A current exhibition, What Was Good Design? MoMA’s Message 1944–56, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City throws up some interesting questions about design: what is good design? Does functionality equal good design? What about sustainability?
From the beginning of mass production in the mid-nineteenth century, thorny questions of design standards and popular taste were raised by design reformers in Europe and America. At mid-century, an international network of authorities—design councils, department stores, and other museums—heightened this debate. In the Fifties, MoMA championed its own brand of Good Design founded on the modernist precepts of functionalism, simplicity, and truth to materials.
As the exhibition’s curators explain: “For over 60 years, MoMA’s mid-century message of Good Design has been critiqued as both elitist and crassly commercial—and not without cause. But, however problematic, these exhibitions succeeded in forging unprecedented connections between designers, manufacturers, retailers, and consumers. With sincere conviction, the Museum raised the profile of modern design at home and abroad.”
The installation presents selections from MoMA’s design collection that illuminate the primary values of Good Design. Unexpected items, such as a hunting bow and a plumb bob, as well as everyday objects including an iron, a hamper, a rake, a cheese slicer, and Tupperware are on display next to modern design classics such as Charles Eames’s (American, 1907-1978) Full Scale Model of Chaise Longue (La Chaise), which was entered in MoMA’s International Competition for Low-Cost Furniture in 1948, and shown in Prize Designs for Modern Furniture in 1950.
This chaise longue was inspired by and nicknamed after Gaston Lachaise’s 1927 sculpture Reclining Nude but didn’t receive a prize because it was considered too “specialized in use” and too expensive to manufacture at the time. However, it was highlighted by the judges, who admired its “striking, good-looking and inventive” molded construction. La Chaise finally went into production in 1990 and is now one of Eames’ most recognizable works - an example of how our perceptions of what makes good design are indeed constantly changing.
