RIP Andrée Putman

December 25, 1925 - January 19, 2013

Zaha Hadid's Liquid Glacial

Zaha Hadid whose signature language is curvilinear forms and dynamic movement frozen in time reminiscent of Umberto Boccioni has created a new item of furniture:  Liquid Glacial

The clear acrylic table seems to be caught in the moment of transition -- as ice melting into water spinning at a high speed.

The tabletop is smooth and flat, as the legs flow downwards in rippling patterns.

Desire of the Day: Linda Steen and Lena Axelsson's Spinnaker Chair

I've been thinking about packing it up and moving to the beach a LOT lately with my husband and two terriers in tow. My husband has a small sail boat. It is nice to sit quietly on his boat and watch him steer the waters with his Popeye arms. I close my eyes and pretend we are somewhere else -- the clear blue waters of the Caribbean or even the deep and dark waters of a Scottish loch. These brown lakes in Missouri where we sail just do not do it for me.

Or perhaps I can squash this restless feeling by bringing a bit of the sailing feeling home. Literally. Designed by the Norwegians Linda Steen and Lena Axelsson, the Spinnaker Chair is  produced in Norway by Hødnebø.  Named after the sleek curves of a spinnaker sail, the Spinnaker chair supposedly simulates the feeling of floating.

You can customize it to your liking by choosing from a variety of colors of leather or canvas cushions. The backing? Recycled old sails.



The spring steel frame is powder varnished which comes in black, steel grey or white. The frame has a slight curve at the front rail preventing the constriction of blood circulation the legs. A great idea as I sit here typing this post shaking my feet awake in my most uncomfortable desk chair. It also has a loaded tilt function which can be locked into three different positions to recline. The canvas or leather is stretched over three carbon ribs by comfortable foam cushions (not like those old foam seats which have hardened after 50 years). And, the best part, it swivels 360 degrees.

I will never tire of a swivel chair. I used to make myself sick as a child spinning around and around in my grandfather’s living room chair until I was scolded to stop.

The chair also comes with an optional foot stool.

What I like the most is that the design of the chair was collaborated by two WOMEN. Linda Steen (left) who established Studio Scenario in 1985, which is now one of the largest interior design company in Norway. And Lena Axelsson who just turning 40 has quite an impressive design resume.

And by the way, no one is paying me for writing anything. otherwise, i would be writing this from the beach.

Images from Studio Scenario  and Spinnaker

Women in Design: Lucie Rie (1902-1995)

In 1995, Lucie Rie's death at the age of 93 brought an end to the long and productive life of one of the leading studio potters of the 20th century. In many ways, it also marked the end of an era for the craft itself.

Born in Vienna in 1902, Lucie Rie (née Gomperz) was the third and youngest child of a prosperous ear, nose and throat doctor who possessed progressive artistic taste -- his surgery and waiting-room was designed in the latest Viennese Modernism style. Gisela, her mother, family’s fortune was in the wine business. She divided her time between her family’s city and country home and watched her father play chess with Sigmund Freud.

Artistically inclined but uncertain of her path, Rie enrolled at the Vienna Kunstgewerberschule in 1922. She studied under Michael Powolney who was more of a modeler than a potter with an old-fashioned eye. Under him, she learned to throw, a technique she continued to use all her life.

Her work was hugely influenced by pared-down and functional forms advocated by Josef Hoffman. Adapting Hoffmann's credo, she made earthenware pots, tall cylinders, rounded bowls, and tea-sets that were sparse in form and often with fine rims and thick handles.

Rare "Vienna Period" vase, circa 1935
She signed her works Lucie Rie Gomperz during this time
Phillips de Pury & Company, June 12th, 2008

She also gained a sound knowledge of ceramic chemistry and experimented with applying stoneware glazes on unfired red clay creating the first of her volcanic jars with deeply fissured and pitted sides.

