Winter 2011 - Art Deco Society of Washington

Trans
Trans--Lux
March 2011
2000
September
ART DECO SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON
Volume 28 no. 3
Volume 28 No.4
In This Issue:
News & Notes From the DecoPhiles
Hildreth Meière: Designing for Chicago
Walls Speak: The Narrative Art of Hildreth Meière
Hildreth Meière: American Art Deco Muralist
National Identity at the World‘s Fairs
World Congress Program Announced
Deco Discoveries: Art Deco Tehran
Expo Press Release
Special Expo Lecture: Hildreth Meière‘s World‘s
Fair Commissions
Deco Calendar
3
6
18
21
22
23
25
29
31
32
ADSW
Board of Directors
President—Jim Linz
Vice President—David Cotter
Treasurer—Lou Simchowitz
Secretary—Jeanette Radford
At Large Members:
Linda Lyons
Karyn Jarboe
Ira Raskin
Trans-Lux
Trans-Lux is published four times a year
by the Art Deco Society of Washington,
P.O. 42722, Washington, D.C. 200152722. Phone (202) 298-1100.
ADSW is a non-profit organization incorporated to foster public awareness
and appreciation of the Art Deco period
through volunteer actions to preserve the
era’s decorative, industrial, architectural, and cultural arts.
Editor/Publisher—Jim Linz
Silver Spring—Richard Striner
Book Reviews Editor—Vacant
Visit us on the web at
www.adsw.org
Calendar
Schmitz Fuhrig
Webmaster—Jim Linz
Contributors:
Editor—Lynda
Jim Linz
Clive Foss
Kathleen Murphy Skolnick
Wanna Be a Member?
Join online at
www.adsw.org
Or call 202-298-1100
And request an
application
Trans-Lux is looking for a few good
writers. Please submit manuscripts
and photographs to Jim Linz, PO
Box 221011, Chantilly, VA 20153.
Please enclose a self-addressed
envelope for return of material. Submission of letters/articles implies the
right to edit and publish.
©2011 ADSW
On the Cover:
Drinking deer, north wall, Cathedral Basilica
of Saint Louis, 1958; St. Louis, Missouri.
Design by Hildreth Meière.
Photograph c2009, Hildreth Meière Dunn.
Architect: George D. Barnett;
Glass mosaic fabricator and installer: Ravenna Mosaic Company
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News and Notes from the
Deco Philes
Bethesda Theatre Update
According to Joe Friedman, Vice President, Investment Sales for McShea
and Company, the firm now handling the sale of the Bethesda Theatre
for Branch Bank & Trust, over 60 people attended the February open
house to introduce the theatre to prospective bidders. Friedman told
ADSW‘s Acting Preservation Chair Linda Lyons that he is working with
BB&T to select a purchaser from among the 10 bids submitted in response to the solicitation. Friedman declined to discuss the issue in greater detail at this point.
Fly Down to Rio...for the World Congress on Art Deco
Registration for the 11th World Congress on Art Déco, scheduled for Rio
de Janeiro, August 14 - 21, 2011 will open soon. A pre-Congress program will be held in São Paulo from August 11 - 13. The 2011 Congress
will be the first in Latin and South America.
Basic details on the program and accommodations are contained on pages 23 to 25. For further information check the website for the Instituto Art
Déco Brasil—www.artdecobrasil.com. Questions should be directed to
Márcio Alves Roiter, founder and President of the Instituto Art Déco Brasil.
He can be reached at [email protected]
If you plan to attend the World Congress, or are looking for a traveling
companion to share expenses, please send a message to
[email protected].
Spring Training Schedule
The Washington, DC Chapter of the National Railway Historical Society
(NRHS) has an active schedule of trips planned this Spring. On two trips,
passengers will travel aboard the Dover Harbor, the Chapter‘s restored
1930s Pullman car. On April 9th, the Tidewater Traveler will transport
passengers between Washington, D.C. (passengers can also board at
Alexandria) and Newport News, Virginia (Passengers can also alight at
Williamsburg). Several ADSW members enjoyed this trip last year.
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V O LU M E 2 8 NO . 3
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PAGE 4
The second Dover Harbor trip is a bit longer. The Cascade Special departs Washington, June 12th for Takoma, Washington returning June
30th.
The DC Chapter shows off its newest passenger car over the Memorial
Day weekend (May 27 to May 30). Passengers will travel aboard the
classic 1940s streamlined coach the Franklin Inn to Chicago. The ―Windy
City Limited‖ also includes an 2-hour excursion behind the legendary
Nickel Plate Road steam locomotive No. 765.
For full details and reservations visit the Washington, D.C. chapter‘s website http://www.dcnrhs.org/travel-with-us/trips.
Art Deco Events Scheduled at Glen Echo
The Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture plans several events
in April and May 2011 to celebrate the park‘s Art Deco heritage. A special exhibition Art Deco at the Park featuring photographs by Daniel
Schreiber will be on display in the Partnership Office from April 1-30,
2011.
On Sunday, April 10th, Architectural Historian Katie Schank will discuss
Art Deco at the park. The 2 PM talk will be held in the Ballroom Annex.
Shank‘s talk will be followed by a 3 PM member and donor reception in
the Partnership Office (Arcade 210). Art Deco Society members are invited to attend the reception.
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Reservations are not required for the free talk, but are required for the
reception. RSVP by April 6 for the Member & Donor Reception:
301.634.2234 or [email protected].
