A modernist regime : Cuban mid-century design / curated by Abel González Fernández, Laura Mott, Andrew Satake Blauvelt, and Andrew Ruys de Perez.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

González Fernández, Abel, curator, contributor.

Mott, Laura, curator, contributor.

Blauvelt, Andrew, 1964- curator, editor.

Ruys de Perez, Andrew, editor, contributor.

Karwan, David, illustrator.

Owenshy, Danielle (deo), contributor.

Cranbrook Art Museum, host institution.

Rosengarten Family Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Design--Cuba--20th century.

Design.

Furniture, Midcentury modern--Cuba--20th century.

Furniture, Midcentury modern.

Furniture--Cuba--20th century.

Furniture.

Physical Description:

239 pages : color illustrations ; 30 cm

Other Title:

Cuban mid-century design

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Rizzoli Electra, a Division of Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. ; Bloomfield Hills, MI : in association with Cranbrook Art Museum, 2024

Summary:

"This exhibition is the first museum presentation on Cuban mid-century design anchored by an under-acknowledged collection of furniture and furnishings, examples of which have not been exhibited off the island. Focused on the decades immediately following the Cuban Revolution (1959), A Modernist Regime: Cuban Mid-Century Modern Design presents a small but prolific cohort of artists, designers, and architects who responded to the demands of a newly centralized economy, including the material constraints imposed by ensuing embargoes, popular demands for more equitable access to goods, and initial excitement about the role modern design could play in shaping a new society. The exhibition includes the pioneering work of designers such as Clara Porset and the furniture produced through the Dujo brand and its successor line EMPROVA, led by Gonzalo Córdoba and María Victoria Caignet. In the 1960s, Dujo continued the trajectory of pre-revolutionary mid-century design to produce unique pieces that featured indigenous cultural references and materials, such as local woods and fibers, and utilized the country's skilled carpentry workshops. By the mid-1970s, the EMPROVA line of furniture and furnishings utilized modular designs to help fulfill growing domestic demand. The exhibition also features designs and prototypes created by the Light Industry Group led by designers Reinaldo Togores, María Teresa Muníz Riva, Eva Bjõrkland, and Heriberto Duverger, who along with others explored contemporary furniture intended for mass production with an emphasis on modularity, utilizing new techniques and technologies, such as particleboard and flat pack assembly, embracing a design-for-all ethos. Rounding out the exhibition are a presentation of remarkable posters created for OSPAAAL (the Organization of Solidarity with the Peoples of Asia, Africa, and Latin America), as well as examples of modern architecture that emerged after the Revolution--which helped establish Cuba's presence on the international stage. Whether through architecture, graphic design, or furniture, A Modernist Regime: Cuban Mid-Century Design is a fascinating story of how modernism was transformed through its contact with capitalist, socialist, and communist economies by negotiating the local and the global; untangling fact from propaganda; and understanding the forces of innovation and limitation on design." -- Cranbrook Art Museum exhibition page.

Contents:

Foreword: a modernist regime / Andrew Satake Blauvelt

Introduction and acknowledgments / Laura J. Mott

A modernist regime: Cuban mid-century design / Abel González Fernández

Clara Porset

Contemporary interior decoration: its adaption to the tropics / Clara Porset

Gonzalo Córdoba: Dujo Muebles and EMPROVA

Guamá

Becoming international: importing modernism, exporting revolution / Andrew Satake Blauvelt

OSPAAL

Raúl Martinez: quiet queerness in the revolutionary roar

Coppelia ice cream parlor

The National Schools of Art

Expo 67

Félix Beltrán

The ministry of light inddustry and the ten-million-ton sugar harvest

Ministry of light industry manifesto, 1971

The light industry group: an interview with Reinaldo Togores and María Teresa Muñiz Riva

Towards a Cuban industrial design, 1971: the ministry of light industry

To design the future: conversations about Havana's new industrial design school, 1971

La casa oruga (the caterpillar house)

Ahora O Nunca: a contemporary lens on Cuban mid-century design / Laura J. Mott

Contributors.

Notes:

Exhibition dates: June 15 through September 22, 2024.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.

ISBN:

9780847831401

084783140X

OCLC:

1428570917