An ancient technique, raw glazing became a signature feature of her work. Whether decorative or functional, she always thought of her work to integrate with the domestic interior.
With Hoffman's help, she held her first exhibition in 1923 at Hoffman's Palais Stoclet in Brussels. And two years later participated in the Exposition Universelle in Paris. In 1926, she married Hans Rie (1901-1985), an easy-going young businessman who worked in the Bruder Bohm hat factory. They had little in common except for a fondness for skiing. Rie turned to her work.

Lucie Gomperz and Hans Rie on a skiing trip, 1925

Over the next decade she further developed and honed her style, but with the union of Austria with the Nazi Germany, she and her husband escaped to London in 1938. Her husband left for America and in 1940, they amicably divorced. Her popularity had not caught on in London where the work of Bernard Leach dominated. Leach tried to influence her with his heavier oriental meats Arts + Crafts aesthetic.


He thought her pots were too thin and her turning too fussy. but her own work remained severe and urban. Rie rooted her works and ideas in the Modern Movement. Still, they remained life-long friends.

‘I am a potter, but he was an artist’ Lucie Rie said while being interviewed by The Guardian in 1988.

 Her work nearly halted during the war. She hired assistants to make colorfully glazed ceramic buttons and jewelry. One assistant named Hans Coper, a young German refugee, was hired in 1946 to help make the buttons. Hans Coper trained as her assistant and together they created an enormous range of tableware and on off pieces.  Four years later they began to share a series of exhibitions and supply Heal’s department store with tableware.

Tablewares by Lucie Rie and Hans Coper, c.1955
Porcelain with manganese slip and sgraffito decoration

Rie’s and Coper’s personal styles started to diverge: hers remained functional, his became sculptural. Eventually, in 1958, Coper decided to set up his own studio and teach extensively.

From 1860 to 1972 she taught part time at the Camberwell School of Art where she was known to be a bit rigorous and unsympathetic to her students -- her demeanor somewhat steely, though pleasant. Always elegant, it was said that she stepped off her wheel after throwing as clean and spotless as when she went on.



Porcelain Cylindrical vase with flaring neck, c. 1976
Phillips de Pury & Company, September 27, 2011



In 1981 she was advanced CBE and continued to exhibit and work throughout the decade, but after a series of strokes in the early 1990s she had to stop. In 1991 she was made Dame. She died in her home on April 1, 1995.

Victoria and Albert Museum

Quietly spoken, she would politely show visitors around her studio and offer them strong coffee or tea and home-made chocolate cake . She possessed a clear understanding of her materials and control of form. She was one of the most creative studio potters of the twentieth century. 



top image: Lucie Rie 1987 at her front door Jim Hair ; all other images with the exception of Phillips &de Pury from The Lucie Rie Archive at the Craft Studies Center.

Charlotte Perriand Wins

By the 20th century, major institutional obstacles began to disappear, allowing women to formally train in art, architecture and design. Women enrolled in these schools in droves. At the same time that Modernism was developing, it was also becoming marginalized. As critics and scholars began to define Modernism, the work of women designers was left off the pages.

Women created great original works of quality design, and in significant amounts. They acquired professional skills which they exhibited in public venues, and began to relentlessly pursue active careers. They created a diverse range of style and ground-breaking designs, and many of their names still in the 21st century are obscured by the shadows of men.

In February, a Paris court issued a decision in favor of the daughter of Charlotte Perriand. Perriand wasn't given proper authorship of three of her designs; instead, the works were attributed to her sometime male collaborator Jean Prouvé. Pernette Martin-Barsac, Perriand's daughter, fought against the Sonnabend Gallery for misattribution and won. She had been fighting this for a decade (or more) even when the Pompidou Center hosted a retrospective of Perriand's work in 2005. When these three designs went to auction, Prouvé was credited as the designer.

Perriand dealt with this during her lifetime. In the 1950s the Tunisia bookshelves was launched on the market under the label of "Jean Prouvé Studios."

Tunisian Bookshelf, pic from MoMa

Information gets regurgitated over and over, with assumption and bias. Lately we have come to care more about the look of a design over who designed it and how it fits in. We have a unique opportunity to study the range of activity and information about women designers.

Perriand's floor plan for a student room in the dormitory building, Maison de la Tunisie,
at the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris

Why aren't we doing this?

