Thursday, May 29, 2014

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

Monday, May 26, 2014

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.

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


Thursday, May 22, 2014

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


Here's a Frank Lloyd Wright quilt
by Julie in NM

Kaleidsoscope  from Kenda's Crafts