Yasha Heifetz and the legitimizing of modern lamps

When Marcel Breuer designed and furnished a house for an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, he intentionally left out lamps. In an interview in November of 1949, he said that he could not find a well-designed modern lamp...and that, anyway, lamps were unnecessary. "The light is more important than the lamp," he said.

In February of 1950, lamp designer Yasha Heifetz (not to be confused with Jascha Heifetz, the violinist) countered that built-in lighting was "flat and static," and he set out to prove the value of a good lamp. With the MoMA, in 1950 he co-sponsored a national lamp design contest, hoping to change the opinions of Breuer and other modernist purists about domestic lighting.

Over 600 competitors entered, submitting almost 3,000 designs. Heifetz, Breuer, the museum's director René d’Harnoncourt, the museum's director of the department of architecture and design Philip Johnson, lighting designer Richard Kelly and others acted as jurors.

Some of the competitors were Richard Schultz from Knoll, as well as Frank Greenhaus and Kevin Roche, both of whom worked for Eero Saarinen, along with Alexey Brodovitch, art director for Harper's Bazaar. Fifteen winners were announced in 1951, and Heifetz immediately began producing ten of the winning designs. Breuer was won over and started ordering lamps for his clients. The modern lamp had gained legitimacy.

The Heifetz Manufacturing Company of New York started in 1938. Their primary product was table lamps, but they also made ashtrays, wood and metal sculptural items and some furniture. Over the twenty-five years that Heifetz was in business, he estimated that the company produced approximately 4,000 pieces and that he designed about half of them, the most popular of which had abstract bases made of ceramic, wood or metal. Some depicted the stylized human form, while others depicted animals or were kidney and melon-shaped.

From modernmag.com

Brass abstract lamp
1stdibs.com

Lamp with brass leaves, wooden base and fiberglass shade
1stdibs.com

Cerused birch torso lamps
1stdibs.com

Freeform oak lamps with fiberglass shades
1stdibs.com

Abstract French oak lamps
1stdibs.com

Limed oak leaf lamps
1stdibs.com

Male and female figures lamp
1stdibs.com

Floor lamp by A. W. and Marion Geller
for the 1950 MoMA lamp design competition
1stdibs.com

In the store, Part 1: Good design

The Bertha Schaefer sofa, the Baumritter chairs, the Broyhill Saga and Barney Flagg Town and Country Flair bedroom suites and the Hansen credenza all sold within a few days of each other, leaving the floor empty, so my SIL brought a few things over from the warehouse and set about doing some serious buying.

He won a Peter Proztman desk and chair at auction. Designed for Herman Miller in the early 60s, these pieces are still in pristine condition. The chair is upholstered in a beige and white check, and the desk is exotic African wood with two pencil drawers and a smoked Lucite-sided file drawer.

On a trip out of state, he got a gorgeous Danish table and six chairs by Hornslet Mobelfabrik. The table has sliding leaves and extends to 106" in length. This is probably the nicest Danish dining set we've had in the store so far.

He met a local architect who sold him a chrome and glass André dining table, which was designed by Tobia Scarpa. The interesting thing about this table is that it comes with a smoked glass top, as well as a clear glass top.

The same person sold him 8 Cesca armchairs by Marcel Breuer. These are in amazingly good condition, without any damage at all to the caning, and he's selling them at an unbelievably low price. I predict that these will be scooped up quickly.

Chrome and African wood Herman Miller desk by Peter Protzman

Close-up of African wood grain

Herman Miller chair by Peter Protzman

Danish dining set in teak by Hornslet Mobelfabrik

André dining table by Tobia Scarpa

Cesca chairs by Marcel Breuer and André table by Tobia Scarpa 

Marcel Breuer

Marcel Breuer

Marcel Breuer (1902-1981) won a scholarship to the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna but dropped out to enter the newly-established Bauhaus. While there, his Wood Slat Chair distinguished him among other students, and he became the director of the furniture workshop there in 1925.

The purchase of his first bicycle inspired him to experiment with tubular steel, which resulted in what is probably his best-known piece, the Wassily chair, which eventually took its name after Kandinski, who used one in his Bauhaus office. Many of Breuer's metal designs were used in the Bauhaus complex at Dessau.