Student Room, Maison de la Tunisie, 1952
Perriand was put in charge of a group that was to design and furnish 40 student rooms. 

Both images above from Mary McLeod's (editor) Charlotte Perriand: An Art of Living, 2003.

Women in Design:: Azadeh Shladovsky

I love seeing the success of well-trained designers. My fellow alumni, (UCLA’s architecture and interior design program), Azadeh Shladovsky has been building a practice for seven years.

A great design talent and founder of her own multidisciplinary firm, she premiered her collection of nature-inspired furniture at Jean de Merry.

She marries wood, metal and fur in a non-formulaic manner.

Petit Chene Side Table

love the rough-hewn oak blocks juxtaposed with the sleek, cold steel...

Diva Stool


She uses the principles of proportion, scale, balance and color -- something, i feel, a lot of furniture forms are lacking today.

Torre Stool

 
A tension of contrasts: soft v. hard, lustrous v. matte, sinuous v. linear
 

Infinity+++ Bench

 Beautiful, powerful visual expressions.


All images from Azadeh Shladovsky

Designer of the Day: Emma Bridgewater

I was in Edinburgh recently and one early morning, I received a special treat to visit one of the shops of Emma Bridgewater before it opened. I am embarrassed to say, I was not aware of her. Functioning only on a few hours of sleep, my initial reaction that her designs were sweet, even fun. But then as the caffeine I slammed 20 minutes prior was beginning to pump through my veins, I began to gain a much, much greater appreciation for her work. I needed to dig deeper to understand what she was all about.

Emma Bridgewater is the eldest child of a large family. She grew up in Oxford and was enormously inspired by her mother’s colorful, mismatched china. With a degree in English Literature, Emma graduated from London University. Her first job was working for knitwear designers Muir & Osborne. There she became involved in every aspect of this small fashion company but she wanted to do something for herself. She had no formal training in design or even business management, but she wanted to make pottery using traditional methods rather than machinery.

In 1985, Emma established her company and began decorating vessels on her kitchen table with the sponge technique popular from the late 18th to the early 20th century. She recognized that the market was lacking fresh, contemporary designs. So she created and array of different patterns on traditional English shapes favoring Josiah Wedgwood's creamware of the early 1800s.

Figs (1987) also the year she married Matthew Rice, who joined her company


Emma believed to be a good designer, one needed to have control over pattern and shapes. She also keenly recognized that this was a time when women were working in increasing numbers and formal dining was quickly fading into the past. She smartly concentrated on providing forms needed for less ceremonious dining.

Emma Bridgewater opened her first shop in 1990 and within six years her wares were in high demand. Each year she creates a new pattern -- some more popular than others -- with Polka Dot launched in 2002 still being the most popular pattern today.
Her company is currently the sixth biggest employer of potters in Staffordshire.

Hellebore

Her company is the only English factory today producing the traditional underglaze sponged pottery.

Dogs

Birds (I bought this french bowl while I was there)
lithographed birds designed by her insanely talented husband Matthew Rice who is an incredible watercolorist. He now has rendered over 60 birds.

Toast and Marmalade
My most favorite pattern, introduced in 1992 with lettering designed by Matthew Rice. The typography is applied to the glazeware and then refired. I am determined to trade in my plane jane white dinnerware for this series.

Starry Skies (2010)

Union Jack

She offers tea towels and wrapping paper and cutlery and advent calendars too....

(all images from Emma Bridgewater)

Women in Design: Gertraud von Schnellenbühel (b. ? – d. ?)

Scores and scores of books have been written and exhibits have been presented featuring many well-known designers of the Art Nouveau style. But one designer, in particular, has been forgotten. Her output was not great, but one of her creations...

A masterpiece: 19” high silver-plated brass 24-light candelabrum created in 1913. This is the only work by Gertraud von Schnellenbühel known to survive. A profusion of swirled spirals organized in a rational manner -- it is rhythmic, mesmerizing and creates a sort of restrained freedom. The metal branches seem buoyant which defies the weight of the material.

Her creation was dubbed: The Flowering Tree.

