more orthodox modernists in the past few years, three practi- of 2007, which proves that
tioners of this more flamboyant, eclectic style — Billy Haines, finely-wrought Miesian mod-
Dorothy Draper and Samuel Marx — have finally been getting ernism can still be built in
much deserved attention. Individual volumes published on our era. In updating his 1995
each one in 2006 have now been brought together in The survey of modernist residential
American Designer Series Holiday Boxed Set (Pointed Leaf Press, masterworks, author Kenneth
hardcover, $295; volumes available separately at $95 each; Frampton, a professor of archi-
more than 700 illustrations in color and black and white). tecture at Columbia University,
Haines (1900–73) is the best-known, a movie star who lost has collaborated with editor
his job over his homosexuality. He cannily began decorating for and designer David Larkin
famous pals like Joan Crawford, inventing the signature look of on a book whose authorita-
Hollywood in its glory years. His elegant, Asian-inspired modernist tiveness should go unchal-
furniture designs are highly sought-after today, but as the authors lenged for some years to come.
of Class Act: William Haines, Legendary Hollywood Decorator, Peter Whether the reader wants to know about Philip Johnson’s Glass
Schifando and Jean H. Mathison, reveal, there was much more to House (1949), Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann House (1946), Craig
his work. Dorothy Draper (1889–1969) was as much an exponent Ellwood’s Case Study House No. 16 (1952–53), or any of a host
of glamour as Haines, but in a much more traditional mode; she of other masterpieces, this hefty, handsome volume has the lumi-
brought excitement and chic to nous photographs and thought-provoking text to fulfill the quest.
classical elements. In In the Pink: Best of all, some seldom-seen houses get their due, like MGM
Dorothy Draper, America’s Most art director Cedric Gibbons’s 1931 Art Deco extravaganza for
Fabulous Decorator, Draper’s his wife, actress Dolores del Rio, and Paul Rudolph’s 1973–78
protégé and professional succes- house for himself. While the book is not inexpensive, purchas-
sor, Carleton Varney, details the ers will get their money’s worth, and then some. n
impact of her famous — if some-
times overpowering — blend of
Baroque, Moderne and English
country house on America’s inte-
riors. Samuel Marx (1885–1964)
was an architect and designer
whose early interiors had much
in common with Draper’s and
Haines’s, but who later designed
International Style residences and
public buildings. Ultramodern:
Samuel Marx, Architect, Designer,
Art Collector is Liz O’Brien’s look
at a man who came to modern-
ism by degrees, and was the bet-
ter for the journey.
Anyone wanting a concise
guide to the best in modernist
residential architecture of the past
century would do well to pick up
a copy of American Masterworks:
Houses of the 20th and 21st
Centuries, Revised Edition (Rizzoli
International Publications, hard-
cover, $85.00, 384 pages, 438
illustrations in color and black
and white). All the iconic ones
are here, from Greene and
Greene’s 1908 Gamble House
(famed as Doc Brown’s house
in Back to the Future) to Michael
Bell’s Gefter/Press Residence
www.modernismmagazine.com 89