California Designed 1955 / Long Beach Museum of Art

Museums are opening back up and I was happy an exhibition I missed last year was still up at the LBMA.

The title wall. 

Here's the catalog for the original 1955 exhibition. It was a collaboration between the Long Beach Municipal Art Center (now LBMA) and the M.H. de Young Museum in San Francisco. The exhibitions ran simultaneously. Campbell and Wong designed the exhibition at the de Young. 

 The 1955 Long Beach  exhibition was juried by John Entenza, editor of Arts and Architecture Magazine; Greta Grossman, designer; Richard Petterson, ceramist; Samuel Heavenrich. the Long Beach Municipal Art Center director of CALIFORNIA DESIGNED.

I did a little post on the original California Designed in 2012.

As  you can see in the top photo, there is a Marshmallow Sofa right at the beginning of the exhibition. The exhibition is called California Designed 1955 and George Nelson was an east coaster and the manufacturer, Herman Miller, was and still is headquartered in Michigan. Products were to have been designed or manufactured in California and not appeared on the market prior to 1954. So how does this make sense?

I guess if they did it in 1955 then I have to cut them some slack today. Pretty sneaky to list Herman Miller as being in Venice, CA. Technically yes, but I doubt much Herman Miller, outside of Eames designs, were actually made in California and they certainly weren't designed there.

I'm not sure how this Gerrit Rietveld Zig Zag chair fits into the equation. The Dutch designer had a huge influence on Modernism but I'm not aware of any connection to California. It was also designed in the early 1930's so it doesn't work with the 1955 date either. Enough nitpicking, the exhibition is actually great. I also learned about some new California designers.

The Eames were well represented and that's a grouping of really nice Natzlers on the left.

The exhibition in 1955 had some nice ones as well.

The exhibition design is really nice. The objects not being under acrylic or glass covers really lets you appreciate the finishes. 

There are a number of Rupert Deese pieces.

I've never seen a Deese bird before.

And this lidded jar is also by him.

Peter Voulkos

It's nice to see Joel Edwards in the spotlight.

He was there in 1955.

Another Edwards vase. A pair of John Kapel candlesticks are in the background.

Funny thing about the Kapel candlesticks is they were in the 1956 California Designed and not 1955.

More about that later.

George Nelson desk and Evelyn Ackerman mosaics.

Here is the Ackerman in the 1956 California Designed catalog.

It was actually being shown in a different exhibition on women artists on the upper floor. 

Glass plates by Zella Marggraf. This was new name to me although I probably should have known her since she had work in a number of the Pasadena Art Museum "California Design" exhibitions. The first Pasadena "California Design" exhibition started a few months earlier than "California Designed". 

Florence Thomas was another new name for me.

She was shown right alongside Ellamarie and Jackson Woolley in 1955.

I would have liked to see a Malcolm Leland lantern in the present day exhibition.

1955 exhibition photo

Source: Long Beach Independence

I'm not sure how this Eero Saarinen set by Knoll set snuck in.

I assumed this was by Maria Kipp but it's by Helen Wunder. She was a San Francisco based weaver. Cal-Craft made the room dividers that were shown in the 1956 exhibition. Wunder became the vice president of Shades Inc, which produced similar work. This makes me wonder (punny I know) about all the lampshades Kipp gets credit for.

Speaking of Maria Kipp, here is a weaving by her above a Sam Maloof table.

Maloof had a whole page in the 1955 catalog.

Eames!

Eames!

Eames!

This exhibition was really well done, despite my nitpicking. I believe all the pieces came from the museum's own collection which may explain the inclusion of some pieces that in my opinion don't really fit into the CA Designed 1955 exhibition title. 

 The exhibition is on view until May 16th, so make an appointment soon.

This Claire Falkenstein and a few others are also part of the LBMA collection.

I touched on the 1956 California Designed exhibition a little but there was also a 1951 design exhibition that had an amazing roster of designers. The Long Beach Municipal Art Center also hosted the MoMA Good Design exhibition in 1953. More on all that in a future post.