Finally, the partnership will hold a Gala in the Park fundraiser May 14th in
the Bumper Car Pavilion and Spanish Ballroom. The fundraiser includes a
reception, dinner, live music, dancing, and carousel rides. Sponsorships
range from $300 for an individual supporter to table sponsorships for 10
people for $2,000.
For additional information on the fundraiser contact Debbie Mueller, Director of Development, 301.634.2230, [email protected].
Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts
The Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts runs from April 7
through May 1st with a wide array of programs and lectures focused on
the 1910s and 1920s. Among the talks are ―Paris in the 1910s: Inspiring
the World‖ at the Community College of Philadelphia; ―The French Connection: Paul Philippe Cret‘s Influence on Design in Philadelphia‖ at the
Athenaeum of Philadelphia, ―A Conversation: The Paris Cultural Scene,
1910-1920‖ at the Kimmel Center; ―Mark Chagal: Over the Rooftops of
the World: 1907-1917‖ at Delaware County Community College; American Artists in Paris: 1910-1920‖ at Arcadia University; ―Paris 19101920: A Decade that Changed Modernism‖ at the Woodmere Art Museum; and ―After Paris: Demuth and His Circle in America‖ at the Woodmere Art Museum.
For a complete schedule and to order tickets go to http://www.pifa.org/
events?bucket_id=6
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Hildreth Meière:
Designing for Chicago
By Kathleen Murphy Skolnick
(Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in the Summer 2009 Chicago Art
Deco Society Magazine. Kathleen Murphy Skolnick is currently the magazine’s
editor.)
Hildreth Meière (1892-1961).
From the collection of Louise
Meière Dunn.
Hildreth Meière (1892-1961) was among the best-known and the most
prolific decorative artists of the first half of the twentieth century. During
her long career, which spanned four decades, she designed murals, mosaics, decorative tiles, sculptures, stained glass windows, and tapestries for
churches, commercial and civic buildings, schools, theaters, military ships,
and exhibitions at two World‘s Fairs. Yet despite her immense body of
work and the easy accessibility to the public buildings where most of her
designs are located, Meière‘s name is not instantly recognizable today,
even in artistic circles. Those who are familiar with Meière are most likely
to know her as the designer of the enameled metal plaques representing
Dance, Drama, and Song that embellish the south façade of Radio City
Music Hall on 50th Street in New York or the exquisite interiors of the Nebraska State Capitol in Lincoln. But these projects represent only a small
fraction of her artistic output, which included more than 100 commissions
throughout the United States, including several in Chicago.
(Continued on page 7)
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Marie Hildreth Meière was born in New York City in 1892 into a family
that nurtured her artistic talent and ambitions. After graduating from the
Convent of the Sacred Heart, Manhattanville, in 1911, she traveled with
her mother and sister Lloyd to Florence where she spent a year studying art.
In Italy Meière encountered ancient Roman art and Renaissance frescoes,
and she would later fuse elements of these early periods with motifs associated with the style now known as Art Deco. The year abroad also prompted Meière to change her chosen career path. She had previously decided
to concentrate on portraits, but after her time in Italy she vowed to become
a mural painter. Following her European trip, Meière studied at the Art
Students League of New York and, after the family moved to California in
1913, at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. While living in
San Francisco, she also exhibited and sold sketches of theatrical performers.
Sketch prepared by Hildreth
Meière for The Chicago
Tribune mural
competition, 1921-22. The
sketch represents a conference held in 1856
between Joseph Medill,
editor of The Tribune, and
Abraham Lincoln.
Private collection.
In 1916 Meière returned alone to New York to design costumes for a Metropolitan Opera production of The Canterbury Pilgrims. DuringWorld War
I, she trained as a mapmaker and served in the U.S. Navy as an architectural draftsman. After her honorable discharge in 1919, she studied at the
New York School of Applied Design for Women and the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design, where her instructors included Ernest Peixotto, the director of
the Institute‘s mural department.
Although much of Meière‘s later work would incorporate the stylized forms
and geometric patterns now identified with Art Deco, her first links with
Chicago came before the spirit of the 1925 Exposition Internationale des
Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes had captivated this country and the
world. In 1921, four years before the Paris exposition, she received an
invitation to participate in a mural painting competition sponsored by the
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publishers of the Chicago Tribune. The planned site of the murals was the
city room in the Tribune’s new printing plant, designed by Jarvis Hunt and
located east of Michigan Avenue adjacent to the land where the Tribune
Tower would later rise. First prize in the competition was $5000 and a
contract to execute the winning design. The murals were to depict two early
events of special significance to the freedom of the American press—the
1735 trial of John Peter Zenger, publisher of the New York Weekly Journal,
who had been charged with libel for printing remarks critical of the corrupt
British governor and an 1856 conference between Abraham Lincoln and
Tribune editor Joseph Medill. Because only students registered for the 1921
-22 academic year at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago were eligible to participate, Meière enrolled in the school and received a tuition
scholarship valued at that time at $180. Home in Chicago from October
1921 to May 1922 was the Hotel Virginia at 600 North Rush Street, a
district filled at that time with old buildings housing struggling artists.
Although Tribune writer Eleanor Jewett praised the historical accuracy of
Meière‘s realistic sketches for the murals, Meière did not win the competition, but she did place second. In retrospect, this outcome was actually fortuitous, first, because the winning mural designs were never actually executed, and second, because Meière was now available to accept an important
commission that would have a significant impact on her future as a decorative artist.
