sippicancottage
A Man Who Has Nothing In Particular To Recommend Him Discusses All Sorts of Subjects at Random as Though He Knew Everything
Part 2: More Capital M Modern, Not Lower Case m modern
- , architecture, arts
A Man Who Has Nothing In Particular To Recommend Him Discusses All Sorts of Subjects at Random as Though He Knew Everything
6 Responses
I went to a show of American classic cars in Napa on saturday…buildings are more my thing but I was knocked out by the combination of joyful excess and purity of line…a real pleasure to see.
As far as I am concerned, your Shaker influenced furniture has far more in common with lower case modernism than much of the stuff Ikea is producing. It is clean, simple, without excess adornment. The construction methods and materials used are straightforward and honest.
Like the “kitch”era that immediately followed the introduction of modern architecture and design in the mid twentieth century, The Ikea aesthetic is derived more from populism than the mathematical symmetry and historical precedent of any good design whether modern or more traditional. Don’t get me wrong, some of Ikea’s stuff is fun and interesting and I have gone through my period of decorating with 50’s kitch but there is a difference between interesting and beautiful.
Except to a postmodernist.
But in 1949, it looks like Oldsmobile didn’t see anything odd with putting its ’88 model in a scene with what looks like some sort of Frank Lloyd Wright house in the background:
http://www.plan59.com/cars/cars511.htm
(I spend way too much time at that site)
Eric- I love that site too. They have a good eye.
FLW liked fly cars, as I recall.
Just a note on the video location; it is the styling area of the GM Technical Center in Warren Michigan, which in the 1950s was very new.
Hi Harry!
Please send our good wishes to your wife from all your friends in the swamp.