Mid-Century Modernism and the American Body (eBook)

Race, Gender, and the Politics of Power in Design

Kristina Wilson (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2021
264 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-21349-1 (ISBN)

Infos

The first investigation of how race and gender shaped the presentation and marketing of Modernist decor in postwar AmericaIn the world of interior design, mid-century Modernism has left an indelible mark still seen and felt today in countless open-concept floor plans and spare, geometric furnishings. Yet despite our continued fascination, we rarely consider how this iconic design sensibility was marketed to the diverse audiences of its era. Examining advice manuals, advertisements in Life and Ebony, furniture, art, and more, Mid-Century Modernism and the American Body offers a powerful new look at how codes of race, gender, and identity influenced-and were influenced by-Modern design and shaped its presentation to consumers.Taking us to the booming suburban landscape of postwar America, Kristina Wilson demonstrates that the ideals defined by popular Modernist furnishings were far from neutral or race-blind. Advertisers offered this aesthetic to White audiences as a solution for keeping dirt and outsiders at bay, an approach that reinforced middle-class White privilege. By contrast, media arenas such as Ebony magazine presented African American readers with an image of Modernism as a style of comfort, security, and social confidence. Wilson shows how etiquette and home decorating manuals served to control women by associating them with the domestic sphere, and she considers how furniture by George Nelson and Charles and Ray Eames, as well as smaller-scale decorative accessories, empowered some users, even while constraining others.A striking counter-narrative to conventional histories of design, Mid-Century Modernism and the American Body unveils fresh perspectives on one of the most distinctive movements in American visual culture.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 13.4.2021
• Zusatzinfo: 74 color + 80 b/w illus.
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Design / Innenarchitektur / Mode
• Themenwelt: Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Kunstgeschichte / Kunststile
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Gender Studies
• Schlagworte: abstract expressionism • Adam Green • Advertising • advertising campaign • African Americans • African American visual culture • African Art • American design • American Modern • Anecdote • Architectural Record • Art History • ashtrays • Barbara Miller Lane • Beatriz Colomina • Black advertising • Bourgeoisie • Brenna Wynn Greer • Butterfly chair • Career • chair • Charles and Ray Eames • chauvinism • Clark University • cleanliness • coffee table • Cold War on the Home Front • colonial revival • consumer taste • contemporary Art • courtesy • critical race theory • Currier and Ives • Decorative arts • Department Store • Designer • Desk • Dianne Harris • dining room • Domesticity at War • Donald Albrecht • Eames Lounge Chair • Ebony • Eero Saarinen • Etiquette • Everyday life • exotic accessories • femininity • Figurine • Fine Art • Floor plan • Furniture • Gender identity • George Nelson (designer) • Greg Castillo • Herman Miller • Herman Miller (manufacturer) • homemaking • house beautiful • Household • Houses for a New World • Housewife • Ideology • Ilana Harris-Babou • Illustration • Illustrator • income • interior decorating • Interior design • Isamu Noguchi • Jackson Pollock • Jochen Eisenbrand • John H. Johnson • Ladies' Home Journal • librarian • Life (magazine) • Literature • Little White Houses • Lucinda Havenhand • Marketing • Marshmallow sofa • Mid-century modern • Modern Architecture • Modern Furniture • modernism • Museum of Modern Art • narrative • National Museum of American History • newspaper • Norman Rockwell • Nuclear family • Oral History • Pat Kirkham • Paul R. Williams • Philosopher • Plywood • popular culture • popularity • Publication • Publicity • Race (human categorization) • Racial segregation • Racism • rhetoric • Roland Barthes • Romare Bearden • Russel Wright • Selling the Race • Seminar • Shelter magazine • Smithsonian American Art Museum • Sociology • Suburbia • The New York Times • The Other Hand • The Various • Tyler the Creator • Visual Culture • Wallpaper • Wendy Kaplan • white americans • whiteness • Whiteness Studies • white people • white privilege • woman's day • Worcester Art Museum • work of art • World War II • Writing
• ISBN-10: 0-691-21349-6 / 0691213496
• ISBN-13: 978-0-691-21349-1 / 9780691213491