Meière had met architect Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue through her teacher
Peixotto prior to the Tribune competition, and she mentions him in letters
written to her mother from Chicago. Her sketches of vaudeville dancers
impressed Goodhue, and upon her return to New York, he commissioned
Meière to design the wall behind the high altar, or reredos, for St. Mark‘s
Episcopal Church in Mt. Kisco, New York. Meière would go on to collaborate with Goodhue, and with his office after his death in 1924, on many
other projects, including the decorative ceiling tiles of the Great Hall of the
National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C and the interiors of the
Nebraska State Capitol.
Meière‘s second involvement with Chicago was also a collaboration with
Goodhue, the decorative tiles for the vaulted ceiling of University Chapel,
later Rockefeller Chapel, on the campus of the University of Chicago.
Goodhue was selected to design the chapel in 1918, but its completion was
delayed until 1928. Meière decorated the ceiling‘s diagonal ribs with geometric patterns and designed colorful Byzantine-inspired medallions based
on St. Francis‘ ―Canticle of the Creatures,‖ also known as ―Canticle of the
Sun,‖ for the ceiling above the apse and the wide arches that transverse
the nave.
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Tile medallions and patterned ribs designed
by Hildreth Meière for the vaulted ceiling of
Rockefeller Chapel, University of Chicago.
Photo by Hildreth Meière Dunn.
By the time of Meière‘s next project in Chicago she was one of the foremost decorative artists in the United States and was closely identified with
the Art Deco movement. Her completed commissions included the plaques at
Radio City Music Hall, a metal sculpture for the RKO Building at Rockefeller
Center, mosaics for St. Bartholomew‘s Episcopal Church and Temple EmanuEl in New York, and many others. The event that re-connected her with Chicago was the 1933 Century of Progress Fair.
The National Council of Women
selected New York-based interior
designer Virginia Hamill to design
and install the exhibit and Hildreth
Meière to paint the mural that was
to be its focal point.
One of Meière‘s projects for the fair was a mural commissioned by the
National Council of Women. In contrast to the 1893 World‘s Columbian
Exposition, the 1933 event did not include a separate Woman‘s Building.
The reason was explained in a 1932 press release, which stated:
―Woman‘s position in the economic and social world has become too important to be isolated in a Women‘s Building.‖ However, the fair did include an exhibit dedicated to the achievements of women, which was coordinated by the New York-based National Council of Women.
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The Exhibition Committee assigned the exhibit to the Hall of Social Science.
The Hall, originally intended as the Radio Building, occupied the north end
of the Electrical Group, a three-building complex designed by architect
Raymond Hood and located on Northerly Island, the man-made island facing the lagoon. The National Council of Women selected New York-based
interior designer Virginia Hamill to design and install the exhibit and Hildreth Meière to paint the mural that was to be its focal point.
Studies for The Onward
March of American
Women.
Gouache on Crescent
board.
LEFT: Panels representing the decades
1833-1902.
BELOW: Panels representing the decades
1903-1933.
Photos by Hildreth
Meière Dunn.
Meière's mural, The Onward March of American Women, traced
the progress made by women in this country between 1833 and
1933.
Meière‘s mural, The Onward March of American Women, traced the progress
made by women in this country between 1833 and 1933. A souvenir leaflet
described women‘s advances during this time as ―one of the most colorful
phases of A Century of Progress‖ and stated that women‘s increased involvement in commercial and civic life over the past century was ―almost as
dramatic as the evolution of the machine itself.‖ According to the brochure,
without an exhibition of organized womanhood, the ―story of the machine
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age would be inadequately told.‖
Meière divided the mural, which measured sixty feet long and eight feet
high, into ten sections, each representing a decade, and chronicled important struggles and achievements of women during each of these decades. As time progressed, the women in the mural moved from the ―narrow
confines of home and tradition in 1833 to the broad opportunities and
freedom of 1933.‖ They attended college, crusaded for temperance, comforted the slaves, aided the wounded in the Civil War, campaigned for
suffrage, organized women‘s clubs, entered the business and professional
world, and sought peace. To symbolize the ―narrow confines‖ of the women
of 1833, Meière placed her figures against a background of closely
spaced iron bars. As women‘s roles expanded, the bars widened and
eventually disappeared. The mural ended with Clio, the Muse of History,
recording a century‘s achievements for women on a stone tablet, which
read:
Women March Through
Education, Suffrage
Economic Freedom
Towards Greater
Social Justice
As women‘s involvement in society changed, so did the style of the mural.
Meière rendered the nineteenth century women in a precise linear manner,
but as women advanced into the twentieth century, the figures became
more fluid and streamlined. In contrast to the restrained poses and movements of the women in the earlier panels, the suffragists of the final portion
of the mural stride boldly forward as they campaign for the vote.
In 1943, the National Council of Women donated the mural to Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and two twenty-foot sections were
installed in the archives room of the college library. Because of space limitations, the final twenty-foot panel was excised at the suggestion of
Meière, who reportedly had never liked that portion of the mural, and
placed in storage at Smith. The first two panels originally installed in the
library were subsequently damaged in a flood, and the last segment representing the decades from 1903-1933 is all that remains today. That portion of the mural is now in the collection of the Smith College Museum of Art
and will be included in an upcoming exhibition of Meière‘s work (see sidebar).
The mural for the exhibit of the National Council of Women was not
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Meière‘s only contribution to the Century of Progress Fair. She also designed the terra cotta tile floor of a pool commissioned by the American
Telephone and Telegraph Company for the Communications Court, which
was located on the east side of the Communications Hall looking toward
Lake Michigan. The Communications Hall occupied the central portion of the
Electrical Group and housed the exhibits of AT&T as well as the Western
Union Telegraph Company and the International Telephone and Telegraph
Company.
