Design & Desire in the Twentieth Century @dd20century - Tumblr Blog

Cooper Hewitt Celebrates the US 250th Anniversary with Exhibition "Design Across Time"

If you plan to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States in New York City, you might want to consider seeing the exhibition "Design Across Time: Exploring the Smithsonian’s Design Collection" at the Cooper Hewitt Museum. According to the museum's website:

[This exhibition is] a major, multi-year installation of the museum’s permanent collection—including significant works newly brought out of storage for expanded public access. On view across the entire first floor of the museum’s Carnegie Mansion, Design Across Time explores design’s impact across time, geography, and discipline.

"Design Across Time: Exploring the Smithsonian’s Design Collection" opened on June 26, 2026, and runs through October 22, 2028. Visit the Cooper Hewitt Museum's site for more details.

Greta von Nessen, Anywhere Lamp (1951). Manufactured by Nessen Studios, Inc. (New York, NY, USA). Photo credit: Matt Flynn, Smithsonian Institution. Image source.

#product design #exhibitions

Top Ten Arne Jacobsen Designs

If you enjoyed our recent post on Arne Jacobsen, check out this video by Andreas and Sanna of Scandinavian Design 101, where they share their top 10 designs by Arne Jacobsen.

Do you have any favorite Jacobsen designs? If so, please share in the comments; we'd love to hear from you.

#arne jacobsen #architecture #furntiure #product design #video #mid century #Youtube

Arne Emil Jacobsen: Denmark's Most Innovative Architect and Designer

Arne Emil Jacobsen pictured here with his Egg Chair in the background (right), c. 1960. Photographer unknown. Image source.

“If a building becomes architecture, then it is art.”- Arne Emil Jacobsen

Arne Emil Jacobsen was Denmark’s most significant twentieth-century architect and designer. His visionary modernist sensibilities defined generations of architecture and furniture design, continuing to the present. He pioneered the “Danish Modern” movement, blending functionalism and simplicity with innovative style in architecture, furniture, and consumer products. Jacobsen designed over 100 buildings during a career spanning over six decades, and his influence can be seen in the work of contemporary architects and designers.

Arne Jacobsen's Early Life

Arne Jacobsen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, on February 11, 1902. His father, Johan, was a wholesale trader in safety pins and snap fasteners; his mother, Pouline, was a bank teller. (1) In his youth, Jacobsen dreamed of becoming a painter. When his father rejected that idea, he “chose instead to enroll in the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture in 1924…where he created his first furniture designs” (2).

At the academy, he studied with “leading practitioners of the Scandinavian Doricist (Neoclassical, 1910-30) movement, including Ivar Bentsen, Kay Fisker, and Edvard Thomsen. The influence of these professors is evident in Jacobsen's disciplined use of proportion and material” (3). His course of study “included an apprenticeship to a bricklayer and study tours to France, Italy, and Germany. It was on this trip to Germany that he saw the work of architects Mies van der Rohe and Walter Gropius" (3). In 1927, Arne Jacobsen earned his professional degree and married Marie Jelstrup Holm. “Together, they had sons Johan and Niels” (3). The following year Jacobsen “was awarded the 1928 Lille Guldmedalje (Small Gold Medal) for the design of a National Museum in Klampenborg” (3)

Arne Jacobsen and Flemming Lassen's drawing of The House of the Future (1929). Photo credit: Royal Danish Library - Danish National Art Library. Image source.

Jacobsen’s Early Career and “House of the Future”

In 1929 Jacobsen and architect Flemming Lassen …won a Danish Architect's Association competition for designing the "House of the Future" which was built full-scale at the subsequent exhibition. The structure featured “a spiral-shaped, flat-roofed house in glass and concrete, incorporating a private garage, a boathouse, and a helicopter pad" (1). In addition, the house had “windows that rolled down like car windows, a conveyor tube for the mail, and a kitchen stocked with ready-made meals” (1).

In the early 1930s Arne worked for the firms of Fisker, Niels Rosenkjaer, and Paul Holsge before opening his own office. In 1932, he won a design competition for Bellevue Beach “along the shore in Klampenborg. He designed beach club facilities (1932), a theater and restaurant (1935), and …housing complexes” (3). “Jacobsen designed everything from the characteristic blue-striped lifeguard towers, kiosks, and changing cabins to the tickets, season cards, and even the uniforms of the employees” (1). The project established him as Denmark’s leading proponent of the International Style. (1)

Arne Jacobsen, Stelling House (1937), Copenhagen, Denmark. Image source.

