Review: California Design 1930–1965: Living in a Modern Way

Abstract

California Design 1930–1965: Living in a Modern Way Los Angeles County Museum of Art 1 October 2011–3 June 2012 The Pacific Standard Time shows scattered across Southern California are at once a condensation and a cornucopia of the arts stemming from this region. That this is a fraught starting point goes without saying, but the value of pulling together nearly seventy exhibitions in dozens of museums outweighs those concerns. For all the predictable kvetching by the likes of Dave Hickey in the New York Times about California’s provincial promotionalism, the grand curatorial idea and collaboration among disparate institutions provided the momentum for some remarkable shows, to name a few: two installations in the San Diego area about light, the Hammer Museum’s show Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960–1980 , and the subject of this review: Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s exhibition California Design 1930–1965: Living in a Modern Way (Figure 1). These three- and-a-half decades capture the era when modern design evolved in California, particularly in the Los Angeles region, to not only accommodate but shape modern life. A host of objects provides the evidence. Visitors see a quirky beauty in the Raymond Loewy Avanti car or Googie architecture, next to sexy backyard playsuits for homemakers, Henry Keck’s ubiquitous and functionally elegant salt, pepper, and sugar shakers, alongside Greta Magnusson Grossman’s sleek Formica desk and cheaply manufactured floor lamps. It was Grossman’s characterization of California’s predilection for “living in a modern way” that gave the show its title. The show valorizes common objects and brings some little-known geniuses to light. It testifies to the collapse of popular and academic art, collecting and consuming, the living room and the gallery, the studio and the factory. The power of these familiar, domestic objects is apparent with a little eavesdropping in the galleries: “I had one of these when I was in high school” or “This looks just …