Photo by Dan Meyers Photo by Dan Meyers A Designed Life: Contemporary American Textiles, Wallpapers and Containers & Packaging, 1951-1954 September 13–December 8, 2018 The Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture presents A Designed Life: Contemporary American Textiles, Wallpapers, and Containers & Packaging, 1951-1954, a traveling exhibition based on three historically significant traveling exhibitions of contemporary mass-produced, American-designed consumer goods commissioned by the U.S. Department of State in the early 1950s: Contemporary American Textiles designed by Florence Knoll (Read more about Florence Knoll on The Conversation), Contemporary American Wallpapers designed by Tom Lee (View archival photographs of Tom Lee’s New York window displays), and Containers and Packaging designed by Will Burtin (Read more about Will Burtin on Transatlantic Perspectives). A Designed Life recreates and interprets these early Cold War exhibitions restating and interpreting part of each display as it might have appeared in the early 1950s. Artists, designers, and manufacturers featured in these exhibitions include Eszter Haraszty, Noemi Raymond, Angelo Testa (textiles), Portia LeBrun, Ilonka Karasz, Ray Komai (wallpapers), the Design Laboratory, Morton Goldsholl, and Paul Rand (containers and packaging). Many of these individuals are associated with American Modernism. The Traveling Exhibition Service, later known as the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, organized Knoll, Lee, and Burtin’s exhibitions for display in post-WWII Germany on behalf of the U.S. Department of State to help promote the growth of democratic governments within postwar Europe. These exhibitions were circulated through the Amerika Haus program and cultural institutions such as schools, museums, and trade fairs. View the virtual tour of A Designed Life below— the Contemporary American Textile and Contemporary American Wallpaper exhibition as featured at the Design Museum of Chicago and The Contemporary Containers and Packaging exhibition as featured at the Chicago Cultural Center (2021). View Exhibition Publication Photo by Marlayna Demond Photo by Dan Meyers Photo by Dan Meyers close Photo by Marlayna Demond Photo by Dan Meyers Photo by Dan Meyers Exhibition concept drawing, courtesy of Margaret Re, Courtesy of the Estates of Stefan P. & Juliana D. Munsing, all rights reserved, Courtesy Knoll, Inc.; Images courtesy Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress; U.S. Information Agency, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD, (306-CS-1D-3); Additional photo credits: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum / Art Resource, NY; Courtesy of Historic New England Textile by Eszter Haraszty Textile by Noemi Raymond Wallpaper by Portia Lebrun Wallpaper by Ilonka Karasz Wallpaper by Ray Komai Containers and packaging by the Design Laboratory, Morton Goldsholl, and Paul Rand Cover for a publication by the Amerika Haus program close Exhibition concept drawing, courtesy of Margaret Re, Courtesy of the Estates of Stefan P. & Juliana D. Munsing, all rights reserved, Courtesy Knoll, Inc.; Images courtesy Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress; U.S. Information Agency, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD, (306-CS-1D-3); Additional photo credits: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum / Art Resource, NY; Courtesy of Historic New England Textile by Eszter Haraszty Textile by Noemi Raymond Wallpaper by Portia Lebrun Wallpaper by Ilonka Karasz Wallpaper by Ray Komai Containers and packaging by the Design Laboratory, Morton Goldsholl, and Paul Rand Cover for a publication by the Amerika Haus program Photo by Dan Meyers Selected Press Modernism Rediscovered This is about a rediscovered exhibition on now at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County: A Designed Life: Contemporary American Textiles, Wallpapers, and Containers & Packaging, 1951–1954 on view at UMBC’s Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture through December 8, 2018. (It travels to the Center for Architecture in Sarasota, Florida in 2019.) See it if you can. Read More external link A Designed Life Creative, persuasive, stimulating, and versatile; design and its many sub-fields have long been applied to large-scale world issues in politics, economics, and culture. The 20th century is rich in examples of design’s influence in the shaping and the response of relevant world events, from the economical office building boom that helped spur the International Style, to the ideological and aesthetic movement of Midcentury Modernism that traversed seas—from Le Corbusier to the Eames—to popularize in the United States with its functional post-war sensibilities. Read More external link Support Visitor Information Our exhibitions and events are free and open to the public for full participation by all individuals regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, or any other protected category under applicable federal law, state law, and the University’s nondiscrimination policy. If you need specific accommodations at one of our events, whether in person or online, or to experience an exhibition, please contact CADVC at cadvc@umbc.edu or 410-455-3188 as soon as possible.
Exhibition concept drawing, courtesy of Margaret Re, Courtesy of the Estates of Stefan P. & Juliana D. Munsing, all rights reserved, Courtesy Knoll, Inc.; Images courtesy Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress; U.S. Information Agency, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, MD, (306-CS-1D-3); Additional photo credits: Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum / Art Resource, NY; Courtesy of Historic New England
Modernism Rediscovered This is about a rediscovered exhibition on now at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County: A Designed Life: Contemporary American Textiles, Wallpapers, and Containers & Packaging, 1951–1954 on view at UMBC’s Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture through December 8, 2018. (It travels to the Center for Architecture in Sarasota, Florida in 2019.) See it if you can. Read More external link
A Designed Life Creative, persuasive, stimulating, and versatile; design and its many sub-fields have long been applied to large-scale world issues in politics, economics, and culture. The 20th century is rich in examples of design’s influence in the shaping and the response of relevant world events, from the economical office building boom that helped spur the International Style, to the ideological and aesthetic movement of Midcentury Modernism that traversed seas—from Le Corbusier to the Eames—to popularize in the United States with its functional post-war sensibilities. Read More external link
