Australian Modernist Seating DIGITAL CATALOGUE INTRODUCTION TAKE A SEAT Each year Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest photographed by Max Dupain (Lounge), and, a recreation programs exhibitions which explore aspects of the modernist of artist Margo Lewers’ own living room, in (Ancher House), era and endeavour. We do so in acknowledgement and circa 1970. celebration of the Gallery’s modernist foundations as the Emu Plains home and studio of artists, Gerald and Margo Lewers, until their respective deaths in 1962 and 1978. This summer, in Dr Lee-Anne Hall consideration of its Modernist history, Penrith Regional Gallery Director & The Lewers Bequest presents, Take a Seat – Australian Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest Modernist Seating. This exhibition explores a period (1940- 1975) of immense vitality and productivity in Australian seating design. In the prime of their careers, Margo and Gerald Lewers embraced modernist principles in their art practice; in their engagement with modernist architect Sydney Ancher; in the design and construction of their own furniture, and interior detailing and decoration. These artists were part of the wider Australian intellectual and artistic milieu associated with the development of Australian modernism. In Sydney, Margo and Gerald Lewers opened their home to artists, writers and intellectual such as Frank Hinder, Elwyn Lynn and Patrick White. Likewise, in Melbourne, Heide, the home of art patrons John and Sunday Reed, provided a base and support for modernist artists such as Sidney Nolan, Joy Hester and Albert Tucker. Grant Featherston, R160 Chair, c. 1954 Timber frame, wool upholstery Canberra based curator, Meredith Hinchliffe, has brought Image courtesty of Penrith Regional Gallery together fine examples of mid- 20th century Australian furniture seating design classics. These works are shown in relation to select modernist paintings by Margo Lewers, from the Gallery’s own collection. The furniture herein is drawn from collections across NSW and the ACT. Penrith Regional Gallery & The Lewers Bequest would like to thank the following institutions and private collectors for making these pieces available to the wider public: The Powerhouse Museum, The Australian National University, Ken Neale, Meredith Hinchliffe, Constantin Nikolakopoulos, Christopher Snelling, the Lindsay Family, MAKE Furniture, Mike Dawborn 50/60/70, Melanie Morris and various private collectors. The modernist aesthetic is celebrated elsewhere across the Gallery site; including, modernist artworks from the collection Grant Featherston, Z300 Chaise Lounge, 1953 Timber frame and legs, wool fleck upholstery, brass caps (Lewers House); The architecture of Douglas Snelling, as Image courtesty of Penrith Regional Gallery MAIN GALLERY TAKE A SEAT ESSAY ‘A chair is a stool with a back-rest, and a stool is a board elevated from the ground by supports’.1 Christopher Dresser, 1873 The above description of a chair and stool by Christopher to the development of new materials, their manufacture and Dresser, English designer, and design philosopher of application. With the increased demand for goods to service utilitarian objects, is an accurate, albeit limited description the military effort during war time, manufacturing came of these objects. A chair is also an object capable of giving into its own as did research and development for industries to the user both physical and psychological comfort and specific to the war effort such as aircraft building and fit- aesthetic pleasure. outs. New materials and manufacturing processes and techniques had a fundamental impact upon chair designs. Take a Seat – Australian Modernist Seating explores seating Alternative materials, such as synthetics for webbing, design and construction during the period 1940 – 1975. foam fill and ply moulding had a significant impact on the It unpacks the chair as it evolved as a result of Modernist furniture industry, design and construction.4 As a result, in philosophy and manufacture, to become an object of daily peacetime designers and manufacturers began to apply the use and desire. Modernism was the prevailing movement most efficient technology in the creation of durable furniture and philosophy of economic, social, political and cultural products. life of much of the 20th century. Behind this movement were industrialisation, technology, war, global migration, travel, Seating Design and the rise of mass media and communications. Social progression, the belief that society would benefit and move ‘Good design is the conscious act of bringing order and forward as a consequence of these factors was a key tenet grace to a product, so as to imbue it with aesthetic qualities of modernism. Likewise, furniture design and