JAZZ AGE: AMERICAN STYLE 1920s: Review By Polly Guerin

Muse with Violen Screen, Rose Iron Works

The Jazz Age conjures up a spirit of modernity, a time between the first and second World Wars when Art Deco came into vogue and Scott Fitzgerald's Daisy was kicking up her heels in celebration of a new era of streamlined chic and futuristic yearning

    The  Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum's exhibition "THE JAZZ AGE: AMERICAN STYLE IN THE 1920s, on view through January 14, 2018, is the first major museum exhibition to focus on American taste in design during the exhilarating years of the 1920s, a period in which this decade provided the pivotal inspiration for new modernistic ideas in design, art and lifestyle.      With a nostalgic nod to the Jazz Age came extraordinary furniture, textiles, tableware, paintings, posters, jewelry and architecture in bold colors and geometric forms that defined this age. The popularity of Jazz provided the era's African-American sound track as did entertainers such as Josephine Baker who captured Paris with her banana dance.  Stop and watch a film that captures her talent in black and white modernity. Film clips of Duke Ellington and other Cotton Club performers and "The Jazz Singer" illustrate how cinema introduced modern interiors, graphic design and fashion to the American public. Image Left: Muse with Violin (detail) 1930, Rose Iron Works, Inc. (American, Cleveland, est. 1904). Paul Heher (Hungarian, 1895-1990), designer. Wrought iron brass, silver and gold plating. 156.2 x 156.2 cm. The Cleveland Museum of Art. On Loan from the Rose Iron Works Collections, LLC, 352.1996 (c) Rose Iron Works Collections, LLC. Photo: Howard Agriesti.   

Gorham Manufacturing Company, American 1927

Then too, there was the immense international design exposition in Paris in 1925---Exposition International des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes (whence Art Deco distilled its name)---a monumental exhibition where world designers, craftsmen, artists and manufacturers exhibited. One wonders why the United States declined to participate in this hallmark event. However, the Paris exhibition's innovative design influence quickly spread to New York and other major cities in department store furnishings and home decor, art galleries, in private collections and in high-end shops such as Cartier with its Art Deco inspired jewelry.

Image Right: Gorham Manufacturing Company, American 1927.  Master of modern silver, Eric Magnussen's iconic "cubic"silver coffee service with tray with patinated gilt decoration, which he did for "Gotham Lights and Shadows of  Manhattan." The Gorham Collection, Museum of Art, Rhode Island, School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island.

   

Through a rich array of more than 400 works drawn from both public and private collections, the new look included works by French makers such as Emile-Jacques Ruhlmann, who used lavish veneers and modified traditional forms and influenced American makers such as the W.&J Sloan's Company of Master Craftsmen.

    Designers trained in Austria and Germany, who later immigrated to the United States, brought a new aesthetic to American decorative arts, combined with an appreciation of American forms such as the skyscraper. Furnishings assumed a new modernity and skyscraper influence can be seen in a desk by Paul T. Frank while the abstract geometry of screen design reflected the streamlined chic of geometric forms. Image Left: A chair, from left by Walter von Nessen, a wood desk and chair by Paul T. Frank, and a pair of lacquered doors by Seraphin Soudbinine and Jean Dunand for the residence of Solomon R. Guggenheim. Late 1920s. Artists Rights Society (ARS) , NewYork.  Photo Chang W. Lee/The New York Times.

      Ta Ta Darlings!!! NOT TO BE MISSED: Running concurrently with the blockbuster exhibit is an exquisite, intimate and personal exhibit "Jeweled Splendors of the Art Deco Era, The Prince and Princess Sadruddin Aga Khan Collection installed in the Carnegie Mansion's Teak Room with over 100 luxury vanity and cigarette cases, compacts and clocks all from prestigious houses including Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Boucheron and Bulgari.  Fan mail welcome at pollytalknyc@gmail.com. Visit Polly's Blogs at www.pollytalk.com and click in the left-hand column to the Blog that resonates with your interest on visionary men, amazing art deco divas, fashion historian and poetry.