So what happened to Gertraud von Schnellenbühel? How can one designer create something so brilliant, so striking yet there is barely any information about her?

This work was shown in 1914 at the Cologne Werkbund exhibition and received very positive reviews. Most Jugendstil designers harmoniously married elements of both Arts + Crafts with Art Nouveau styles. They merged whiplash lines and organic forms with medieval motifs or geometric silhouettes. Although Gertraud’s work follows the style, it is a creation indomitably its own.

The painter Wilhelm von Debschitz and the sculptor Hermann Obrist opened a private school in Munich’s Bohemian area on January 3, 1902 and called it The Debschitz School. It offered to artists and amateurs foundation courses combined with hands-on workshops. The school was a fertile seed for the emerging industrial design boom to come forth in Germany. It served as an important model for the Bauhaus – well known for integrating art and design education. The school was sold in 1914.

By 1913, The Desbchitz School had grown into the largest institution of its kind. By this time, 240 students were enrolled -- the majority women – and among them Gretraud. Students who attended this school thirsted for something new. They wanted to learn under different teaching methods and to actually make the creations they drafted on paper come to life.

What of Gertraud? One hit wonder? Married and became a haus frau?

It is interesting to note that the candelabrum ended up in the possession of Hermann Obrist, the schools co-founder and Gertraud’s teacher…

(images from Hiesinger and Marcus, Landmarks of Twentieth-Century Design; Beate Ziegert, "The Debschitz School, Munich: 1902-1914", Design Issues :The MIT Press, 1986 .)

Inga Sempé (b.1968)

A French furniture designer who created a small, compact sofa to work in proportion with smaller apartments. This design caught my eye when I was craning my neck to read the Financial Times House & Home Section over the shoulder of someone sitting on a plane. The sofa is light and airy. Made from a beechwood frame, it is upholstered in a sort of quilted duvet with cross-hatching of interrupted seams. She named her work: Ruché.


Although it looks as if a comforter cover was simply thrown over a stiff frame, the construction of the sofa is much more complex. It similar to a mattress and has a combination of layers of memory foam for comfort and sprung steel grill for stability. Sempé wanted her sofa to appear uncomplicated -- raised from the ground by a simple structure supporting a comfortable seat. The legs terminate in beveled feet which lends to more of a refined shape.
The height of the armrests is the same as the back. And if the thought of nestling yourself in a duvet cover while watching your favorite BravoTV show wasn’t enough, the armrests are mounted on elastic webbing which allows you to lean back comfortably while you sip on some wine and munch on white cheddar cheese flavored popcorn.



Ruché also is available in a one-arm settee version with an integral table surface at the end so you can conveniently place your bottle of wine without having to wait to get up during the commercials to pour yourself another glass.


This is a great idea for a narrow room or a small space -- a sofa and table all in one. Made for Ligne Roset, Ruché marries the unusual and the traditional; comfortable and practical. You can choose from a few velvety colors and stained or natural wood finish.



Her former employer? The design doyenne Andrée Putman.



Sempé pictured above (love her tights). See Sempé's site with many more great designs: HERE.

(images from DesignBoom and Sempé's site)

Sophia Hayden Bennett

The Board of Lady Managers ended up awarding Sophia a gold medal "for delicacy of style, artistic taste, and geniality and elegance of the interior hall." There was a dedication ceremony for the buildings, but Sophia wasn’t there. Rumors began to spread that she suffered a mental breakdown, which plainly indicated why women should stay at home and not wander into the realm of men.

Critics dealt her another blow when they insisted the building was too feminine. One said regardless of her technical knowledge, the structure with its “graceful timidity or gentleness” was clearly designed by a woman.

The Women's Building was torn down after the Exposition ended. Sophia, frustrated with the way she had been treated, retired from architecture. She later married William Blackstone Bennett, an artist. Sophia never designed another building after the 1893 fair, and lived a quiet life in Massachusetts until her death in 1953.

