Mid-century furniture exhibition

Mid-Century Modern: Australian Furniture Design is the first major exhibition dedicated to Australian furniture of the 1940s to the 1970s; a time of dynamic social change.
From Grant Featherston’s plywood Contour range and Clement Meadmore’s welded steel corded chairs, characteristic of the 1950s, to Gordon Andrews’ elegant 1960s designs for home and office, Mid-Century furniture design rejected the over-the-top style of yesteryear, revolutionising the modern Australian interior.
Mid-Century Modern will showcase more than 100 iconic pieces by key designers such as Douglas Snelling, Fred Lowen and Schulim Krimper, and present recreated interior vignettes including a full-scale living room based on the 1955 Age Dream Home.
“Mid-Century Modern will explore the influence of modern design upon the changing landscape of Australian furniture in the decades following World War Two,” says National Gallery of Victoria Director Tony Ellwood.
“Furniture produced by local designers such as Featherston, Meadmore and Snelling is found in galleries and actively sought after by collectors across Australia today, showing its enduring influence and appeal. Mid-Century Modern is the first major Australian survey to provide an in-depth look at this period, revealing how Australian furniture designers moved away from traditional, conservative pre-war styles and forged a new language of design that was innovative in its use of materials, functional and often imbued with a good dose of style,” he adds.
The exhibition will also include designs by visual artists such as Robert Klippel and Janet Dawson, who also dabbled in furniture design, and examples of Fred Ward’s post-war do-it-yourself Patterncraft furniture. Material including working drawings, textiles of the period and photographs of contemporary architecture will be included, building a rich picture of this relatively little-known aspect of Australia’s design history.
Mid-Century Modern: Australian Furniture Design will be on display at The Ian Potter Centre: NGV Australia from 30 May to 19 October 2014.
For more information visit ngv.vic.gov.au

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