During these years Jacobsen was influenced by Danish architect Vilhelm Lauritzen’s Kastrup Airport (1936) and Radio House (1937-45). Jacobsen became friends with Swedish architect Erik Gunnar Asplund, leading to their collaboration on the Gothenburg Law Courts Addition (1913-36).

While Jacobsen’s work received awards and acclaim from architects, the general public did not warm up to his Avant-Garde work. One newspaper went as far as to say “Jacobsen ought to be 'banned from architecture for life’” (1).

In 1942, Arne Jacobsen collaborated with Erik Møller on the Aarhus City Hall and on the Søllerød Town Hall in collaboration with Flemming Lassen. (2) “In both buildings, the architects created a comprehensive total design of the interior dominated by soft shapes with wood, brass, and leather as the main materials” (2). The Aarhus City Hall, however, was considered “too modern and too anti-monumental. In the end, Jacobsen had to add a tower as well as marble cladding” (1).

Arne Jacobsen and Erik Moller, Aarhus Town Hall, (1942) Aarhus, Denmark. Image source.

Jacobsen Meets His Second Wife

While working on work on Søllerød Town Hall, Arne Jacobsen met Jonna Møller. Jonna was a textile printer who was hired to produce the textiles for the town hall project. It is not known exactly when Jacobsen and his first wife divorced. It is also unclear if Jacobsen’s relationship with Jonna caused the breakup or whether the marriage had ended before his involvement with Jonna. Jacobsen and Jonna were married in 1943.

Jacobsen’s Wartime Exile to Sweden

Later in 1943, Arne Jacobsen, who was of Jewish descent, fled his office and went into exile to escape deportation to the Nazi concentration camps. With the help of the Danish resistance and Jacobsen’s many contacts in Sweden, he and Jonna escaped Denmark by rowing a small boat across Øresund to neighboring Sweden. They stayed in Sweden until the War’s end. Jacobsen’s work in Sweden was limited to a summer house for two doctors and textile designs. (1,3)

Jacobsen Turns to New Materials and Nature for Inspiration

After the War, shortages of material and labor forced Jacobsen to employ alternative means of construction, new technologies, and new materials. “He explored the possibilities that industrialization (such as curtain wall construction and prefabricated elements) offered in such projects as the Jespersen Office Building (1955)” (3).

“Jacobsen had a lifelong passion for botany and his private garden functioned as both a refuge and a laboratory.... [H]e established a densely packed botanical garden with more than 300 different species of plants” (2). Plants often served as a source of inspiration, and his sensibility to the surrounding landscape was reflected in his works of architecture. For private clients Jacobsen would design detailed garden plans and several of his large, public projects also included innovative landscape design. (2)

Jacobsen’s Work in the 1950s and 1960s

While Jacobsen was greatly influenced by the International school, he believed that architecture should “provide an aesthetic dimension”. He achieved this by use of “elemental massing, reduction of detail, and elegant proportions to organize the whole” (3). Jacobsen’s commercial work of the 1950’s illustrates his command of these principles: the Massey Harris Showroom (1953), the Carl Christensen Factory (1956), and the SAS Royal Hotel (1959). In 1955, he completed his most important public commission, the Munkegård School, which included “yellow brickwork, oblique lines and innovative ground plans” (2).

Arne Jacobsen, Restaurant on the main floor of the SAS Royal Hotel (1960), Copenhagen, Denmark. Photo credit: Aage Strüwing © Jørgen Strüwing. Image source.

Jacobsen’s Siesby House (1957) and the Jürgensen House (1956) were inspired by both the American Case Study houses of Charles Eames, Pierre Koenig, and Richard Neutra and traditional Japanese architecture (3).

During the 1950s Jacobsen collaborated with manufacturer Fritz Hansen, and the furniture designs produced from this partnership were very popular. Five chairs from this period “are still in production, including his most famous designs, the Ant chair (1952) and the 3107 (1955), which have sold five million copies, and the Grand Prix (1957), the Egg (1958), and the Swan (1958)” (3).

Arne Jacobsen, Ant Chair (1952). Image source.

In the following decade, Jacobsen branched out into designing “for Stelton, a company founded by his foster son Peter Holmblad" (1). His most notable product was the now classic Cylinda Line stainless steel tableware (1967). He also designed a popular line of kitchen and bathroom faucets and accessories. (1)

Arne Jacobsen, 5 pieces of tableware Cylinda-Line (1967), Stelton, Denmark. Image source.

