Mid2Mod: Designing Modern Women

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Designing Modern Women

The Museum of Modern Art in New York currently has an exhibition called Designing Modern Woman: 1890-1990, which features women who profoundly influenced design in the 20th century. The installation is drawn from the MoMA collection, including work by the famous and the unsung, such as Loïe Fuller's turn of the century theater contributions, furniture and design by Charlottle Perriand, Lilly Reich, Eileen Gray, Eva Zeisel, Ray Eames, Lella Vignelli, Grete Jalk, Greta Magnusson Grossman, Gae Aulenti, the architecture of Denise Scott Brown, textiles by Noémi Raymond, Anni Albers and Eszter Haraszty, ceramics by Lucy Rie, industrial design by Margaret E. Knight and Karin Schou Andersen, Marianne Brandt, and graphics by Helene Haasbauer-Wallrath, April Greiman, Luba Lukova, Lina Bo Bardi, Magda Mautner von Markhof and Bonnie Maclean.

As the links above indicate, I've posted about several of these women, but some of the items in the exhibit with which I wasn't familiar have caught my eye and make me want to explore the lives of the women I don't know. Perhaps you'll feel the same.

After all, had you ever really given much thought about what went into designing the flat-bottom paper bag? Or that the first machine to make them was designed by a woman in an era when very few women were industrial designers?

The exhibition runs through September 21, 2014.

From moma.org and huffingtonpost.com