ArchiTech is a historically comprehensive commercial gallery of architectural art, in Chicago’s River North gallery district. Their recent show, Future Perfect: Mid-Century Modern Design Drawings opened January 9 and ends this weekend on May 30, 2009.
Mid-Century Modern Design Drawings
The majority of the works in the exhibition are those of late Chicagoan architect and designer, Henry P. Glass (for which the gallery also serves as the representative of the estate) but the show also includes a few works by Vincent Raney, Bertrand Goldberg and R.G. Martelet.
Here are 15 wonderful drawings from the gallery exhibit:
above: Henry P. Glass, Kling Studios Lobby, Pencil on tracing paper, 1946, 18 x 23 inches
above: Henry P. Glass, Kling Studios Director’s Office, Pencil on tracing paper, 1946, 18 x 23 inches
above: Henry P. Glass, Hotel Flamboyant Typical Cottage, Graphite on Paper, 1949, 21 x 42 inches
above: Henry P. Glass, Hotel Flamboyant, dimensions unknown
above: Henry P. Glass, Design for Hairpin Chair, Pastel and ink on toned paper, Circa 1940s, 9 1/2 x 15 inches
above: Henry P. Glass, DH1 Laminated Plywood Chair, Prismacolor on paper collage, 1966, 10 1/4 x 12 inches
above: 1958 Chair, Graphite on tracing paper, 1958, 11 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches
above: Henry P. Glass, Night Table Lamp, Graphite on tracing paper, Circa 1949, 16 x 13 inches
above: Henry P. Glass, Desk Lamp, Graphite on tracing paper, Circa 1949, 16 x 13 inches
above: Henry P. Glass, Swingline Desk and Armchair, Pastel and colored pencil on tracing paper, 1949, 16 x 13 inches
above: Henry P. Glass, Eastern Knitters Sales Room, Watercolor and collage on toned paper with shaped mat, 1946, 20 1/2 x 30 inches
above: Vincent Raney, Detail of Theatre for Los Banos, Pencil on drafting linen, 1947, 15 x 16 inches
above: R.G. Martelet, Detail of Design B (Boat/Trailer Combination), Prismacolor and chalk on toned paper, 1961, 16 x 30 inches
above: Bertrand Goldberg, Architect; Henry Gould, Delineator, San Diego Theater, La Jolla Marker on artist’s board, 1969, 12 1/2 x 17 1/2 inches
At top:
above: Henry P. Glass, Wacker Plaza Lobby – View From Entrance, Pencil on tracing paper, 1955, 16 x 21 inches
David Jameson, the gallery owner, describes the exhibit as follows:
Mid 20th Century Modernism’s most flamboyant designers. Industrial and architectural drawings from post-war to post-moon landing.
Utopian visions were nothing new to America’s architects and designers after World War II. However, triggered by an explosion of affordable real estate and hopeful consumerism, manufacturers of the post-war era followed an entirely different design approach. This new philosophy of sensuous shapes envisioned furniture, lamps and radios as almost living beings that could run out to the buyers’ car.
Henry P. Glass was perfectly suited to this new visual language. Freed from his Nazi prison camp, he began his design career in America with drawings that practically walked off the paper and into production.
Television and tourism helped transform the new reality away from wartime into the future and that’s where we wanted to live. Bertrand Goldberg created theaters, hospitals and apartment buildings that could have come from colonies on the Moon.
In the era when a man’s vehicle could resemble his rocket ship to get there, Ron Martelet drew speedboats that could transform into their own transport trailers. His Jet-Skis of the 60s looked to be straight out of “Goldfinger.”
What began as atomic nightmares transformed into space age dreams in “Techni”-colors that were no longer army drab but instead, pink, aqua and hues never before classified. Mid-Century Modernism was something completely different.
click here to see more of David’s notes on the Exhibition:
above: ArchiTech Gallery Owner David Jameson, photo by Jay King
ArchiTech Gallery
Chicago, IL, USA