In the early 1960’s “a delegation of Oxford dons visited the SAS Hotel and the Munkegård School in their search for an architect for St. Catherine’s College in Oxford, resulting in Jacobsen winning his first major project commission outside of Denmark. Jacobsen designed everything : “silverware and china, chairs, lamps door handles” (4), and “including the garden, down to the choice of fish species for the pond” (1). His solution was “based on contemporary ideals and a painstakingly executed comprehensive design programme” (2) while remaining sensitive to “the historical traditions of the Oxford Colleges” (2).

Arne Jacobsen, St. Catherine's College (1964), Oxford, UK. Photo credit: Kenneth Yarham. Image source.

Arne Jacobsen’s Legacy

Arne Jacobsen worked up until his unexpected death on March 24, 1971, in Copenhagen, the city of his birth. When he died, he had several projects in progress, including "a new town hall in Mainz, Germany, … the Danish National Bank and the Royal Danish Embassy in London” (1). A firm set up by Jacobsen’s former key employees, Hans Dissing and Otto Weitling, completed these projects. (1) St Catherine’s College, Oxford, also unfinished at the time of his death, had been completed under the direction of … British architect Hans D. Jaeger” (4).

For his architectural work, Jacobsen had been awarded the C. F. Hansen Medal in 1955, the Prince Eugen Medal for architecture in 1962, the RIBA Bronze Medal in the UK in 1963, the Fritz Schumacher Award in 1963, and the Médaille d’Or from the Académie d’Architecture de France in 1971 (1).

Arne Jacobsen, Siesby House (1957), Copenhagen, Denmark. Image source.

Jacobsen’s work encompasses both architecture and design, strongly influenced by the structure and geometry of natural forms. (2) He made tremendous contributions not only to architecture, but also to furniture design, industrial design, and landscape architecture. These contributions were very influential both in his home country of Denmark and worldwide. They remain so to this day.

References

Wikipedia.com, (20 April, 2026). Arne Jacobsen. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arne_Jacobsen

ArneJacobsen.com, (2016). The Life of Arne Jacobsen. https://arnejacobsen.com/life/biography/

Nesbit, K., (2005). Arne Emil Jacobsen. Sennott R.S. Encyclopedia of twentieth century architecture, Vol.2 (G-O). Fitzroy Dearborn., 2005. https://architecture-history.org/architects/architects/JACOBSEN/biography.html

Britannica.com, (20 March 2026). Arne Jacobsen:Danish Architect. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arne-Jacobsen

#architecture #arne jacobsen #mid century #product design

1950's Haute Couture You Could Sew at Home

Cover of an Advance Import Pattern (c. 1955), posted on Wearing History. Image source.

Wearing History blog reposted an article from the Winston-Salem Journal, December 18, 1955, by Gay Pauley about dress pattern makers of that time, such as Vogue and Advance, that contracted with "top designers in America and Europe for line-to-line copies of certain of their originals". According to the article, "One pattern company said it can have patterns ready for a new French fashion within a week after it is shown in Paris." Talk about "fast fashion"!

The article also stated that in 1955, "It has been estimated that 38,000,000 women sew, using more than $1,000,000,000 in fabric yearly." Our guess is that today only a fraction of that number of women have ever seen a sewing machine!

Read the entire article and view more designer patterns on Wearing History.

#fashion

Michael Graves' The Warehouse

Michael Graves, The Warehouse (1977), Princeton, New Jersey. Image source.

Check out this post on the Hidden Architecture blog about Michael Graves's 1977 restoration and adaptive reuse of a 1926 hollow-clay block warehouse surfaced with brick and stucco. The result is this stunning residence that comfortably houses two adults and four children.

Read the post and see more images on Hidden Architecture.

#architecture #Michael Graves

Henry Dreyfuss: Groundbreaking UI Designer Part One

Editor's Note: This article was originally posted on January 8, 2024.

When the point of contact between the product and people becomes a point of friction, then the industrial designer has failed.” – Henry Dreyfuss

To say that Henry Dreyfuss was one of the most influential designers of the Twentieth Century may sound like an overstatement until one considers his portfolio of iconic designs. Dreyfuss and his firm were responsible for products that were ubiquitous during the past century, including the Model 500 telephone and Honeywell’s circular thermostat. Both products were found in many American homes until digital products replaced them. Dreyfuss designs ranged from clocks and vacuum cleaners to locomotives and steamships. As if this is not impressive, Dreyfuss is considered a pioneer in user experience design. (1)

Henry Dreyfuss (c. 1940). Photographer unknown. Image source.