Exhibit of the National Council of Women in the Hall of Social Science at the
1933 Century of Progress Fair. The focal point of the exhibit was The Onward March of American Women, the mural designed by Hildreth Meière.
Photo by Kaufmann-Fabry, private collection.
Designer Raymond Hood used the gardens of the Villa d‘Este outside Rome
as a model for the Court, which was intended to provide a quiet respite
from the bustle of the fairgrounds. Two Roman roads meet at the center of
those gardens. A fountain marks their intersection, and a giant cypress tree
stands at each corner. For Hood, the gardens symbolized ancient Rome as
the crossroads of the world and the center of communication, and this is the
theme that he adopted for the Communications Court. Hood‘s Court became a contemporary interpretation of the Villa d‘Este gardens. He replaced the cypress trees with four textured concrete pylons, 110 feet high
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and painted green. These ―great green towers,‖ as they were known, enclosed a shallow concrete reflecting pool designed by Hildreth Meière.
Meière‘s design for the pool symbolized the speed and worldwide range
of electrical communication, and her imagery blended classical influences
with the flowing lines and colorful palette of the Art Deco style. Four stylized male and female figures formed from blue and green tiles encircled a
blue and white tile bas relief map of the world. As these spirits of communication raced around the world, they wove a net of radio waves and
wires, uniting all parts of the earth through communication. Ringing the pool
was a border listing the names of the three telecommunication companies
represented in the Communications Hall. Four low curvilinear concrete
benches surrounding the pool offered fairgoers a pleasant and restful spot
to relax and enjoy the lake breezes. As Dr. Sergius P. Grace, the Bell Telephone Laboratories Vice President responsible for the exhibit, wrote in the
World’s Fair Weekly, ―Many a foot-weary Ulysses on his Odyssey through
the miles of World‘s Fair Buildings has sunk with a sigh of contentment into
a seat beside the quiet pool and imagined that at last he had come to the
cool cave home of Æolus, the mythological Greek God of the Winds.‖
Communications Court with
the terra cotta tile
pool designed by Hildreth
Meière.
Century of Progress
(COP_01_0027_1_699).
Special Collections,
University of Illinois
at Chicago Library.
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Hildreth Meière’s design for the terra cotta tile pool of the Communications
Court featured stylized male and female figures representing the spirits of communication encircling a map of the world. Private collection.
For many the Century of Progress Fair offered a diversion from the hardships of the Great Depression, but that diversion was only temporary. As
the depression deepened, the U.S. government initiated programs directed
at providing relief for unemployed Americans, including artists. The Federal
Art Project of the Works Progress Administration employed artists to design
murals and sculptures for state and municipal institutions, whereas the Section on Painting and Sculpture, later the Section of Fine Arts, of the U.S.
Treasury Department awarded commissions through competitions for the
decoration of federal buildings. In 1935 Hildreth Meière was among the
artists invited to submit a mural design for a work related to ―some phase
of the administration of justice in relation to contemporary American life‖
for the Department of Justice Building in Washington, D.C. Meière bitterly
disliked the competitive system and did not hesitate to voice her opinion. As
she stated in a 1935 letter to the Section‘s Procurement Division, ―I recognize that the competition method is excellent for the discovery of new talent, but for artists whose work is already known, I feel that they [sic] are
impositions.‖ Because of her convictions, Meière had refused to enter competitions for over 13 years and agreed to participate in the Department of
Justice Building competition ―only because of the conditions of the times,‖
namely, the depressed economy.
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Meière chose a familiar subject for her mural, the emancipation of women.
As she explained, her attraction to this subject was ―not because I am a
strong suffragist, but because I studied the question in my mural for the
National Council of Women, at the 1933 Chicago Fair, and am somewhat
aware of its pictorial possibilities.‖ Meière did not win the competition, nor
did any of the other invited participants. The Justice Department rejected
all of the submitted entries.
However, in August of 1936, based on the design she submitted in the Justice Department competition, the Section on Painting and Sculpture invited
Meière to submit a design for a metal sculpture, approximately six feet
wide and four feet high, for the lobby of the Logan Square Post Office at
2335 North California Avenue in Chicago. The outcome was one of the
most clever, humorous, and whimsical of Meière‘s works, The Post. Her
bronze silhouette depicts the Roman messenger god Mercury, flanked by
two figures representing the winds, guiding a letter on its safe and speedy
journey to the intended recipient. Today the sculpture remains in its original
location on the south wall of the post office lobby over the door to the vestibule.
Communications was a recurrent theme in Hildreth Meière‘s work. In addition to The Post and the pool for the Communications Court at the Century
of Progress Fair she designed the metal sculpture Radio and Television Encompassing the Earth for the RKO Building (that building has been demolished but a smaller interpretation of the sculpture based on a watercolor
sketch by Meière has been installed in the west concourse at Rockefeller
Center), a mosaic ceiling depicting The Continents Linked by Telephone and
Wireless and a tile wall map entitled Telephone Wires and Radio Unite to
Make Neighbors of Nations for the lobby of the Walker-Lispenard Telephone Company at 32 Avenue of the Americas in New York, murals for the
Bell System New York Telephone Building at the 1939 New York World‘s
Fair, and commissions for the Illinois Bell Telephone Company office at 212
West Washington Street in Chicago. Information about these Chicago commissions is scant. The building that housed the telephone company office still
stands and is now a condominium, but the fate of Meière‘s projects is unknown.