(first image: Exterior of The Women's Building, period photograph, Boston College Digital Archive; second image: MIT)

Women in Design: Sophia Hayden (1868 - 1953)

Born in Santiago, Chile. Her father was an American from New England and her mother was South American. When Sophia was six, she was sent to Boston, Massachusetts to live with her paternal grandparents. She became interested in architecture in high school. In 1886 she was the first woman to be accepted to the architecture program at MIT; she graduated with honors in 1890.

Front elevation of Hayden’s thesis project: A Fine Arts Museum, 1890. (from MIT)

Floor Plan and Section, 1890. (from MIT)

After graduating, Sophia could not find employment as an architect; she accepted a position teaching drawing at a Boston high school. The following year, she entered a design competition for the World’s Colombian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago. Her design was for the Woman's Building -- a structure given to various social causes such as church groups, temperance societies, a model hospital ward and kindergarten, a sanitary kitchen and a library. It was also to house exhibitions of embroidery, knitting, lace, fans and crockery. Sophia won the competition with her design of a three-story, white building in the Italian Renaissance-Revival style with arches and columned terraces. For this she was paid a modest sum of $1,000 for her design, while men who one competitions for the fair were paid 10 times as much.

Exterior of The Women's Building, period photograph (1894?) Boston College Digital Archive

Sophia traveled to Chicago to produce the final drawings, leaving the execution to Daniel Burnham. Burnham was very pleased with her work describing her as having great adaptability and being a hard worker. She returned six months later to direct the interior and exterior designs of the buildings. At that same time, she discovered another woman was involved in the project. Her name was Bertha Palmer, and she had other ideas.

Bertha Honoré Palmer (1849-1918) Chicago History Museum

A statuesque socialite with well-coiffured wavy hair, Bertha Palmer was a power to be reckoned with. She was not easy to approach. She demanded calling cards be passed scrutinized and screened by several of her servants before any visitor could speak with her. Being of Huguenot descent, no one ever contradicted her. But that was to change once she met the twenty-one year old Sophia.

Officers of Board of Lady Managers, portraits of 10 women. Key: 1. President Mrs. Potter Palmer 2. Mrs. Ralph Trautman 3. Mrs. Edwin C. Burleigh 4. Mrs. Charles Price 5. Mrs. Katherline L. Minor 6. Mrs. Beriah Wilkins 7. Mrs. Flora Beall Ginty 8.Mrs. Russell B. Harrison 9. Mrs. V.C. Merideth. 10.Susan Gale Cooke. 1896. (image via the Field Museum's flicker account.)

Mrs. Palmer was elected President of The Board of Lady Managers for the 1893 Fair. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Mrs. Palmer (née Honoré) met her husband, a wealthy dry goods owner, while she was shopping in Chicago with her mother. Potter Palmer was 23 years her senior. He moved into real estate and became immensely wealthy. Mrs. Palmer enjoyed their North Side mansion with a roof-top ballroom and picture gallery filled with Impressionist paintings she brought back from Paris. She also loved diamond jewelry.

Paul V Galvin Library: The book of the Fair

For Sophia’s building, Mrs. Palmer had invited prominent women to donate architectural elements to adorn the building. Mrs. Palmer believed the building would be better with these donations. Sophia disagreed. A mishmash of elements would dilute her vision, her concept and overall design aesthetic. As the doors, window grilles, columns, wood paneling, balustrades, slabs of onyx and black marble, granite steps, sculpted figures, and tapestries came pouring in, Sophia turned each one down. This hurt the feelings of the high-society donors, which didn’t sit very well with Mrs. Palmer. Sophia explained to Mrs. Palmer her schematic program for the structure -- the exterior and interior -- and why these random donated elements would not work. But Mrs. Palmer wouldn’t hear of it. She fired Sophia from the project and reassigned the final decoration to Candace Wheeler.

Paul V Galvin Library: The book of the Fair

Sophia walked into Burnham’s office, described what happened and from exhaustion began to cry. Burnham quickly called a doctor. Sophia was placed in an ambulance and driven away with the rubber wheels quietly crunching along the gravel road towards the sanitarium. Sophia was said to have a “… violent attack of high nervous excitement of the brain.”

(top image from Penn Libraries.)