Selling Good Design : Promoting the Modern Interior

by FRIEDMAN, MARILYN F.

• ISBN13: 9780847825851
• ISBN10: 084782585X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-12-15
• Publisher: Rizzoli

Summary

Designers now have at their fingertips an invaluable reference: an illustrated history of modern furnishings and interior design from period rooms of the early twentieth century. Ikea, eat your heart out: Macy's, Lord & Taylor and others designed exhibits in the 1920s with mock living rooms, bedrooms, and even kitchens to display and sell modern furnishings and decorative objects.

Marilyn Friedman's text and accompanying period photographs describe in detail the exhibits held by Macys, Lord & Taylor, B. Altman, and Wanamaker's to popularize modern design. Macy's, in particular, worked closely with the Metropolitan Museum of Art to select designers and display works of modern design by Gio Ponti, William Lescaze, and Paul Frankel as part of the exhibits. More than 120 photographs illustrate period furnishings and decorative objects by European and American designers, providing a visual feast for interior designers, art lovers, and collectors.

Author Biography

Marilyn F. Friedman is an art historian with expertise in twentieth-century interiors and decorative arts. She holds a master in arts from the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution, and Parsons School of Design. She lectures widely on twentieth-century interiors and decorative arts.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 4
Commerce and Culture Join Forces	p. 12
The 1927 Macy's Exposition of Art in Trade	p. 20
Model Rooms At John Wanamaker and Macy's	p. 30
Exhibitions at Abraham & Straus and Frederick Loeser & Co.	p. 42
Lord and Taylor Presents An Exposition of Modern French Decorative Art	p. 54
The International Exposition of Art in Industry at R. H. Macy & Co., 1928	p. 74
B. Altman & Co. Presents An Exhibition of 20th Century Taste	p. 112
America Embraces Modern Design	p. 128
Chapter Notes	p. 132
Bibliography	p. 139
Index	p. 142
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