Color Fashion: Chartreuse

1955 Studebaker President

Design by Raymond Loewy

Chartreuse is another modern color that became a mid-century fad, faded away and revived to become a classic (well, a classic right now.)

If you recall the first incarnation you may call it chartreuse, named for a curiously green liqueur .

If not, it's lime green.

Like much style of the 1950s we can thank Russel Wright

whose innovative color schemes for tableware

recharged post-War decorating.

My mother painted the dining room chartreuse in 1952

to match her dishes.

With wine red accents inside the shelves.

More nostalgia....

Chartreuse livestock

It's a great clue to a quilt made in the 1950s

or the 21st century....

Marie-Eve's quilt at Blue Square Quilting, 2010

See more about Russel Wright design in my post here:

http://historicallymodernquilts.blogspot.com/2013/10/modern-print-monday-russel-wright.html

Modern Print Monday: Noémi Purnessin Raymond

 Noémi Raymond,

 Striped Fields for Schumachers

1948

 Noémi Purnessin (1889-1980) and Antonin Raymond about the

time of their marriage in 1914; from Crafting a Modern World: 

The Architecture and Design of Antonin and Noémi Raymond

Noémi Purnessin was born in Cannes, France and came with her family to the United States when she was about 12 years old. After attending Columbia Teachers College, majoring in fine art and philosophy, she traveled to Europe. As World War I threatened she returned to America, meeting Czech-born Antonin Raymond on the ship.

The two became design partners, moving from painting and graphics to architecture. In 1916 the couple and their son accompanied architect Frank Lloyd Wright to Japan, which became a home they alternated with New Hope, Pennsylvania.

A modern Japanese interior by the Raymonds. Antonin usually

got the credit, but Noémi was a partner.

Their architectural work, influenced by their two-year work with Wright on the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, and their enthusiasm for the Japanese aesthetic, combined interior and exterior into a unified living space.

Noémi Raymond,

Speckles for Knoll

Noémi Raymond,

Mosaic for Knoll

1950

Noemi Raymond's textiles for Knoll and Schumachers show

the influence of Japanese design.

Squares, Blobs and Speckles for 

Cyrus Clark Co., about 1940

Raymond donated several pieces of printed fabric to the Museum of Modern Art. Click here:
http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A36881&page_number=7&template_id=1&sort_order=1

Noemi Raymond's Circles is a featured piece at the Museum of Modern Art's current exhibit Designing Modern Women 1890-1990.

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1397

See a preview of Crafting a Modern World: The Architecture and Design of Antonin and Noémi Raymond by Kurt Helfrich &William Whitaker at Google Books:
http://books.google.com/books?id=SyzU6DG0TloC&printsec=frontcover&dq=noemi+raymond+crafting+modern&hl=en&sa=X&ei=8M-BU4eJAce-sQTgqIAo&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=noemi%20raymond%20crafting%20modern&f=false

Color Fashion: Turquoise

What's your favorite color?
This month mine is turquoise.

Despite having been traumatized in high school...

By a minimalist building with turquoise panels.

In the '60s I blamed it all on Frank Lloyd Wright

who favored the color. Here's his posthumous 1962 Marin County Civic Center Building

with the roof....

in swimming pool aqua.

The Wright look trickled down to vernacular architecture.

Most of those panels did not hold up well aesthetically or colorwise, fading over the decades.

Now I love the color.

 A few turquoise quilts from online auctions.

From Rod Kiracofe's collection

Where are those turquoise cooktops now?

I found a few recent quilts with a '60s color palette. This

one from QuiltDabbler.

2 from Busy Bee #16

http://busybeeno16.blogspot.com/2013/07/aqua-blue-and-lime-green-and-two-very.html

Here's a Frank Lloyd Wright quilt

by Julie in NM

Kaleidsoscope  from Kenda's Crafts

http://kendascrafts.blogspot.com/2011/11/bloggers-quilt-festival-kaleidoscope.html