Henry Dreyfuss as a Young Man

Henry Dreyfuss was born in Brooklyn on March 2, 1904. Not much is known of his early life, but his family had a theatrical supply business which may have connected young Henry with one of his earliest jobs, “designing sets for stage presentations at a Broadway motion-picture theatre”(2). Dreyfuss later studied as an apprentice with Norman bel Geddes. After leaving bel Geddes, Dreyfuss continued on with theatrical design, producing “250 stage sets for a number of theatres before 1928”(2). during this time received special recognition for “the cellblock set for The Last Mile, a 1930 production starring Spencer Tracy. (3)

Dreyfuss was offered a job on the design staff of the Macy Company, but turned it down because, in 1929, at the age of 25, Dreyfuss opened his own design firm. That same year he won a telephone design contest held by Bell Laboratories and “began work in 1930 in collaboration with Bell staff”(2) to produce the Model 300 telephone; “molded in black phenolic plastic”(2) the phone had a transmitter and receiver housed together in the same handset. (2)

As Dreyfuss’s business grew, he recognized the need for a business manager. Doris Marks, “the daughter of the former borough president of Manhattan”(2) was recommended by one of Dreyfuss’s old schoolmates. Dreyfuss hired her, and the two hit it off immediately. They later married and had three children: a son and two daughters. (4) Doris remained involved in the design business and assisted Henry in publishing several books. She also served on the boards of several philanthropic organizations. (6)

Design Breakthroughs in the 1930s

Remarkably The Great Depression in the 1930s was a period of great productivity and success for Dreyfuss. In 1933, he designed a “flat top” refrigerator for General Electric that hid the “previously exposed refrigeration unit by placing it beneath the cabinet”(2). In 1935 Dreyfuss designed an alarm clock for Westclox, and four years later he designed their iconic Big Ben alarm clock. (2)

The following year he developed “Model 150 upright vacuum cleaner with the first plastic hood in Bakelite”(2) for the Hoover company. In the same year he was commissioned to design products for the American Thermos Bottle Company. (2)

Henry Dreyfuss, Big Ben alarm clock for Westclox (1939). Image source.

Henry Dreyfuss introduced one of his most impressive works “his design of a Mercury locomotive [which] featured cutout holes in the ‘white-walled’ driver wheels, lit by concealed spotlights at night”(2). The train represented the epitome of streamlined Art Deco design. New York Central introduced the Mercury train in 1938 “for its Twentieth Century Limited New-York-Chicago run”(2).

In 1937 Elmer McCormick an engineer with the Deere & Company tractor company, travelled to New York City from his company’s headquarters in Iowa for design advice from Dreyfuss. This meeting resulted in making Dreyfuss one of his most important and lucrative clients. “In 1938 Dreyfuss’s John Deere Model A tractor was introduced”(2), and Dreyfuss would eventually redesign Deere’s entire line. (3)

Henry Dreyfuss, New York Central Mercury Train (1936). Image source.

“Dreyfuss’s approach to creating products was based on a logical functionality that he would call ‘human factor’ (or ergonomic) design”(3). He preferred combining form and function rather than follow showy design trends, (3) an approach that would influence designers for decades to come. “Dreyfuss was much more than a stylist; he applied common sense and a scientific approach to design problems”(4). This resulted in developing products that were not only elegant, but safer and featured ease of use and maintenance. (4)

For the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City, Dreyfuss “designed the Democracity model in the Perisphere, representing an American city and its surrounding suburbs of the year 2039” (2). He also designed the AT&T Pavilion at the Fair. (2,3) Dreyfuss’s mentor, Norman bel Geddes’s contribution to the World’s Fair was the iconic Futurama city for General Motors. (5)

Read part two of “Henry Dreyfuss: Groundbreaking UI Designer”.

References

Curtis, M. , (11 November, 2020). The original UX designer: Henry Dreyfuss (1904–1972). https://bootcamp.uxdesign.cc/the-original-ux-designers-henry-dreyfuss-1904-1972-8444a1769d11

Industrial Designers Society of America, (2023). Henry Dreyfuss, FIDSA. https://www.idsa.org/profile/henry-dreyfuss

Uhle, F. (n.d.). Henry Dreyfuss Associates, LLC. https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/politics-and-business-magazines/henry-dreyfuss-associates-llc

Wikipedia, (24 February, 2023). Henry Dreyfuss. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Dreyfuss

Futurama, of the city of, designed by Norman Bel Geddes for the General Motors Exhibit at the New York World’s Fair in 1939. New York, 1939. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2012645722/.