The best documented of the Illinois Bell commissions was a bronze sculpture,
The Spirit of Communication, installed in 1940 on the west wall of the telephone company‘s remodeled Public Business Office. The June 1940 issue of
Bell Telephone News, an in-house publication, described the sculpture as a
12-foot low relief figure modeled after a statue by Evelyn Beatrice Longman that once topped the tower of the AT&T Headquarters Building at 195
Broadway in New York. The article included a photograph showing a
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winged male figure similar to Longman‘s standing on a globe with his
raised left arm clutching a sheaf of lightning bolts and cables coiled
around his right arm and body. Danish-born metalworker Louis Kristian
Hansen of the Rambusch Decorating Company executed the figure in repoussé. A model of a head currently in the Rambusch archives is believed
to be a study for this commission.
Model believed to be a study for The
Spirit of Communication, the bronze
sculpture designed by Hildreth Meière
for the Illinois Bell Public Business
Office in Chicago, 1940.
Rambusch & Company Archives.
Founded in 1898.
Much less is known about a second commission, an inlaid wood or intarsia
panel intended for the office of the President of Illinois Bell. In a July 1938
letter requesting cost and time estimates from Schmeig & Kotzian, the New
York furniture maker that had received the commission for the paneling and
furniture for the office, Meière states that the panel is to measure approximately seven by ten feet and is to be ―recessed over a piece of furniture.‖
Meière‘s daughter Louise Meière Dunn believes that a photograph in her
collection showing an abstract geometric design installed above a sofa
may be the Illinois Bell President‘s office and the intarsia panel referred to
by Meière.
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Intarsia panel possibly designed
by Hildreth Meière for the office of
the President of Illinois Bell,
c. 1940.
Private collection.
Hildreth Meière‘s last known project for Chicago was also her smallest, a
diminutive painting for her friend Mrs. James Ward Thorne for one of the
Thorne miniature rooms. The Century of Progress Fair featured an exhibit
of the first thirty rooms assembled by Thorne. In the late 1930s she added
a set of period rooms illustrating the history of European design. These
rooms included the interior of a late thirteenth century English Gothic church
that Thorne called Our Lady Queen of Angels, now in the collection of the
Art Institute of Chicago. The reredos with its image of virgin and child is the
work of Meière.
Awareness of Meière is increasing today, due largely to the efforts of her
daughter Louise Meière Dunn and her granddaughter Hildreth ―Hilly‖
Meière Dunn. Biographical information about Meière and a partial list of
her many commissions are available on the website of the International
Hildreth Meière Association (www.hildrethmeiere.com), the organization
established by Meière‘s family to promote and perpetuate her legacy. In
September 2009, the first major exhibition dedicated to Meière opened at
the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at St. Bonaventure University near
Olean, New York and is now at the National Building Museum. As information about Meière and her work becomes more widely disseminated,
previously unknown commissions and works presumed lost will hopefully
surface.
Many thanks to Catherine Brawer and Robert Sideman for sharing their research findings, Catha Grace Rambusch for supplying information from the
Rambusch archives, Hildreth “Hilly” Meière Dunn for allowing the use of her
recent photographs of her grandmother’s work, and especially to Louise
Meière Dunn for providing many of the images appearing in this article and
much valuable information about her mother and her work.
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Walls Speak: The Narrative Art of Hildreth Meière
Opens at the National Building Museum
Walls Speak: The Narrative Art of Hildreth Meière opened March 19th at
the National Building Museum. The first major exhibition to feature the
works of the prominent Art Deco muralist and mosaicist, Walls Speak runs
through November 27th. The exhibition is a fitting complement to NBM‘s
Designing Tomorrow exhibition for Meiére‘s commissions included work for
the Chicago, New York, and San Francisco world‘s fairs.
In a career spanning over 50 years, Meière received over 100 commissions
from leading architects throughout the United States. She created works for
churches, government buildings, commercial buildings, world‘s fairs, restaurants and cocktail lounges, and even ocean liners.
Meière‘s major works include the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C., Radio City Music Hall in New York, the Nebraska State Capitol, St. Bartholmew‘s Church in New York, and the Cathedral Basilica of St.
Louis. In addition to the ceiling decorations for the interior dome at the National Academy of Sciences, Meière‘s Washington commissions include a
mosaic for the Resurrection Chapel at the National Cathedral (1951) and
an exterior frieze for the Henry J. Daly Municipal Building on Indiana Avenue NW.
Drama, exterior sculpture
Radio City Music Hall
1932
New York, New York
Design by Hildreth
Meière.
Photograph © 2009,
Hildreth Meière Dunn
Architect: Edward Durrell
Stone
Metalsmith: Oscar B. Bach
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(Continued from page 18)
―Hildreth Meière‘s work is of particular interest to the National Building
Museum because it is an integral part of the structures where it is installed‖
notes National Building Museum president and executive director Chase W.
Rand. During her lifetime, Meière was considered the most famous, distinguished, and prolific Art Deco muralist in the country.
‖The challenge in presenting the work of Hildreth Meière has been in making her mosaics, murals, ceramic tile decoration, stained glass, and exterior
metal and enamel sculptures come alive for the visitor. We do this through
preparatory sketches, painted cartoons, models, large mosaic samples, and
painted alterpieces, said Catherine C. Brawer, the curator of Walls Speak.
The exhibition contains some 100 works, nearly half of which are on loan
from private collections. Although Meière‘s specialty was the ancient art of
mosaic, she also created designs for painted wall murals, marble floors,
glazed terracotta tiles, metal relief sculpture, stained glass, leather doors,
and wool tapestry.
Air, Great Hall of the National Academy of Sciences, 1924; Washington, D.C.
Design by Hildreth Meière. Photograph ©2009, Hildreth Meière Deunn.
