The Modern Home
British Industrial Art Exhibition
THE exhibition of British Industrial Art in relation to the home, which is open at Borland Hall, Lower Regent Street, until July 12th, should appeal to a far wider public than those relatively few who take a special interest in the fur- nishing of the home : it should compel the attention of all who have -the betterment of British trade at heart. It is, as Lord Gorell says in his Foreword to the catalogue, " not the isolated .endeavour on the part of some enthusiasts " : it marks the beginning of a determined campaign to prove that there exists in this country the materials on which to base a national style expressive of the age we live in, to prove to the manufacturer that it pays to employ the best designers, and to show to the public a -wide range of what are, in the opinion of those well qualified to judge, the best specimens .of industrial art at present :available. Although it was projected some time earlier, it must be regarded as a direct result of the "Gorell Report on "Art in Industry," which recommended among other thiligs a series of exhibitions in London and elsewhere to educate the public and to stimulate - the manufacturer and designer. The connexion is emphasized by the names of Lord Goren as President of the Exhibition and of the Presidents of the Boards' of Trade and Education respectively- as Vice-Patrons. This is emphatically a national with the support—moral though not financial—of the Government behind it. It is also by far the best exhibition of its kind that has been held in this country. From the moment one .picks up the catalogue, admirably printed by the Curvien Press, until one steps out again into Lower Regent Street, there is never any doubt that one is surrounded by the evidence of skilled and logical planning. In the Entrance Hall is a selection of the raw materials—metals, laminated woods, glass and textiles—which will be brought into use in the modern home. From there we pass to a series of typical flats and ;wpm, completely furnished. On the. Upper Floor kitchens occupy an entire section, and successive galleries hold displays of lighting-fitments, silver, pottery, glass, textiles and printing, with a further series of rooms showing the employment, of these adjuncts. Among all these things (and there are several thousands of them, though the exhibition is by no means uncomfortably large, even for the elderly) there are few things that are bad and many that are very good indeed.. but the outstanding fact is that there is a unity running through them all : they are all modern. Tradition has not been flouted, but it has been subordinated to the needs of the present day and to the materials and processes best suited to each product.
On the Ground Floor there is nothing to rival, in efficiency or appearance the " Minimum Flat," designed_ by Mr. Wells Coates. This is an exact replica (except that one wall is omitted) of one of the flats in a block now being built at Hampstead. Designed for one person, it consists of a large ltving-room with a bed-settee in an alcove, a dressing-room, an adequate bathroom and lavatory, and a well-equipped_ kitchenette. The dining-table is mounted at one, end on a rail fixed to the wall, so that it can be slid away without trouble into a corner ; the dining-chairs can be stacked ; but the most interesting feature is the fire.' Perhaps the greatest drawback to the abolition of the old-fashioned fireplace is that one loses with it the main focal point of the room. Mr. Coates provides what, should prove an acceptable substitute by building his electric fire into the end of a narrow piece of furniture projecting a foot or'two into the room, so that chairs can be drawn up on three sides of it. Concentration of interest is also assisted by the provision of a. radio-gramophone in the cabinet immediately behind the fire—and possibly by a cupboard sufficiently deep .to take bottles just below that. A far less successful attempt to solve the same problem will be seen in an adjacent exhibit, where a circular electric fire is set well out in the room and sur- mounted by a somewhat pretentious erection of plate-glass topped with a light-fitting which is swept out into the ceiling.
Upstairs, the simplicity—I had almost said the austerity--
of the light-fittings may come as something of a surprise to those who look upon such things as offering a legitimate field for ornamentation. Plain opal glass or, at most, glass etched or sand-blasted with simple designs is easily in the majority. Here the " Ultrolux " range of fittings by Messrs. Troughton and Young must be commended for their businesslike yet graceful simplicity and for the fact that they are dust-proof. Among the kitchens almost everything is worth consideration by anyone who is looking for the best among such equipment. The New " Esse " Cooker companions the Aga " (which has now been adapted to provide constant hot water for a small household and can be further equipped with the " Aga " Hot Cupboard) ; but my attention was caught by a par- ticularly neat draining-rack (made by Messrs. Linterns) in the ",Esse " room. The silver and cutlery- sections were the least inspiring. Apart froth the fact that the works of individual craftsmen, however good in themselves, appeared out of place in an exhibition devoted ostensibly to the pro- ducts of mass-production, one felt that the modern spirit was little in evidence in'the rest of the pieces shown. Among the cutlery, for instance, knives could be seen with handles decorated in a manner bound to impair the feel and to collect dirt. The pottery display, on the other hand, came as a welcome surprise to„nne who has walked his miles through successive British iiclustries Fairs—and said his say there- after.. It is clear that our pottery manufacturers are waking up—not only the smaller firms, but the larger and more famous, who, with rare exceptions,_seem to have been content hitherto to live on the past. Looking over their stands at Borland Hall and contrasting the pieces with those seen at other exhibitions, one realized how much we have to thank the Selection Committees for their work. Here there is prac- tically nothing bad ; elsewhere there has been found singularly little good. The fact that every piece in the Exhibition represents the _choice not necessarily of, the manufacturer but of a committee of experts, reflects credit on these latter, but it says something, too, for the manufacturers' courage in submitting their wares to such a scrutiny. There must have been some rude awakenings. The range of delightfully humorous little figures by the students of the Burslem School of Art represent something new in British pottery : for this sort of thing we have had to look to the Continent hitherto. It is to be hoped that the designers (whose ages, I believe, range from 15 to 17) will manage to retain their freshness of outlook beyond their schooldays. In the glass section some- thing of the same spirit is shown in two cut and etched panels of plate glass designed by Mr. Raymond McGrath. Here, too, an examination of the products of Messrs. James Powell, Stevens and Williams, and Webb and Corbett shows that we have not so much to learn from Sweden as some people have thought.
Excellent textiles from which it is perhaps invidious to single out the products of Messrs. Foxton, Donald Brothers, and Warner and Sons bring us—past an interesting ensemble in Black and White Wallpapers (No. 1225)—to the book section where are to be seen among other things a large exhibit by the National Book Council and a smaller by the Nonesuch Press. The best of the furnished rooms, placed here and there on this floor, is a bedroom designed by Mr. Oliver Hill, who, as Exhibition Architect, must be congratulated on the excellence of the lay-out of the whole. One feels that it could hardly have been bettered. But the real proof will come in the next three weeks. At all other exhibitions manufac- turers have shown what they considered would prove to be their best-selling products ; here, expert and catholic selection committees have chosen with great care what they consider the public should want. The educational factor must count for much—and no one who wishes to keep in touch with the trend of life to-day (whether they approve or not) should grudge a visit ; but it is inevitable that the ultimate success of the exhibition will be judged largely by the amount of business to which it leads.
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