Dreyfuss, J. (22 October, 1972). Henry and Doris Dreyfuss. https://calteches.library.caltech.edu/2944/1/dreyfuss.pdf

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#henry dreyfuss #user experience design #product design

Animator Barry Caldwell Dies

A sad story came to us by The Wrap and Y!Entertainment. Animator Barry Caldwell died at age 68 on March 24, 2026 in California. Caldwell studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. His career included positions at Warner Bros. Animation, Walt Disney Television Studios, Filmation, Ruby-Spears, and DreamWorks. His credits include “The New Adventures of Zorro”, “The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show”, “He Man and the Masters of the Universe”, “The Smurfs” and “Chip ‘n’ Dale Rescue Rangers”. According to Caldwell's biography on IMDB, his most recent projects were "The 7D" and "DreamWorks Dragons" (2015) television series.

Read Barry Caldwell's obituary on The Wrap.

View animator Deborah Anderson's interview with Barry Caldwell.

Image source: Onii-Chan on Facebook

#news #barry caldwell #animation

Isamu Noguchi: I am not a designer

Isamu Noguchi with Akari Light Sculptures (circa 1951). Photo credit: SFO Museum. Image source.

Artist Isamu Noguchi's Playscapes was a bicentennial gift for the City of Atlanta commissioned by the High Museum in collaboration with the City of Atlanta Parks Department. It's the only Noguchi-designed playground built in the United States during his lifetime. To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Playscapes, the High Museum in Atlanta, Georgia will hold an exhibition, "Isamu Noguchi: I am not a designer."

While Isamu Noguchi stated in 1949, “I am not a designer,” he produced work ranging from architecture and furniture to ceramics and stage sets. The show will feature products designed for manufacturers like Herman Miller and Knoll; and a house model Noguchi designed in collaboration with architect Kazumi Adachi. Several large-scale installations will also be included.

"Isamu Noguchi: I am not a designer" opens on April 10, 2026 and runs through August 2, 2026 at the High Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. The exhibit will travel to the Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, in September 2026, and to the Memorial Art Gallery at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York, in February 2027.

For more information, visit the High Museum's website.

#isamu noguchi #news #exhibitions #product design

The Sullivan Building

According to a post on the Wright Society Newsletter, the Sullivan Building in Newark, Ohio, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright's mentor Louis Sullivan, has undergone a $14 million, decade-long restoration to transform it into a unique tourism center. A rededication ceremony was held for the building in October 2025.

Louis Sullivan, The Home Building Association Company Building (1914), Newark, Ohio. Photo Credit: W. Lemay. Image source.

The Sullivan Building was built in 1914 and opened its doors on August 25, 1915, as The Home Building Association Company. According to the Licking County Foundation website, in addition to the bank, the building was also home to "a butcher shop, jewelry store and ice cream parlor ...before it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973." The building, which serves as a visitor welcome center for Licking County, also hosts pop-up galleries featuring artists and music on the first Saturday of each month.

For details, read a story on the Newark Advocate website and visit the Licking County Foundation website.

Read about the building's restoration on the Architect's Newspaper.

#louis sullivan #architecture #news #frank lloyd wright

What is Tufa-casting and How is It Done?

If you enjoyed our recent post on Hopi artist and jeweler Charles Loloma, you recall that Loloma used the Tufa-casting technique on many of his early works. In this fascinating video from the Museum of Northern Arizona, Hopi artist and craftsman Jonah Hill of the Rabbit Clan demonstrates how Tufa-casting is done.

#Youtube #video #Charles Loloma #tufa-casting #jewelry

Frank Lloyd Wright Conservancy's Price Tower Related Litigation Resolved

According to a recent post on the Frank Lloyd Wright Conservancy's website, "All Conservancy litigation related to Price Tower has been resolved as of March 11, 2026." If you've been following our coverage of the legal battles over Frank Lloyd Wright's Price Tower skyscraper in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, this is happy news indeed! The conservancy is dedicated to supporting "the building's new owners, McFarlin Building LLC, as they work towards a bright future for this architectural treasure."

