LACMA: California Design
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This earthenware bowl is by the Austrian-born team of Gertrude and Otto Natzler. It's from 1943. -
Dan Johnson's 1947 desk is a perfect example of how American modernism often split the difference between clean forms and the speedy streamlining of the era. -
Mary Anne DeWeese designed this pair of bathing suits (a bikini for her, trunks and a t-shirt for him) for the Catalina Sportswear company in 1949. The lobster motif may evoke Maine, but it's hard to imagine too many bathing beauties on the rocky shores of South Portland. -
Kem Weber's 1939 desk and chair were shown at the Golden Gate International Exhibition in San Francisco in 1939. -
A classic of colorful Californian design, this storage unit by Charles and Ray Eames for Herman Miller dates from the late 40s but it looks as good as ever today. -
This iron and aluminum lamp by Greta Magnusson Grossman was manufactured in Burbank in the early 1950s by the Ralph O. Smith Manufacturing Company. -
This album cover gets both the beachy vibe that California came to represent as well as the clan typographic treatment that marked so many great jazz albums of the 1950s. Robert Guidi designed this 1955 album. -
One of the great undersung disseminators of modernism was draftsman, illustrator, and renderer Carlos Diniz. This drawing of a home in Monarch Bay by Ladd and Kelsey Architects in Laguna Nigel is classic Diniz and is as good an ad for California at the start of the 1960s as anything. -
Byron Wilson's silver, ebony, and ivory necklace from 1956 shows how modern design worked its way into jewelery as well. -
Arline Fisch's 1962 peacock necklace is a lovely bit of mid-century design. -
Margaret De Patta's highly abstract brooch in silver and quartz hails from the late 40s or 50s. -
This textile design in rayon and cotton by Hungarian Paul Laszlo comes from his European Group collection from 1954 or before. -
Bold dots and a matching jacket make this swimsuit by Margit Fellegi from about 1950 a poolside stunner.Don't miss a word of Dwell! Download our FREE app from iTunes, friend us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter!
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