Modern?contemp/Industrial design

[Valhson]

So I am looking at some of the "modern design stuff online as I was doing some research for ideas in Japanese gardens (saw some furniture etc and hence the side track)

Has anyone else noticed that Danish design influences seem to be nothing more than an extention of the Deco period? I admitt freely that I haven't looked much into the modern stuff and I always associated it with abstract and that just isn't my gig but man. There are some industrial designs that just seem to call back to yester year.

Am I way off base and speaking to early in my thoughts on this?

 

[Caroline]

Well, you might want to post some pictures and/or links so we can see where you're getting this. I do see some Art Nouveau in this table, but I digress.

OT I thought your thread title was Modern/contempt LOL!

 

[dhermann1]

It's a deep subject. I've had some back and forths with a couple of folks here over just what "Art Deco" and "Art Moderne" actually are. There is the original Art Deco from 1923, which was much more elaborately decorative than say, "Streamlined Modern". I have a book on interiors from the early 1920's on France, which shows extremely simplified "modern" designs, that could easily pass for 50's designs.
I'd like to know what you mean by "Danish". In the 50's "Danish Modern" was the term for extremely rectangular, totally unadorned design. And I would tend to agree that it was a carry over from similar design traditions that went much further back.
This thread is EXCEPTIONALLY worthless without pictures!

 

[Valhson]

Yes I agree that without the pics it is worthless. I will try to get some up but as I am not in a position to do so at the moment it will have to wait.

I was indeed talking about the danish designs from the early fifties. I am also seeing a lot of what seems to be the same influences in interior designs.

Again, I will try to get some pics up so there is some backing to this thread.

 

[Benproof]

6 years ... to get up some pics? Lol .. this is a 'vintage' thread then.

Simplifying artistic movements along the cultural lines, the 1930s' art deco styles which originated in European gallery exhibition roots from the mid-1920's before it took off, were heavily stylised with embellishments; if you think of drawings by Lempicka, rather than Modgiliani; buildings styled like the Chrysler rather than the Bauhaus; and seating by le Corbusier, rather than Paulin, then that roughly scopes out the lines. The interwar art-deco period tended towards flourishes, which were excessive compared to post-war (WWII) designs:

You can see how plain and puritanical this appears in contrast to a 1930's desk:

Some homes are large enough to welcome art deco styling; modern Japanese designs and gardens draw on Zen and spiritual aesthetics, and tend towards minimalism; clean and simple lines which can have some affinity with post-war 1950's designs, as well as the minimalist trends of the 1980's too. Some historians will argue, that any modern movement, is essentially an extension (or rebellion) of a past; hence, the OP's finding of some similarities between designs from Denmark, with 1930's, however these are more likely to be personal/or school based, rather than nationwide.

These chairs are from the same 1950's era - I quite like this era. Just look at how ergonomically the seat has been designed at its seating area, and also with the butterfly wings for the shoulders. It doesn't attract overt attention to itself, but is well-informed by the past art deco movement, without becoming a mere replica; all it uses, are two types of material, with no overkill/embellishments. We see more functionality in the 1950's designs, whereas the 1930's art deco movement, was essentially, decorative, as opposed to functional.

Hope that helps