In the fall of 2024, the fate of the Price Tower was very uncertain. The former owner of the building sold off many interior items that Wright designed specifically for the Price Tower, resulting in the suit brought against them by the Conservancy. An auction to sell the structure was scheduled for October 2024 but was then postponed to 2025. McFarlin Building LLC expressed its intention to buy the skyscraper in January 2025. At that time, there were, however, disputes between the former and current owners over who was responsible for the debts that the former owner incurred.

For a detailed timeline on the events leading up to the resolution, visit the Frank Lloyd Wright Conservancy's website.

Frank Lloyd Wright, Price Tower (1956), Bartlesville, OK. Photo credit: John H. Waters, AIA. Image source.

#frank lloyd wright #architecture #news #Price Tower

Charles Loloma: Breaking Barriers with Beauty

“What I’d like to be known for is beauty.” – Charles Loloma

Artist and designer Charles Loloma was born on January 7, 1921, “near Hotevilla, Hopi Third Mesa [in Arizona], to Rex Loloma and Rachel Kuyiyesva Loloma, to the Badger clan” (1). He was not only the most influential of native American jewelers, but one of the most influential jewelers of the Twentieth Century. Best known for his use of unconventional and exotic materials in his work, Loloma, however, did not start his career in jewelry; as early as high schoolhe showed exceptional talent as a painter and muralist. (1)

Portrait of Hopi Jeweler Charles Loloma. Image source.

Loloma’s Early Life

Growing up on the Hopi Reservation, Loloma was exposed to its rich culture which greatly influenced him throughout his career. (2) In high school, Loloma spoke very little English and was befriended by a young teacher Lloyd Kiva New whose mother was Cherokee. The two would be life-long friends. “He introduced Loloma to classical music and Frank Lloyd Wright” (3). Later in life Loloma would make a connection with Mrs. Olgivanna Wright.

A big break for Loloma happened in 1939, at the age of eighteen he was one of three Native American Artists “to be invited to paint installations for the [Golden Gate International Exposition in] the Indian Court of the Federal Building on Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay” (2). The trip was a great adventure for the young man and he remained in San Francisco for three months. In 1941, Loloma worked on another important Native America art exhibition, this time it was for the Museum of Modern Art in New York. (2) There along with other Native American artists he studied advanced mural painting techniques under Olle Nordmark. (3) in 1942, Loloma married Otellie Pasivaya, a potter from a nearby Hopi village. (4)

Charles Loloma, Glazed Ceramic Bowl, (c. 1950). Image source.

Loloma Turns to Pottery

At the age of twenty-one Loloma was now an experienced muralist having participated in two prestigious shows, but World War II would have a profound influence on the trajectory of his career. “He served in the United States Army from 1942 to 1945 with the 331st Army Engineers, … stationed in the Aleutian Islands.” After the war Loloma and Otellie settled in Shipaulovi on the Second Mesa. At that time he did illustrations and murals for the Verde Valley School” (4).

In 1946, the “GI Bill and a scholarship enabled Loloma and his wife to continue their education… [at] the School for American Craftsmen (SAC) [now Alfred University] in western New York State, where they studied ceramics from 1947-1949. Embarrassed that they had never used a potter’s wheel, they went in early before school to practice their skills. Embarrassed that they had never used a potter’s wheel, they went in early before school to practice their skills” (3). The Lolomas were exposed to modernist design ideals. Charles began thinking “thinking about the possibilities of form and material in art” (2) and the possibilities of combining these modernist concepts with his traditional Hopi heritage. (2)

During this time the couple often traveled to New York City to experience the art scene. There they “met Philip Morton, an instructor in metal design and proponent of the wearable art movement”. (3) Morton’s work was featured in a “1946 exhibition of Modern Handmade Jewelry” (3) at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Loloma’s subsequent work would be influenced by Morton’s use of silver and ebony. (3)

A photograph from 1949 shows Loloma making jewelry as early as that time; but “he and his wife remained focused on their pottery into the early 1950s” (3). The pair received attention from the art world on their use of “new techniques, materials and designs which they incorporated into traditional Hopi pottery” (3), but they were harshly criticized by the Hopi for their departure from traditional methods. (3)

“In 1954 [Loloma and Otellie] opened a pottery shop in Scottsdale, becoming the first tenants of the successful Kiva Craft Center, founded by [Charles’s old friend] Lloyd Kiva New” (4). The Lolomas developed and sold a successful pottery line that they marketed as “Lolomaware.” During the six years that the shop was in operation, Loloma also taught “at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe” (2) and “at the University of Arizona, Tucson and at Arizona State University at Tempe (4).