Architect: Bertram G. Goodhue
Akoutolith tile: R. Guastavino Company
(Continued on page 20)
Gesso and Gilding: Mack, Jenny, and Tyler
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Genius of the Air, rotunda floor, Nebraska State Capitol,
1927; Lincoln, Nebraska
Design by Hildreth Meière. Photograph ©2009, Hildreth Meière
Dunn.
Architect: Bertram G. Goodhue.
Marble Tile mosaics: De Paoli Co.
Walls Speak was organized by the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts at
St. Bonaventure University. Catherine Coleman Brawer served as the exhibition‘s curator.
The National Building Museum is located at 401 F St NW, Washington, DC.
It is open Monday through Saturday from 10 AM to 5 PM and Sunday
from 11 AM to 5 PM. Admission is free but donations are encouraged.
The National Building Museum will be closed June 6, 2011 for a private
function.
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Hildreth Meière:
American Art Deco Muralist
When: Tuesday, April 5, 2011
6:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Where: National Building Museum
401 F Street NW
Washington, DC
Judiciary Square Metro (F Street Exit)
Cost: NBM and ADSW members, $12
Nonmembers, $20
Author and curator Catherine Coleman Brawer will discuss the development
of this prolific muralist, whose style is quintessential Art Deco. Come early
and view the exhibition ―Walls Speak: The Narrative Art of Hildreth Meière
before the presentation.
https://secure2.convio.net/nbm/site/Ticketing?view=Tickets&id=110543
Hildreth Meière at the Pűhl &
Wagner Factory, 1928; Berlin,
Germany.
*Photograph courtesy of the Berlinische Galerie, Landesmuseum fűr
Moderne Kunst, Fotografie und
Architektur; Architecture Collection,
Berlin, Germany
Meière‘s glass mosaic designs for St.
Bartholomew‘s Church, Temple
Emanu-El, and One Wall Street (all
in New York City), as well as for the
Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis
were all executed by Pűhl & Wagner.
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National Identity at the
World’s Fairs
When: April 21, 2011
6:30 PM to 8:00 PM
Where: National Building Museum
401 F Street NW
Metro: Judiciary Square (F Street exit)
Cost: NBM and ADSW members, $12
Nonmembers, $20
Registration: Prepaid registration required. Walk-in registration based on availability.
Renée Ater, associate professor, Department of Art History
and Archaeology, University of Maryland, examines the intersection of architecture, the fine arts, culture, and race at the
1930s world‘s fairs. Come early to see the Designing Tomorrow: America’s World’s Fairs of the 1930s exhibition.
https://secure2.convio.net/nbm/site/Ticketing?
view=Tickets&id=110565&JServSessionIdr004=s3zcbr8yh1.
app207b
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World Congress Program
Announced
The Instituto Art Déco Brazil recently released the full
program for the 11th World Congress on Art Deco,
to be held in Rio de Janiero between August 14 and
21, 2011. Details of the pre-Congress program in
São Paulo, August 11th to 13th were released at the
same time.
Registration fees and suggested accommodations
were also announced. On-line registration will commence in about 30 days but pre-registrations is currently available.
Pre-Congress Program
The pre-Congress program begins Thursday, August 11th with a cocktail
dinner at the São Paulo Municipal Library. Two days of tours commence
Friday morning with visits to downtown landmarks and Pacaembu Stadium.
Following lunch at the Figueira Rubayat Restaurant, the tour continues with
visits to Old Downtown, the Sampaio Moreira Building, the Altino Arantes
Building, and the São Paulo Bank. The evening features dinner at the Tomie
Ohtake Institute.
The Art Deco Tour continues Saturday morning with visits to the Biological
Institute, the Monument to the Flags, antique stores, and houses in the Jardins
neighborhood. Following lunch at the Jockey Club de São Paulo, the official
program concludes with a visit to the State Pinakothek to view the Victor
Brecheret collection. The evening is free.
Attendees will depart their hotels for the flight to Rio Sunday morning.
World Congress Program
The program in Rio de Janiero provides ample time for attendees to check
into their hotels and make their way to the headquarters hotel to greet old
friends, make new ones, and check-in with Instituto de Art Déco Brazil for
the week‘s events.
The World Congress begins with a visit to the Jardim Botânico (Botanical
Garden) and the exhibition ―Welcome to Rio: Original Posters from 1920 to
1960 from Airlines and Navigation Companies.‖ Dinner at the La Fiorentina
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Restaurant on Copacabana Beach is included.
Monday‘s program features a visit to the world‘s largest Art Deco monument, Christ Redeemer, considered one of the new 7 Wonders of the
World. A guided tour of the city, including Ipanema, Leblon, and Lagoa
follows lunch at Bar Lagoa. The first full day of the Congress concludes with
cocktails at the Palácio da Cidade (City Palace), Rio De Janiero City Hall.
Most of the day Tuesday is devoted to lectures at the headquarters hotel.
A late afternoon guided tour visits additional parts of the city including
Flamengo, Glória, and Catete. Following a visit to the exhibit ―Cozzo-A
Carioca Art Deco Sculptor‖ at the Art Collection Gallery in Flamengo, attendees will be treated to dinner and a concert with Steve Ross at the Flamengo home of Julieta de Serpa.
Wednesday and Thursday follow the same general pattern with lectures
continuing until 4:30 PM followed by tours. Wednesday‘s guided tour will
visit the Urca neighborhood including the Basbaum House, the Army Physical Education School, and the St. John Fortress. Wednesday‘s dinner will be
at the Real Astória Restaurant in Botafogo. Thursday‘s tour will visit the
Copacabana neighborhood including the Lido region and other addresses
followed by a visit to the exhibition ―Agache-An Art Deco Urban Planner
for Rio‖ at the Architecture and Urbanism Center in Botafogo. Dinner will
follow at Porcão Restaurant in Aterro do Flamengo.
