In 1929 the Metropolitan Museum of Art held the influential exhibition The Architect and the Industrial Arts, which presented the American public with modern Art Deco designs produced in the United States. Eight prominent American architects, including Raymond Hood, Ely Jacques Kahn, Eliel Saarinen, and Joseph Urban, were invited to participate in the creation of complete interiors composed of new designs. Each architect conceived a different type of room so that the installation in its entirety seemed to come together like a finely appointed modern home. The exhibition was composed of prototypes and small production designs with the idea that they could then be mass produced for the American market. Saarinen contributed his vision for a dining room, designing nearly every aspect from the furniture to the tableware (fig. 47.1).1 The place settings in Saarinen’s dining room were complete with bone china, stemmed glassware, and four different designs for silver flatware. The exhibition was a sensation, and the original plan for a six-week run was extended to seven months to meet public demand.2
One of the flatware patterns that Saarinen created for this exhibition was Contempora. This elegant pattern encapsulates American Art Deco design through its combination of luxury material and contemporary styling. The slightly rounded, stepped design of the handles alludes to the profiles of newly constructed skyscrapers punctuating the New York City skyline. Following the opening of the exhibition, Contempora quickly entered production by Reed & Barton. The elegant flatware design was also included in the International Exhibition of Metalwork and Cotton Textiles, which toured the United States in 1930–31.3 Despite its popularity, Contempora was discontinued in 1936, as few people had enough money to indulge in the purchase of a sterling silver flatware service during the fraught years of the Great Depression.
Born in Finland, Saarinen immigrated to the United States in 1923 after winning second prize in a design competition for the Chicago Tribune building. He led a long and successful architectural career that spanned both countries. He received his training from the Polytechnic Institute of Helsinki and the art school at the University of Helsinki. His most famous project was the campus of the Cranbrook School in Michigan. Saarinen also developed the graduate program for the Cranbrook Academy of Art and served as president of the academy from its founding in 1932 until 1946. Following The Architect and the Industrial Arts exhibition, Saarinen had several elements from his dining room installation incorporated into his personal residence on Cranbrook’s campus, including the rug and fireplace, where they can still be seen today. —Sarah Marie Horne
Notes
1. The only parts of the room that he did not design were the tapestry and the wall fabric, which were created by his wife, Loja Saarinen, and daughter, Pipsan Saarinen-Swanson, respectively.
2. See E. Kahn, R. T. Walker, J. Urban, The Architect and the Industrial Arts: An Exhibition of Contemporary American Design, the Eleventh in the Museum Series, New York, February 12 to March 24, 1929, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1929).
3. Charles R. Richards, Decorative Metalwork and Cotton Textiles: Third International Exhibition of Contemporary Industrial Art, the American Federation of Arts, 1930–1931 (N.p.: American Federation of Arts, 1930).