Loloma Turns to Silversmithing and Encounters Mrs. Olgivanna Wright

During his time in Scottsdale, Loloma became interested in silversmithing. He “followed the traditional Navajo method of tufa-casting, … [a] method of silversmithing produced a textured surface on the metal. Loloma would then work in Hopi overlap designs” (3).

Around 1956 Loloma met the wife of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright. Mrs. Olgivanna Wright was an important early client. Bracelets designed for Mrs. Wright “set with turquoise and coral, give a glimpse of the iconic cuff bracelets for which Loloma would become famous” (3). A fortuitous accident resulted in one of Loloma’s signature pieces. “When a bracelet…cast for Mrs. Wright accidentally formed a hole in the metal, she insisted he just insert a stone rather than recast the piece. This resulted in a colorful hidden inlay of various hardstones like turquoise, lapiz and coral set beneath a silver tufa-cast ‘accident’ (3).” Another of Loloma’s techniques was that “of including ‘inner gems’ on the interior surfaces of his pieces expressed his belief that ‘people have inner gems’” (1).

Charles Loloma, Silver Tufa Cast Cuff Bracelet with Turquoise and Gold (c. 1955). Image source.

Like his pottery, Loloma’s stunning jewelry creations also “encountered resistance and hostility” from the Hopi Community. His work was “denied entry by the Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial” (3). In 1959, however, his work was included in the Rockefeller Foundation-funded “Directions in Indian Art: A Conference on Arizona’s Position on Southwest Indian Art Education” at the University of Arizona (3).

Loloma’s Jewelry Becomes Haute Couture

In 1963 Loloma finally got his wish to visit Paris. His benefactors paid for travel and included letters of introduction to the leading fashion houses. Soon Loloma bracelets and earrings could be seen on Paris runways. He had arrived as an international jewelry designer. (3)

Charles Loloma, Bracelet with silver alloy, stone, and ivory, (1960). Collection of the Smithsonian Museum of Art. Image source.

The following year Loloma “built a home and studio close to his childhood home in Hotevilla” (3). He stopped teaching to concentrate on his jewelry, but his wife did not make the move from Sante Fe with him; the couple divorced shortly thereafter. (3).

In 1968, Loloma met Eveli Sabatie, a Sorbonne educated young woman of French-Spanish descent who came to Arizona work with him. Ms. Sabatie’s limited resources resulted in her use of “bleached bones and ivory to highlight the silver in her designs” (3). Loloma in turn was influenced by the used of dark and light in Sabatie’s work. “It was at this point he became fascinated with stacking stones, a now iconic Loloma design” (3). Loloma and Sabatie collaborated until 1972 when she struck out on her own. (3)

Loloma’s Work Reaches its Peak in the 1970s

During the 1970s Native American silver and turquoise jewelry was all the rage, and Loloma was its most famous designer. “In June 1973, he was the keynote speaker for the American Craftsmen Council convention in Fort Collins, Colorado. Later that year, his work was exhibited in Houston, Texas and the following January through March, at the Museum of Contemporary Crafts in New York [now the Museum of Art and Design]” (4). In 1978, the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, held an exhibition of his work. Loloma “ he held shows across 9 states and in Germany in 1979” (3).

Charles Loloma, Gold and Multi-stone Inlay Cuff, (c. 1975). Image source.

Loloma Remains Faithful to His Hopi Heritage

Athough Loloma had achieved much success and celebrity for his work, he “continued to have a deep reverence for Hopi beliefs and the ceremonies, which express them. In the midst of his successful 1971 Paris show, he flew home so that he might take part in the Bean Dance” (4). He lived by “the Hopi calendar, its cycles of birth, death, and regeneration. There is a seeming disparity between this way of life and the sophisticated world in which he moved” (4). He constantly struggled to remain rooted in the Hopi traditions while continuing to evolve as an artist. (3)

Charles Loloma, Bracelet with badger paw in Gold, coral, turquoise, lapis lazuli, (1985). Image source.

At a show in Denver in 1979, Loloma met Georgia Voisard, a teacher who was studying Native America. The couple fell in love, Georgia moved to Hotevilla and became Lolma’s his partner and manager “and they later married. Georgia encouraged Loloma to invest in finer quality materials” (3). Loloma’s work from the 1980s is his most colorful, bold, and dramatic of his career.

