the 1925 World’s Fair in Paris. That revolution is the subject of the traveling exhibition “American Modern, 1925-1940: Design for a New Age.” The show will open Saturday at the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach, its only West Coast stop.

Bulky, banal appliances were reshaped into seamless, futuristic gadgets. The 1937 Electrolux vacuum cleaner resembled a powerful locomotive and the 1935 Ice Gun was a Space Age-style gizmo that crushed ice.

The new look of America went from Flintstones to Jetsons in a few short years.

“Prior to the mid-1920s, there was very little that was modern in the United States. At that time, Middle America owned carved oak in the dining room, fringed armchairs in the living room and curly maple in the bedroom,” said private collector John C. Waddell, whose art collection makes up at least two-thirds of this exhibition, organized by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Federation of Arts.

Waddell grew up with modern design and has been acquiring it for 25 years. His mother owned a set of Henry Dreyfuss’ “teardrop” kitchen utensils made with enameled wood. “That teardrop was radical then because the design was considered to be aerodynamic,” Waddell, 63, said from his home in Manhattan.

Drawn from Waddell’s collection and the Met’s, the exhibition, curated by J. Stewart Johnson, includes 140 sleek objects by 50 pioneer designers--among them Isamu Noguchi, Frank Lloyd Wright, Eliel Saarinen, Walter Dorwin Teague, Russel Wright and Eva Zeisel.

Two distinct American styles emerged during the period the show covers: the skyscraper in the late 1920s and the “streamline” look in the 1930s.

Advances in technology allowed architects to build skyward beginning in the late 19th century. By the late 1920s, the skyscraper’s angular, extremely vertical forms became an American aesthetic symbolizing luxury and wealth.

In “American Modern,” Paul Frankl’s 1927 Skyscraper bookcase and desk evoke the Manhattan skyline. Also on display are candleholders, cocktail shakers, vases and textiles with designs that zigzag toward space.

But by the mid-1930s, designers were thinking about speed, not height. The advent of high-powered motors, transatlantic liners, speedboats and airplanes inspired them. Designer Norman Bel Geddes was considered the father of streamline forms on a mass-produced scale, Waddell said. Bel Geddes designed such products as the 1938 Soda King siphon bottles used to carbonate water for drinks.

“The streamline aesthetic was associated with forms that suggested speed with these long, continuous lines, horizontal forms and rounded, bullet-shaped noses,” said Susan Hapgood, curator of exhibitions at the American Federation of Arts in New York, which produced the exhibition catalog. Hapgood is the exhibition’s tour coordinator.

The show highlights Americans’ new attitudes toward design, using the Paris 1925 Exposition des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes (Exposition of Decorative Arts and Modern Industry) as a starting point.

The United States was offered a prime spot at the show but bowed out because there wasn’t much to boast about at the time; Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover convened art leaders, who advised him that there was no modern design in America.

Still, the Paris expo, which was at least attended by Americans, was the catalyst for the rapid rise of modern design in the U.S.

France wasn’t the only European influence. Emigres--particularly Austrians, Germans and Swedes--who came to the States melded their design heritage with American ingenuity.

Immigrants Bring Their Ideas With Them

“The impetus for the American modern design, the seeds that had been planted even before the 1920s, came from the immigrants who came to the United States since 1911,” Waddell said. “These immigrants became leaders in the American modern movement. They laid the foundation.”

Initially, the ornamental French Art Deco style was much admired for its emphasis on luxury, costly materials and fine craftsmanship, Johnson said. In a short time, that decorative style gave way to simplicity.

The clean, uncluttered lines and pure geometric forms had origins in the Bauhaus, the radically innovative German art and design school from which Modernism emerged.

Americans were especially receptive to Bauhaus concepts because technology created a fertile atmosphere for the new designs.

Electricity became widely accessible in this period, and all households could use domestic electrical appliances.

The country was moving rapidly into the age of high-powered machines and away from handicrafts, Waddell said.

“Most of the early designs were unique and sold as specialty items in small shops. The pieces shown are very rare and were handmade prior to 1930,” Waddell said.

The United States gave modern design another stamp: mass production.

Especially in the 1930s, industrial designers had new materials with which to work, including aluminum, cork, linoleum, fiberglass, Formica and Lucite.

It was in this context of mass production and consumption that American-born designers such as Bel Geddes, Teague, Dreyfuss and Noguchi began to forge a unique American aesthetic.

The dramatic economic, industrial and technological changes that swept across the United States during the inter-war period had a significant impact on design.

“Art Deco was ill-suited to the needs of a rapidly expanding middle class and to the increasingly industrialized modes of production, particularly during the Great Depression,” said principal curator Johnson, who wrote the catalog’s opening essay.

“American designers sought to capture the broadest possible market, creating fresh, affordable and readily available products.”

* “American Modern, 1925-1940: Design for a New Age,” Orange County Museum of Art, 850 San Clemente Drive, Newport Beach. Through Aug. 19. Tuesdays-Sun- days, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. $5; $4, seniors and students; members and children under 16, free; Tuesdays free. (949) 759-1122.