The latest installment of a few things that caught my eye this week in our MCM Facebook Group! Enjoy and tell me what you think in the comment section below! Links to the original post on Facebook have been included in the caption of each photo if you would like to add a comment there.
Tyler Merkel kindly shared this photo of himself taken with legendary architect Donald Wexler in 2013. Wexler passed away on the 26th of June and how wonderful it is that Tyler got to meet the man in person. I have heard from some residents of Palm Springs in the past couple of days and they all seem to share the same sentiment; while Donald Wexler will be missed his presence will always be felt. Thank you for sharing this wonderful photo Tyler.
Shelle McKenzie posted a photo of this lovely Santora wall sculpture. The wonderful thing about this piece is that her father purchased it directly from the artist at the Greenwich Village Art Fair in 1972 and hung it in pride of place in his home, and it now hangs in Shelle’s home. I love it when wonderful pieces get passed down through the family. Age may make a piece valuable, but history makes a piece important. Thanks for sharing Shelle!
Some lovely Desert Modernism. I could wax academic here about how the great Post War Western push created a new American modernism that led to an entirely unique architectural design vocabulary. I suppose I could bring up the challenges the architects faced designing for a sometimes harsh environment previously though unsettle-able. On a more corporeal level I could talk about the great sense of space and well-arranged furniture that is inviting both inside and out. I could do all that but what I really want to say how jealous I am that group member Pamela Trevett gets to live here! Seriously, though, wonderful home Pamela!
Michael Dean DeLigio posted this great photo of a home in Palm Springs. What do you do when you live in an arid climate and water restrictions keep you from having a lot of greenery and lawn. Well, the wise move is to decorate with local plant life that has acclimated to the area – which has been done here. Another thing you could do is to use decorative stone bedding – which has also been done here. And yet another thing you could do is to put large over-sized ‘paper’ airplane sculptures in the front yard! With the backdrop of the classic MCM home these playful sculptures are a reminder never to take things too seriously, and while many might consider this a bit gauche to my mind it might be better than some tasteful, forgettable shrubbery. Marvelous!
To me this is just magic. Rob Broadbent posted this photo of his friend’s find in the garage of his grandparent’s home in Viseu, Portugal. Some people open an old barn and find a classic Ferrari, and others open an old trunk in the attic to discover some long forgotten treasure, and others still pull out fully intact living room sets of early 1950’s European Modernism. And while it sits on the roadside covered in dust and the residue of decades in storage it is as thrilling to me and any rare piece of design (maybe more so) I can see in a gallery or dealer Love it!
Tony Anderson’s wonderful find of one of ‘Modular’ sofas designed by John Pile of George Nelson and Associates in 1955 is a marvelous thing. Yes, it’s a bit worn and certainly the seats are shot (and I’m not too happy about the strap cutting into the back) but what I love most about this photo is what the sofa is sitting on. A rough, possibly home-made trailer that’s too small to fit this sofa. Or rather it would be for the normal person, but not for a collector. How many of us have done the impossible of fitting 50 square feet of awesome into 20 square feet of back seat space? Great sofa and I hope you keep it in the original orange Tony!
On June 18th, Sharon Platner Lincoln posted this lovely photo of her father Warren Platner in honor of what would have been his 96th Birthday. So often my posts are of classic design pieces and the history associated with them. I’ve posted on many occasions the classic Platner chair, which has become a Modernist icon. I sometimes post to the group with an academic detachment of facts and dates. This photo reminds me of what a privilege it is that the MCM Facebook group can be so closely connected to design history. That Sharon would share this sweet family moment with us is a high compliment indeed. Thank you Sharon.
A wonderful room posted by John Magon. I’ve often said that a collection – and a home – should reflect the person who lives in it. What’s nice about this space is the variety of items on display. Anyone looking at this would immediately say this is the home of someone who likes MCM. But within that observation there are few pieces, like the upcycled Ikea shelving, the white 1970’s stereo, even the fun kitsch panther lamp, which many could argue are not ‘pure’ MCM. Most of us design our homes not to be ‘idealistically pure’ but to be comfortable, livable and hopefully inviting. The best way to achieve this is to decorate it with the things you love and that joy will be reflected. I see a lot of joy in this room.
Treasure in hand the bandit absconds with his hard-earned bounty. Dakota posted this photo of himself with a bargain $2 piece of Viking (?) glass. I debated posting this in the Digest but after some thought I asked myself, when was the last time I was excited about something I paid two dollars for? Collecting – whether for ourselves or even as stock – is an odd little passion. If one is a dealer or picker there are certainly easier ways to make a living. As collectors the cognitive dissonance between wanting a vase and having no room for one more vase is ever present. But, like with Dakota here, we still don’t have a blue one! Great photo.
Paul Schuster visited Montreal recently and while driving down Autoroute 132 his daughter asked, “Has anybody noticed the giant see-through golf ball over there?” What his daughter was referring to was the former United States Pavilion of the 1967 World’s Fair (Expo 67) designed by Buckminster Fuller. Paul was able to provide her with some details about the dome which she texted, along with a photo, to her friends. Information he got from the MCM group. And there you have the reason I keep going with the Facebook group. We are none of us experts but we all share a love for Modernism. It makes me tremendously happy that some of the info I provide, either here or in the MCM Facebook group, helps add a bit of depth to a chair, a lamp, or even an odd ‘see-through golf ball’. Oh yeah, I hope you enjoyed your visit to Montreal Paul!
Click here to see the ‘MCM Facebook This Week’ archive!
