The Value of Good Design
At MoMA
The Value of Good Design at MoMA
Instillation view of exhibition currently at MoMA, 2019
Is there an art to good design? The Museum of Modern Art’s latest exhibition entitled 'The Value of Good Design', certainly suggests there to be, arguing that while utility and aesthetics are not generally unanimous, at the highest level of design we oftentimes expect them to be.
MoMA
Installation view of the initial exhibition 'Good Design', November 27, 1951
MoMA, a central player in the founding and organization of the Good Design Movement – a post-war artistic initiative taking place principally in the United States between the 1930s and 1950s – financed competitions and exhibitions that challenged industrial designers to devise affordable, quality objects for everyday living, some of which are now even considered timeless.
L.M. Ericsson Telephone Company
Hugo Blomberg, Ralph Lysell, Hans Gösta Thames, 1949-54
Peter Schlumbohm
Chemex Coffee Maker Produced by Chemex Corp, 1941
Greta Von Nessen
Anywhere Lamp, Produced by Nessen Studio, 1951
Lina Bo Bardi
Bowl Chair, 1951
Swift & Anderson
Outdoor Thermometer, 1946
Although the products created throughout this two-decade period of innovation varied tremendously, encompassing large-scale buildings and office furniture, to everyday objects such as kitchen implements, household items and garden tools, each design exhibited three highly distinctive traits, in that they were all solid, useful and beautiful.
Charles and Ray Eames
Prototype for Chaise Lounge (La Chaise), 1948
Charlotte Perriand
Low chair, 1940-1946
Greta Von Nessen
Anywhere Lamp, Produced by Nessen Studio, 1951
While MoMA happens to have played a large role in helping to facilitate the considered designed world we live in today, the museum continues to incubate new products and ideas. Their latest exhibition, for example, raises questions about what ‘Good Design’ means in a contemporary climate, and which mid-century values and teachings may be translated for a 21st-century audience. The Value of Good Design is a must see show for design lovers of the past, present and future.
