Incollect Magazine - Issue 4

Issue 4 118 www.incollect.com extensive review it was determined the Americans must decline the invitation — no American modern design could be found. The story of how America rapidly, and brilliantly developed a modern design aesthetic in the two decades between World War I and World War II is a fascinating one. It is a story of influence, initially, with Americans borrowing from modern design movements in France, and later Germany and Scandinavia, beginning in the late 1920s with the French luxury style known as Art Deco, an abbreviation for Arts Décoratifs, which placed an emphasis on ornamentation, expensive materials and fine craftsmanship. Americans didn’t embrace French Art Deco. It was too ornate, too costly, essentially an elegant custom aesthetic aimed at the elite clientele who could afford it. The designs were frequently formal, not terribly practical or innovative, and based on a model of European neoclassicism. A new generation of designers was needed to create an iteration that Americans actually embraced, was affordable, and was aimed at a wider contemporary market of middle-class consumers following the huge expansion in home construction and ownership across America. German modernism, in particular the mechanistic and socially oriented vision of the Bauhaus school had a profound influence on American modern design: The Bauhaus aesthetic stressed the simple, functional, and practical with geometric forms and machine-made materials such as metal, glass, linoleum, and plastics, all of which appealed to American designers at a time when rapid industrialization and machine age manufacturing Kidney-shaped coffee table with lacquered cork top and canted mahogany slab legs by Paul T. Frankl for Johnson Furniture, photo courtesy Lobel Modern. Donald Deskey burlwood chest of drawers designed for his own company AMODEC, (American Modern Decoration Company) circa 1930s. Photo courtesy Lobel Modern.