manufacture beyond, but including, the functional.’5 Gordon Andrews reflected the principles and realities of the modern era; furniture was to be improving of the human experience. ‘Design adds value, whether to an object or a service or an experience… designers solve problems with elegant and In their book The Modern Chair, Charlotte and Peter practical solutions.’6 Susan Cohn, 2014 Fiell write, ‘modernism is not a style, but a philosophical movement which promotes classical and humanising As Australians were introduced to modernism through travel, ideology that can be applied to furniture design, including migration, literature and art and architecture publications, the harmonising of functionalism and aesthetics’.2 Indeed, thus began a vital period in the history of Australian art and it is rare to find one without the other. Designers looked design. This period was enlivened by European furniture to the future, asking ‘what do people need?’ rather than makers, designers and artists fleeing Nazi Europe and post ‘what was made in the past?’ “Good design is necessarily war gloom and devastation. a Modernist approach that has little to do with design and The late 1940s and 1950s provided the perfect environment 3 everything to do with correctly perceiving social needs.” for designers to explore innovative ideas in furniture, particularly in seating. The home-maker market was Modernist design principles were enabled and enhanced by burgeoning. Magazines and newspapers were filled with the industrialisation, and coincidently, world wars which had led latest trends in European and American design, information MAIN GALLERY Grant Featherston, Z300 Chaise Lounge, 1953 Timber frame and legs, wool fleck upholstery, brass caps Image courtesty of Penrith Regional Gallery and advice on how to make furniture, design homes and The wood surfaces of much of the furniture was waxed to decorate them. Increasingly, the heavy ‘brown‘ furniture of allow the character and colour of the timber to be seen to the past lost favour. Designers looked to express a post war its best advantage. Fred Ward in particular, who began lightness of mood and optimism in their furniture. designing and making simple, expressive and functional furniture in the late 1920s, highlighted the characteristics Australian designers, artists and architects all used their and properties of different timbers, and used construction talents to reimagine furniture, interiors and architecture. details in decorative ways, for example butterbox joints, They utilised Modernist principles of clean, pared back dovetails and wedged tenons. lines, and often, they revealed elements of construction. Architects such as Neville Gruzman, Harry Seidler and Architect and designer, Derek Wrigley wrote: “Chair Douglas Snelling, often specified furniture or designed it, to designing and making is a complex art and is one of the enhance and enliven the interiors of their buildings. They most skilled areas of the woodworking industry, involving had already embraced new technology and ideas for their complex structural stresses …”7 For Wrigley, the basic buildings and were quick to respond to the innovative use elements of a structurally sound chair, one that is a coherent, of materials and technology in their furniture. For these organic whole are rails, legs, splats, and arms: each has its architects, chairs and other pieces of furniture represented place. Chairs with light legs, rather than solid seats, allow a quicker and cheaper ways of expressing their design grouping of furniture behind them to be visible. philosophies. The result is an elegant economy of form – nothing more can be taken away or the object is not fit for the purpose. Designer Fred Ward, created paper patterns for people to cut and make their own furniture, and soon followed these The New with flat packs of timber and other materials, which required only simple tools for construction. Also, producing furniture European modernism was characterised by the belief that flat-packs was Karen Ingeborg & Associates, under the current forms of expression were not only irrelevant to a brand, Swedish Craft Furniture with DIY instructional leaflets. modern world, they acted as constraints. European designs In Sydney, these furniture packs were sold through Diments found inspiration in contemporary forms – locomotives, Department Store in Hurstville. steamships, aeroplanes with little or no historical precedents. MAIN GALLERY TAKE A SEAT ESSAY In furniture, with the introduction of radios into every home Scandinavian designers removed several layers of veneer in Britain, special cabinets to house them offered designers thereby increasing the material’s malleability. Gentler, new objects to consider. more tactile, this furniture was well