Frank Maraschiello
Director, 20th Century Decorative Arts,
Bonhams, New York, New York
The term “modernism” has been kicked around since the 18th century. Some define it as the ever-changing, trend-setting theories and practices of new design and materials. As a longtime auction house specialist, I take a more historical view of the term and celebrate those visionaries of 20th-century design who demonstrate a “modernist” spirit. There have been far too many highlights for the 20th-century auction world in the last 10 years to single out one as “the pinnacle.” I will merely note six significant moments that seem, in retrospect, to have crossed a threshold in furthering the appreciation of this spirit.
March 1995. First 20th-century object to reach $1 million at auction: Leaded glass Virginia creeper lamp, Tiffany Studios. Sotheby’s New York.

June 2004. Record price for postwar design and record price for the artist at auction: Rare mahogany armchair, Alexandre Noll, c. 1947. Sotheby’s New York, $680,000.

October 2004. Record price for any work of 20th-century decorative arts at auction and record price for the artist at auction: Musiciens et Antilopes, a bas-relief by Léon Indenbaum, 1919. Christie’s Paris, $4,627,854.

June 2005. Second highest price for any work of 20th-century decorative arts at auction and record price for the artist at auction: Unique oak and glass table for the Casa Orengo, Carlo Mollino, 1949. Christie’s New York, $3,824,000.

June 2006. Record price for single owner collection of 20th-century decorative arts at auction: The Claude and Simone Dray Collection of Art Deco. Christie’s Paris. Totals over $75 million.

December 2006. Record price for the artist at auction: Walnut Arlen dining table, George Nakashima, 1988. Sotheby’s New York, $822,000.

I find significance in the retrofitting of contemporary studio artists, modernist designers of a sort, into the world of contemporary fine arts. Laboring under the now somewhat pejorative heading of “craftsmen,” they are enjoying newfound attention as modernist artists who choose to “paint” with the potter’s wheel, jigsaw or molten glass. Even the legendary American Craft Museum has rethought its 21st-century position and rechristened itself the Museum of Arts and Design. As appreciation rises, so do prices, with contemporary art exhibitions now offering painting, sculpture, studio glass and ceramics, all vying for the same collecting dollar. China, one of the hottest new areas of contemporary painting, is also producing extremely high quality contemporary pâte-de-verre by Loretta Yang and other studio artists for marketing in contemporary art galleries. Is Dale Chihuly the next Frank Stella?


Donald Albrecht
Independent Curator and Curator
of Architecture and Design,
Museum of the City of New York,
New York, New York
Over the past 20 years or so, our knowledge of American modernism has gotten deeper, with more information and analysis about well-known figures, and broader, with more people and movements to explore. Two important exhibitions, and accompanying books, were “The Machine Age” at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 1986, curated by Richard Guy Wilson, Dianne Pilgrim and Dickran Tashjian, which put architecture and design between the world wars into greater context, and Jean-Louis Cohen’s “Scenes of the World to Come” (Canadian Center for Architecture, 1995), which upended the assumptions that Europe has always been the influencer, America, the influenced. I myself have been proud to curate shows on such under-appreciated figures as Alexander Girard, Dorothy Draper and photographer Samuel H. Gottscho.


Ron Labaco
Curator of Decorative Arts
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia
Rather than a single moment, I feel that the two most important factors that contributed to the appreciation of modernism over the past decade are the combined phenomena of the internet and the increased reissue of design classics. The internet made information about modern design available to a global audience (through eBay, design blogs and museum, auction house, gallery and ecommerce websites) with an unprecedented immediacy. This in turn fueled a consumer demand that manufacturers recognized by reintroducing the classic designs that captivated the public’s interest.

Japanese design from the second half of the 20th century, such as the work of Shigeru Uchida, Toshiyuki Kita and, in particular, Shiro Kuramata (1934–91). Kuramata brought a minimalist, poetic sensibility to the field of design, combining his cultural perspective with an interest in modern materials to create beautiful, evocative statements. Masterworks such as the How High the Moon chair (1986) in wire mesh, and the Miss Blanche chair (1988) with artificial roses suspended in blocks of acrylic, make him one of the great designers of the 20th century.