California Design 1930–1965: Living in a Modern Way

RecreationPavilion_LACMAThe first Barbie doll, classic Levi Strauss 501 jeans, innovative furniture by Charles and Ray  Eames and the unmistakeable film posters of Saul Bass are among the works featured in California Design 1930–1965: Living in a Modern Way on display at the Queensland Art Gallery in November.

“Originating from  the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), this is a must-see exhibition for  classic design enthusiasts,” said Queensland Art Gallery Director Chris Saines.

“It’s fitting that we’re presenting this exhibition here in Queensland, sharing as we do with California not only the Pacific Ocean, but the climate and impulse toward  outdoor living that inspired so many of these designs.”

Featuring more than  250 defining objects of the 20th century, including furniture, textiles, fashion, graphic and industrial design, ceramics, jewellery, metalwork,  architectural drawings and film, the exhibition is the first to examine California’s role in shaping the design culture of the United States and in turn the rest of the world.

“An iconic vehicle from the era, a 1936 Airstream ‘Clipper’ trailer, a literal house-on-wheels that embodies the freedom of California living, will greet visitors at the exhibition entry,” Mr Saines said.

The exhibition  explores how the California of the collective imagination was translated into a  material culture that defined an era, through major innovations in materials  and mass production, and California’s tradition of the ‘designer-craftsman’.

It traces the  origins of a distinct modernism in the 1930s, the design breakthroughs made as  World War II technologies were adapted for peacetime use, and California’s  subsequent emergence as America’s epicentre of innovation in architecture and  furnishing.

To illustrate how California was an ideal incubator for a specific strand of modernism, the  exhibition is presented in four thematic sections that explore the ‘Shaping,’  ‘Making,’ ‘Living,’ and ‘Selling’ of the ideas and objects of California  Modern.

California Design 1930–1965: Living in a Modern Way was curated by Wendy Kaplan, Curator and  Department Head, and Bobbye Tigerman, Associate Curator, of LACMA’s Decorative  Arts and Design Department. It was first staged in 2011 – 2012 at LACMA, the  largest art museum in the western United States.

“We are thrilled that California Design, 1930-1965 is  traveling to the Queensland Art Gallery,” Ms Kaplan said.

“So many of the exhibition’s themes will resonate with  an Australian audience. Both post-war California and Australia had burgeoning,  newly prosperous populations, a benign climate that permitted life to be led  informally and largely out of doors, and embraced design innovation and new  materials.”

“The mid-century California home became a hugely influential  model for the rest of America, and indeed, the world.”

California Design 1930–1965: Living in a Modern Way
Queensland Art Gallery, Stanley Place, South Bank (Brisbane)
Exhibition: 2 November 2013 – 9 February 2014
Entry fees apply

For more information, visit: www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/californiadesign for details.

Image: Buff, Straub & Hensman 1955–61 (later Buff, Hensman and Associates) Recreation pavilion, Mirman House, Arcadia 1958 Photo by Julius Shulman, 1959 Getty Research Institute © J. Paul Getty Trust. Used with permission. Julius Shulman Photography Archive, Research Library at the Getty Research Institute