Friday morning‘s program begins with a visit to the Moreira Salles Institute
in Gávea, with movie screenings of Christo Redemptor and Alô Alô
Carnaval. Following lunch at Zozô Restaurant in Urca, attendees will visit
Sugar Loaf in Urca. Dinner will be at Mariu‘s Crustaceans Restaurant in
Leme.
Following the International Coalition of Art Deco Societies meeting Saturday morning, a guided tour of downtown Rio will be provided, including
the Municipal Theater, the National Museum of Fine Arts, Cavé House,
Chamber of Commerce, Ministry of Labor and Internal Revenue, Brazil
Central Station, Duque de Caxias Palace, and Carioca Street.
A closing party (optional) will be held Saturday night at the Copacabana
Palaca Hotel with dinner and a concert with Marcox Sacramento.
An optional trip to Quitandinha Hotel, featuring designs by Dorothy
Draper, is also offered.
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Program Fees
Pre-Congress — $500.00
Congress — $1,900
Options— Ball at Copacabana Palace Hotel — $150.00
Sunday in Petropolis — $100.00
Programs fees cover most lunches and dinners.
Online registration will open shortly at http://www.artdecobrasil.com/
home.php?url=congresso&idioma=en. Payments can be made through VISA, American Express, or MasterCard.
If you have questions, or want to preregister, contact Marcio Roiter at [email protected].
Accomodations & Travel Arrangements
For information on transportation and lodging, please contact RioPlus, the
Congress‘ official agency: www.rioplustour.com email [email protected].
Host hotel is the Windsor Atlantica. Other hotels within walking distance
include the Windsor Plaza-Copacabana, and Windsor Excelsior. All Windsor hotels include breakfast. Special rates are also available at the Copacabana Palace, a beach front hotel built in the 1920s.
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Deco Discoveries:
Art Deco Tehran
By Clive Foss
If you go to Iran expecting to find fierce bearded mullahs, thugs toting Kalashnikovs and angry crowds shouting ‗death to America‘ you‘ll be disappointed. In fact, the people are incredibly friendly and hospitable, the food
is good, hotels comfortable and transport works. You‘ll hardly see soldiers
or policemen on the streets – at least not the kind who wear uniforms. You
will see fabulous ancient ruins, elegant mosques with intricate tile work, colorful bazaars and some really exotic cities. You probably won‘t be looking
for it, but you can also find some impressive Deco of the 1930s, at least in
Tehran.
For centuries, Iran lived an isolated and traditional life in the buildings typical of the Islamic world. Growing European influence in the nineteenth century introduced new forms of architecture and politics, including a constitutional revolution in 1906 that prefaced two decades of turmoil. Finally in
1925 a tough general took over and was crowned as king with the name
Reza Shah. He was a fervid modernizer, determined that Iran should catch
up with the West in very way. That meant the uprooting of traditional society by a powerful centralized government that issued constant new laws and
reforms.
Since a modern country needed a modern setting, Reza ordered broad new
boulevards and squares in Iran‘s cities and brought in foreign architects
(and sent Iranians to study abroad) to implant a suitable new image. As a
result, the latest styles, especially the Moderne and its variations spread
through Tehran, with monumental public buildings setting the tone. Some like
the Ministry of Justice or the National Bank at the Bazaar, both by Iranian
architects who had studied in Europe, feature the stripped-down classicism
typical of 1930‘s.
Ministry of Justice
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National Bank at the Bazaar
Others, like the School for Orphans with its casement windows and portholes, were more innovative. Its architect, Vartan Avanessian, had worked
with the modernist Henri Sauvage in Paris. The elegant variation called Regency Moderne also appears.
School for Orphans
Regency Moderne
Most of the University of Tehran featured the Moderne style, but unfortunately it‘s strictly off limits to outsiders. In addition, many private commercial
buildings in Tehran‘s old downtown area, display all the characteristics of
the Streamline Moderne.
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Reza Shah was a bogus monarch, really a military dictator without any
legitimacy. He therefore turned to Iran‘s ancient past – when it ruled the
whole Near East as none have since – to bolster the image of the regime
and implicitly to identify it with a glorious tradition. He patronized excavation of the ancient capital Persepolis as well as the study of Persian art,
and favored a style for public buildings that incorporated elements of ancient architecture and decoration. The ancient Achaemenids are prominent
in the facade of the ministry of Foreign Affairs, with its reliefs of Darius‘
troops, the god Ahura Mazda and the bull-head capitals but even here Art
Deco creeps in: notice the tall pilasters that typically emphasize the vertical
and the stepped openings over the windows. It wouldn‘t be out of place in
Los Angeles.
So, if you find yourself in this not very dangerous country, look round and
you‘ll see Deco. You can avoid Tehran‘s horrific traffic and frightening pedestrian crossings (the cars never stop) by taking the subway directly to the
buildings illustrated. Get off at Imam Khomeini Square.
