'Scandinavian Design' as Discourse:The Exhibition Design in Scandinavia, 1954-57

摘要

In his review in Interiors of the traveling exhibition of Scandinavian arts and crafts and industrial design, Design in Scandinavia, Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., head of the design department at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MOMA), expressed a favorable appraisal of the show as a whole. Like other commentators, Kaufmann stressed the importance to Americans of this exhibition and anticipated that "... a Scandinavian vogue will again flourish over here."But, unlike most critics and reviewers, he eventually addressed the physical qualities of the objects on display, such as the tables, screens, and show cases that constituted Danish architect and industrial designer Erik Herlow's highly flexible installation design. The fixtures were themselves manifestations of the "taste and skill" that the exhibited items featured, Kaufmann stated, and he continued: "Erik Herlow's cases, tables, platforms, and lights not only provide an admirable setting; they are the key to what is good in American eyes about Northern design generally. Clean, well-finished, unobtrusive, carefully considered, ingenious, sensible and elegant."