Title: Depression Modern: The Thirties Style in America
Author: Martin Greif
Publisher: Universe Books, 1975
Text by Martin Greif; 192 pages, black and white illustrations
“Depression Modern” a term coined by Martin Greif, the prolific populist writer and editor of this volume, describes a distinct approach to the decorative arts and architecture of the 1930s in America. Seeking to broaden the public understanding of this period, previously dominated by eclecticism, rigid geometrical designs, and heavily laquered surfaces, to include industrial design, engineering, and decorative arts of the Depression era.
This volume was published in 1975 during the first wave of renewed interest in Art Deco style. While its publication coincides with the Deco revival, this volume also bears the influence of the revisionist historical methodology of the 1970s. Thus, the focus of Depression Modern is not on the ornate, decorative motifs characteristic of 1930s in America, rather, it emphasizes the streamlined aesthetic inspired by the Bauhaus philosophers, educators, and designers who sought refuge in the United States during the rise of the Nazi party. Greif profiles a small group of designers including Raymond Loewy, Norman Bel Geddes, Walter Teague, and Gilbert Rohde, who latched onto Bauhaus concepts and translated the use of industrial materials, clean lines, transparency, and accessible, excellent design to the articulation of Modernism in America between two landmark expositions: Chicago’s Century of Progress (1933-34) and the New York World’s Fair (1939-40).
The many black and white illustrations included in Depression Modern feature such landmarks as the Triborough Bridge, and the Rockefeller Apartments in New York City, The Johnson Wax Company Administration Building in Racine, Wisconsin, as well as functional objects ranging from typewriters to telephones, airplanes to escalators, candlesticks to carafes. Broadly considered, it is a treatment of the architecture, furniture, and decorative art also now considered under the umbrella of “Streamline Moderne” and was one of the first publications to provide a compelling case for the value of an alternative view of the 1930s aesthetic, one that is quite different from the aristocratic extravagance of Art Deco, and more in keeping with the democratic, simplified, mass experience of the decade that has come to define populism.