Tragedy Strikes Charles Loloma

In 1986 Charles Loloma was injured in a serious automobile accident which left him unable to work. “He still attended his exhibitions, but his mind would wander. In 1988, the Loloma Studio was closed. In 1991, the Wheelwright Museum presented ‘Jewelry of the Southwest: Pueblo Tradition and Innovation’, which highlighted the work of Loloma and another artist” (3). Unfortunately, he did not live to see this show, it opened a few weeks after his death on June 9, 1991 in Phoenix, Arizona. (5)

Charles Loloma's personal silver belt buckle, (c. 1970). Image source.

Charles Loloma’s Influence Lives On

Through his teaching at the Institute of American Indian Arts and at the University of Arizona and “through his...experimental use of diverse stones, unusual materials, and modernist forms” (3), Charles Loloma influenced a new generation of Native American designers. (3) Verma Nequatewa, Loloma’s niece and apprentice is an highly esteemed jeweler whose own work, like her uncle’s , “is inspired by her culture and the rich environment and landscapes she sees from her studio at Third Mesa on the Hopi Reservation in Arizona”(6).

Perhaps Charles Loloma’s most important contribution was elevating the world’s perception of Native American silversmithing from craftwork to fine art. His influence however, “extended beyond jewelry. He demonstrated that Native American artists could work within …global art movements while maintaining a distinct cultural identity” (2).

References

Wikipedia, (2 February, 2026). Charles Loloma. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Loloma

The Rogue Art Historian (18 November, 2024). Charles Loloma. https://roguearthistorian.substack.com/p/charles-loloma

William Doyle Galleries, (2026). Charles Loloma: Native American Visions. https://www.doyle.com/story/charles-loloma-native-american-visions/

AmericanMastersofStone.com, (24 July 2008). Charles Loloma. https://web.archive.org/web/20080724101608/http://www.americanmastersofstone.com/Biographies/Charles%20Loloma.htm

Smithsonian American Art Museum, (2026). Charles Loloma. https://americanart.si.edu/artist/charles-loloma-33638

The Eddie Basha Collection, (2024). Verma Nequatewa. https://eddiebashacollection.com/collection/verma-nequatewa

#Charles Loloma #jewelry #pottery

Norman Foster Designs Time Capsule for United States' 250th Birthday Celebration

Norman Foster, Time Capsule for 250th Anniversary of the United States' Independence (2025). Image source.

Dezeen.com reported,

"British architect Norman Foster has created a time capsule set to be buried under the Washington Monument to celebrate the USA's 250th anniversary of independence...[It] will be buried under the plaza at Washington Monument and is destined to be reopened on 4th July 2276."

The time capsule is a sister to the one that Foster designed for the restoration of the George Washington statue and plinth in Trafalgar Square.

Read the post on Dezeen.com.

#norman foster #product design #news

Trailblazing Hollywood Architect Paul R. Williams

Design and Desire in the Twentieth Century would like to recognize the work of architect Paul R. Williams in celebration of Black History Month. Williams was the first successful African-American architect in Los Angeles and the first African-American member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). He faced the same prejudice that other talented, ambitious members of his race faced in the United States during the Twentieth Century.

Williams was unable to live in the neighborhoods where he built homes for his celebrity clients. He also learned to draw upside down so that he could sit across the table from his white clients instead of next to them. Despite the many disadvantages Williams faced, he became not only an influential and inspirational architect but also a leading member of the black community in Los Angeles.

Read our 2021 post on architect Paul R. Williams.

Watch this Lost LA video on Paul R. Williams and his work.

Charles Alston, Paul R. Williams Illustration (1943). National Archives. Image source.

#paul revere williams #architecture #black history #mid century

Forgotten Harry Bertoia Sculpture Back on Display

Sarah Kuta of the Smithsonian Magazine recently posted a story online about a 1970 Harry Bertoia sculpture. The sculpture had been commissioned for the food court of a shopping mall in Southfield, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit.

When the mall was renovated in 1980, the sculpture was moved to a second mall but was never displayed there. The piece had been languishing in storage since that time. In 2015, the second mall closed and was purchased by the city of Southfield. Until recently, no one realized Bertoia's masterpiece was in the mall's basement.

According to the article in the Smithsonian Magazine, "The dramatic 26-foot-tall piece, created in 1970, now hangs in the seven-story atrium of General Motors’ new global headquarters, in Detroit..."

Read more on the Smithsonian Magazine website.

Read about the sculpture on the General Motors website.

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