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(2005)Conference PaperAs we are poised on the cusp of the next paradigm shift driven by digital technology, it is timely to reflect on the nature and outcomes of an earlier paradigm shift: the global proliferation of American consumer items in the postwar period. From late 1954, the dispersal of US goods reached a point of acceleration after the Eisenhower Administration began to aggressively promote the notion that a global consumer economy on the US model was the only effective means of preserving civilization from the Communist threat. To this end the Office of International Trade Fairs, with substantial donations from the corporate sector, sent American consumer items to international trade fairs and world’s fairs to promote American business methods and to open up the economies of European nations to American companies. What then should be made of the Museum of Modern Art’s decision to join forces with the US Government four years earlier to mount exhibitions of American design for circulation in Europe? On the face of it, this little known initiative, with its government sponsorship and attendant political aspirations, should perhaps be identified as an important precursor to the trade shows of American mass-produced consumer items sent to Europe by the Eisenhower Administration. However, this paper pursues the case that political agendas account for only one dimension of MoMA’s design initiative. While the narrative for each exhibition varied, collectively MoMA through its judicious selection of the contents and through the rhetoric of the catalogue essays, respectfully announced the arrival of an American ‘high design”. The exhibition organizers did this to persuade Europeans of the strength and viability of American postwar design and in the process to insert American design within the history of design. The paper uses as a case study of “Design for Use, USA,” (1951-1952) the first MoMA design exhibition sent to Europe, to trace the exhibition organizers’ motivations for the show. It examines the connections and continuities between MoMA’s local promotion of American design via the Good Design program established to improve the quality of American consumer items and the museum’s subsequent promotion of American design throughout Europe.
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(2006)Conference PaperThis paper presents a research seminar as a case study to explore the role of artists/educators and agencies in contemporary learning. Drawing on the international report 'Moving Forward on Arts and Education' (2006), a number of potential areas for action emerge: • that we should regard teaching and learning in the arts as open-ended, iterative and evolving, and not necessarily content-driven; • that educators should enhance the learning and development of both artists and educators; • that education should increase the collaborations with other key partners. The paper focuses on the role played by a high profile exhibition of secondary student art in relation to contemporary art practice and art, design and education. The paper discusses how the seminar aimed to generate dialogues around the significance of a key contemporary student exhibition that resides within a web of agencies and institutions. The paper discusses the critical, but largely undiscussed, aspects of a key student exhibition as a public reflection of contemporary art practice, encompassing some of the following themes: • exhibitions and contemporary art/design practice; • dialogues between secondary and tertiary institutions and agencies; • the significance of exhibitions for the public broadly defined.
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(2006)Conference PaperIn 1951 MoMA’s Design for Use, USA, (1951) opened at the Landesgewerbemuseum in Stuttgart, West Germany. Sponsorship of this large exhibition of recent American domestic design came primarily from the Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA), the government entity established to implement the Marshall Plan (1948-1951). Through this postwar relief effort the US worked to rebuild economically dislocated countries, and ex-enemy territories like Germany. The US also used the scheme to draw particular European nations into its orbit, to present the US as a worthy partner with whom to cooperate and to persuade Europeans of the benefits of the American way of life, of mass production and consumption. The show, chosen by Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., of the prestigious Museum of Modern Art (New York), proved popular drawing record crowds curious about how Americans lived and the type of furniture, table wares, domestic appliances and kitchen gadgets available to US consumers. Through an analysis of archival records this paper argues that the ECA and MoMA made use of modernist notions of progress as the means by which to promote the benefits of unlimited productivity, to encourage trade relations and to foster international understanding.
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(2002)Conference PaperIn the spring of 1955 MoMA launched in Paris 50 Years of American Art a mammoth exhibition surveying the full gamut of 20th century art from the high to the more popular. As such this was the largest and most aggressive statement to date about the vigor and originality of American visual culture ever to have been seen in Europe. While the exhibition made a triumphal tour throughout other parts of Europe, Paris was the only location to exhibit the contents in its entirety. Subsequent art writers have identified 50 Years of American Art as significant for two chief reasons, both of which relate to the generous quota of abstract expressionist works in the exhibition. First, as a crucial prelude to its much vaunted successor The New American Painting reputed to have secured abstract expressionism’s international preeminence just three years later. And second, as a tool of cultural diplomacy deployed by MoMA during the Cold War to promote a positive image of the U.S. in Europe. Here I am referring to the well-known view that MoMA promoted the expressive freedom of abstract expressionism to distinguish American art from its socialist counterpart and to convince Europeans that the militarily and economically dominant U.S. defended the same values as they did. These earlier studies have been crucial in encouraging a reconsideration of abstract expressionism’s canonical status within and beyond the U.S. With this aspect of MoMA’s exhibition history now well rehearsed in the literature, we are well placed to scrutinize more closely the significance of the other wares, among them the architectural models, furniture, flatware and tools shipped into Paris in the same container.
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(2006)Conference PaperOn October 31, 1953, the Taidehalli Museum in Helsinki hosted the opening of “American Design for Home and Decorative Use”. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York selected this survey of American 20th century design on behalf of the United States Information Agency (USIA) to coincide with the 10th anniversary celebrations of the Finnish-American Society. According to official reports the purpose of the exhibition was to present quality American design for the home and to emphasize ‘creative expression’ through machine-made and hand-made American design wares as well as innovative hybrid forms combing these methods. In bringing together the work of over 150 American designers, artists and manufacturers among them Charles Eames, Russell Wright, Florence Knoll, and James Prestini “American Design for Home and Decorative Use” did indeed profile the work of many acclaimed producers of design in the US. Moreover, in the opinion of the USIA the exhibition was a ‘diplomatic success’ and one that drew record attendances. This paper argues that MoMA and the USIA organized this exhibition of quality US design in the hope that it would further cultural connections and trade ties with Finland. The paper speculates that the recognition by US artworld elites of Finland as a key centre of design practice influenced how MoMA orchestrated this cultural dialogue. At one level paying homage to Scandinavian (Finnish) design, this diversity machine made, hand made and hybrid design wares presented a multifaceted message about the US: about what the US shared in common with the region via its respect for handcrafted traditions, and how it differed through the impact of technological developments on US design practice. Through “American Design for Home and Decorative Use” the exhibition organizers tentatively but determinedly strove to connect with new audiences from abroad including members of the public, the government and other cultural institutions, to persuade them that the US, now capable of mass-producing quality design wares imbued with creative expression, was a nation worth engaging with. After its launch in Helsinki in 1953 “American Design for Home and Decorative Use” completed a two-year grand tour of sixteen cities within Scandinavia and Europe. Given the sizeable scope of the exhibition’s tour, and that the idea for the show emerged as a result of the activities of the Helsinki-based Finnish-American Society this paper uses Finland as an exemplary case study to investigate the first phase of the tour.