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EXPO Press Release
For Release on Delivery
D.C. Modernism Show Adopts World’s Fair Theme
The Art Deco Society of Washington‘s 28th annual Exposition of 20th Century Decorative Arts (ADSW Expo) will be the central component of a 5day ―World‘s Fair Weekend‖ celebrating America‘s world‘s fairs of the
1930s. The Expo, which moves to a new date—June 4-5, 2011—and new
location—the Ernst Community Cultural Center in Annandale, Virginia, is
the nation‘s longest running Modernism Show and the only show run by
volunteers from a non-profit organization. The 2011 Expo will include
over 40 dealers representing all major 20 th Century design movements,
including Art Nouveau, Arts & Crafts, Art Deco, Art Moderne, Mid Century
Modern, Scandinavian Modern, and Atomic. Dealers have been encouraged to bring special world‘s fair ephemera to this year‘s show.
ADSW partnered with the National Building Museum (NBM) to develop
―World‘s Fair Weekend,‖ June 3-7, 2011. In addition to the Expo, attendees can
 Tour the landmark ―Designing Tomorrow: America‘s World‘s Fairs of
the 1930s‖ exhibition at the National Building Museum. Docentguided tours are available June 3, 4, 5, and 7th.
 Tour the NBM exhibition Walls Speak: The Narrative Art of Hildreth
Meiére. Meiére was a preeminent Art Deco muralist, mosaicist, painter, and decorative artist.
 Take an all-day bus tour to Art Deco Richmond, Virginia including stops
at the Belgian Pavilion from the 1939 New York World‘s Fair relocated to the campus of Virginia Union University, the Art Nouveau
and Art Deco collections at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and
highlights of Richmond‘s Art Deco architecture.
 Party at ADSW‘s Saturday evening ―After Hours Party.‖ The party, to
benefit the National Building Museum, will include food, wine, and
entertainment. Entertainment will include live music, a swing dance
demonstration, dancing, and music videos from the 1930s. The $35
($30 with advance purchase) admission to the ―After Hours Party‖
includes admission to the Expo and attendees are encouraged to
shop first and then party. Vintage attire is encouraged, but not required. Prizes will be awarded to the attendees with the best outfits.
The price includes Expo admission for both days.
 Lectures. Hear speakers discuss ―Hildreth Meiére‘s World‘s Fair Commissions‖ and ―Modernism for the Masses.‖
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As the only Modernism show in the mid-Atlantic region, the Exposition of
20th Century Decorative Arts traditionally draws attendees from throughout
the region. Among regulars at the show are collectors from Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Richmond, and Lynchburg. ADSW President Jim Linz expects the partnership with the NBM will greatly expand the geographic draw of both the
Expo and the NBM exhibitions. Modernism and world‘s fair aficionados from
Chicago, New York, and Cincinnati have already expressed plans to attend
the world‘s fair weekend.
For information and a full schedule of planned events, visit the Art Deco
Society‘s website www.adsw.org or leave a phone message at 202-2981100.
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Special Expo Lecture:
Hildreth Meière and the World’s
Fairs of the 1930s
Kathleen Murphy Skolnick notes that: ―Hildreth Meière loved World‘s Fairs.
As she wrote in 1940: ‗It has been said that the world is too much with us,
and some misanthropes may feel that the same is true of world‘s fairs. But
not I—I love them! Fantastic, ephemeral, with all the glamour and beauty
of fireworks which burst for a brilliant moment and then as quickly fade,
they dramatize the things we know of life, but never quite believe.‘ During
the 1930s, Meière‘s work appeared at three world‘s fairs.‖
Skolnick will discuss Meière‘s world‘s fair commissions at a special lecture
Saturday (5 PM) at the Expo. Skolnick is Editor of the Chicago Art Deco
Society Magazine. She is currently researching Meière‘s early life, and her
commercial, nautical, civic, and world‘s fair commissions for a monograph
she is working on with Catherine Brawer, the curator of the Walls Speak
exhibition at the National Building Museum.
The lecture is free with admission to the Expo or After Hours Party.
Expo Volunteers Needed
Volunteers are needed for a variety of duties during setup,
show hours, and the after hours party. There will be more demand for volunteers this year because (1) the return to the
Ernst Center will make load in more complex than last year, (2)
traffic flow and control will be more difficult because the
building may house multiple events on two floors at the same
time, and (3) setting up and handling food service for the after
hours party will require extra help.
We are also seeking volunteers with vintage clothing to help
out at servers.
If you can help out, contact Colleen Levow at [email protected] or call 703-624-2416.
Coming Attractions
April 5, 2011—Lecture—Hildreth Meiére: American Art Deco Muralist; cosponsored by ADSW (See p. 21.)
April 21, 2011—Lecture— National Identity at the World‘s Fairs; cosponsored by ADSW (See p. 22.)
June 4-5, 2011—Exposition of 20th Century Decorative Arts (See p. 29)
June 4, 2011 —After Hours Party (See p. 29.)
June 4, 2011—Lecture—Hildreth Meiére‘s World‘s Fair Commissions (See
p. 31.)
June 5, 2011—Art Deco Richmond bus tour (See p. 29.
June 7, 2011—Lecture—Modernism for the Masses; co-sponsored by
ADSW
June 26, 2011—House tour and musical program; details coming soon
Special Offer for ADSW Members
The American Century Theatre’s production of Stage Door
opens April 8, 2011 and closes May 7th. Written by George S.
Kaufman and Edna Ferber, Stage Door chronicles the hopes,
ambitions, romances, and misfortunes of aspiring New York
stage actresses living in the Footlights boarding house in
1930’s New York. Marie Sproul directs a cast of 23.
The Theatre offers ADSW members $10 off the price of any
ticket for a regularly priced performance. The only exceptions
are opening weekend (April 8-10) when all seats are $16 and
“pay what you can” performances on April 6, 7, and 13.
The American Century Theatre is located in Arlington at 2700
South Lang Street. For tickets and directions visit
www.americancentury.org.