In spite of the fact that he had little formal training in architecture, he opened an office in Berlin in 1928. In 1935 he moved to London to complete several architectural projects. While there he designed a line of plywood furniture for Isokon.

In 1937 he became a professor at the Harvard University School of Design, a position he held until 1946. Thereafter, he devoted himself to the full-time practice of architecture.

From lostcityarts.com

Slatted chair, manufactured by Bauhaus, 1921
moma.org

Wassily chair, 1925
designicon.co.uk

Laccio tables, companion to Wassily chair, 1925
steelform.com

Cesca cane armchairs and side chairs, 1928
houzz.com

S-285 desk, 1930
christies.com

Room divider/bookcase, 1932-1935
moma.org

Isokon Long Chair, 1936
kirkgallery.com

Pronunciation Guide

Florence Knoll Bassett

Born Florence Schust (1917- ) in Michigan and orphaned at age 12, she later became a protegée of Eliel Saarinen at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, as well as a close friend of his son Eero. She also studied at the Architectural Association in London and under Mies van der Rohe at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

After receiving her degree, she moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she worked briefly for Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and Wallace K. Harrison. In 1943, she went to work for the Hans J. Knoll Furniture Company, which at that time was a small studio mainly manufacturing pieces by Scandinavian designers. By 1946, she had become a full partner in the firm and married Hans Knoll. Together they formed Knoll Associates and began to focus on International Style Modernism.

Her innovative concept of "total design" resulted in the formation of a "space planning unit," which created cohesive, comprehensive design by encompassing architecture, manufacturing, interior design, textiles, graphics, advertising and presentation. This reinvented Knoll's image and revolutionized the field. Her ideas still remain in practice today.

She acquired the rights to produce Mies van der Rohe´s "Barcelona" group, as well as work from other well-known designers, including Eero Saarinen, Isamu Noguchi, and Harry Bertoia.

She became president of the firm in 1955, when Hans Knoll was killed in a car accident. She retired in 1960, but she is still a consultant. In 1958, she married banker Harry Hood Bassett.

In 2004, the Philadelphia Museum of Art devoted a major exhibit to her life and work.

From lostcityarts.com and knoll.com

Florence Knoll bench
knoll.com

Florence Knoll chair
knoll.com

Armless sofa
treadwaygallery.com

Oval desk table
knoll.com

Chrome and glass coffee and end tables
knoll.com

Florence Knoll sofa
knoll.com

Maple desk
metroretro.com

Pioneers and prophets of modern design

While most people think "modern" means 1950 to the mid-1960s, the movement actually started two decades earlier.  Bauhaus visionaries like Marcel Breuer and Mies Van Der Rohe, as well as French designers Charles Edouard Jeanneret (Le Corbusier) and Charlotte Perriand were designing chairs in the 1920s that both predicted and influenced the departure from the stuffy conservatism of Victoriana.

In the 1930s Gilbert Rohde created tubular steel chairs for Herman Miller and Troy, and Alvar Aalto began to work with molded plywood. The 1938 sling chair designed by Jorge Ferrari-Hardoy became the classic Fifties "butterfly" design.  The rounded corners of Russel Wright's furniture for Conant Ball and his belief in mass-produced home decor changed the way furniture was made available to consumers.

The trio of chairs designed in 1940 by Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen won the MoMA Organic Design in Home Furnishings competition and reshaped our attitudes about the form and function of furniture.

After World War II, these chairs formed the vanguard of the mid-century modern movement and have been refined and repeated, copied and counterfeited, and faithfully revered ever since.

Wassily chair by Marcel Breuer, 1925
alginretro.com

Barcelona chair by Mies Van Der Rohe, 1927
knoll.com

Basculant "pony" chair by LeCorbusier and Charlotte Perriand, 1928
sillabarcelona.com

Molded plywood chair by Alvar Aalto, 1934
metmuseum.com

Tubular steel chair for Troy by Gilbert Rohde, 1930s
1stDibs.com

Russel Wright for Conant Ball
icollector.com

Lounge chair by Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen, 1940
moma.org