Rookwood Vase in Modern Home (building)

I am so happy with my new home! My husband and I recently moved from Connecticut to North Carolina where we have just finished our dream home. We share a love of art and modern architecture and design that we expressed through our new, post children in the house, home. In Connecticut, we were lucky enough to have examples of work from great modern architects like Eero Saarinen, Philip Johnson, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Richard Meier near by. When we came to a point where we were thinking seriously about what we wanted to do and how we wanted to live with our future retirement in mind, we wanted to move somewhere that also valued modern architecture. As a curator, I have been interested in North Carolina's history with involving the Black Mountain College and North Carolina's strong craft and pottery traditions. I have a small personal collection of pottery and ceramics that spans from Rookwood to Mark Hewitt. As avid Dwell Magazine readers, my husband and I followed the two Dwell prefab homes that were built in North Carolina and noticed some interesting articles on North Carolina architectural firms like Tonic Design and Frank Harmon (worked with Richard Meier; one of my favorites!). As we researched North Carolina further, we found that some areas were highly ranked as places to live that offered modern amenities while also offering a low cost of living. The more we learned, the more central North Carolina looked like an ideal place for us to move where we would be able to afford to build the modern home that we have always wanted while still enjoying some of the benefits of city life and university communities. That was the path that we followed and now our home has been completed. We love the way that we can display our art and pottery collections in the house's simple, clean rooms and the way that the large windows and natural materials bring the beautiful surrounding woods indoors. Our architect did a great job of incorporating local materials, something that we appreciated in Frank Harmon and Edward Lowenstein's local architecture. I am thrilled to be able to enjoy modern architecture that provides a beautiful but unobtrusive backdrop for my art and pottery collection in an area that values these interests.

The Barcelona Daybed by Mies Van Der Rohe would work well in this home. Its clean modern lines and status as a collectible piece designed by an important modern architect make it physically compatible, appealing to clients who are collectors like the home owners above, and appropriate for a modern building. The Barcelona Daybed is often seen in leather, mixing a natural material with an industrial one similar to the way this home combines industrial materials and methods with natural materials.

An artifact like the Tiki Lamp is less appropriate for this type of a space. It is associated with highly themed and elaborately decorated interiors and a 1950's feel as well as a less serious and less expensive type of space.

Laura Snoderly

Rookwood Vase in a space

The Rookwood vase by Rookwood Pottery (designer Lawrence) is shown here in an imagined contemporary residential space. The architectural style of this home is modern with emphasis placed on clean, geometric forms, open spaces, and large windows that being the outside in. The interior furnishings and decorative objects are minimal but carefully selected. It could be inferred that this is the home of someone with considerable economic means and a knowledge and appreciation of the history of modernism. Homes with strong modern features like this are often custom designs that are more expensive than the typical middle class house. The collection of furniture and artifacts ranges in time frame of design but shares a connection to modernism and general design significance. The sofa is a Stickley sofa, an important designer and manufacturer of the American Arts and Crafts movement. The chairs are Le Corbusier LC1 or Basculant chairs, designed in 1928 and currently produced by Cassina. Le Corbusier was a significant architect and designer of the early modernism movement. The vessel that shares the hearth with the Rookwood vase is Canoa, designed by Ludovico Diaz de Santillana and Tobia Scarpa and manufactured by Venini. Venini is an Italian company from the glass blowing island of Murano. It is significant to modernism and similar to Rookwood pottery because of the use of simple modern forms and the practice of inviting designers, architects, and artists from outside the company to produce designs for them. On the wall hang two felt pieces, called Yard, by Italian rug and furniture manufacturer Paola Lenti. The Stickley sofa, Rookwood vase, Venini glass vessel, and Paola Lenti hangings are all pieces that are hand made. The Corbusier chairs are machine made but are born out of a similar focus on being well made. Everything within the space as well as the space itself embody ideas first born out of the Arts and Crafts movement and then continued in modernism such as clean geometric forms, quality of construction, and blurring of the lines between inside and out.

Laura Snoderly

sources:
www.artsmia.org/modernism/Ointro
www.cassinausa.com
www.paolalenti.com
www.venini.com
www.stickley.com

artifact-Rookwood Vase IAR 222

This ceramic vase, now housed in the Minneapolis Institute of Arts Museum, was created in the well known Rookwood Pottery in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1901. Rookwood Pottery was started by one woman, Maria Longworth, with one kiln and the intention of painting pottery as a hobby. The pottery became well known for its glazes and craftsmanship. By 1901 (when this piece was produced), Rookwood had won several awards including,"1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, the 1901 Pan American Exposition in Buffalo, and the 1901 Exposition International de Ceramique et de Verrerie in St. Petersburg, Russia." The company grew and became the first to hire a chemist to develop glazes. They were also innovative in their use of an atomizer to spray on glazes and their practice of bringing in artists to paint the pieces. Their glazes were also unique because of the colors produced when a base pigment was added to the local clay. One of the most prized colors is Sea Green, the color used on this piece. The simple modern form of the vase in combination with the Asian inspired floral decoration is a common combination in Rookwood Pottery as well as in the American Arts and Crafts movement that was affecting architecture and interior decorations during this time. Another important aspect of the vase in respect to the Arts and Crafts movement is the fact that it is made by hand by an artist.

It is similar to the Linen press by Edna M. Walker in 1904. This piece of furniture was created in the Byrdcliffe Arts and Crafts Colony located in Woodstock, New York. It was made at roughly the same time as the Rookwood vase, was made in America, and is part of the Arts and Crafts movement. The Linen press is handmade with simple overall forms and some more ornate plant related surface decorations like we see on the vase. It is also true to the Arts and Crafts movement by having been made by an artisan. Both of these pieces would have been found in a residential home setting, probably in the home of someone with some wealth and who followed the tastes of the time.
It is dissimilar to the Tizio table lamp by Richard Sapper. The Tizio is machine made and mass produced, contrary to the Rookwood vase. It is also made of industrial and man made materials like ABS plastic and aluminum metal alloy rather than a natural local material. There is no surface decoration or focus on an artisans work on the light fixture. The Tizio embodies modern form, production, and ideals. The Tizio is also a piece with a utilitarian purpose as a light fixture where the Rookwood vase is a decorative object.

sources: www.artsmia.org, www.rookwoodcompany.com, www.justartpottery.com, www.metmuseum.org