Mid-Century Modernism and the American Body: Race, Gender, and the Politics of Power in Design

Kristina Wilson

Published by Princeton University Press 2021

Mid-Century Modernism and the American Body

Race, Gender, and the Politics of Power in Design

Kristina Wilson

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691213491

Overview
Contents

About this book

The first investigation of how race and gender shaped the presentation and marketing of Modernist decor in postwar America

In the world of interior design, mid-century Modernism has left an indelible mark still seen and felt today in countless open-concept floor plans and sleek, geometric furnishings. Yet despite our continued fascination, we rarely consider how this iconic design sensibility was marketed to the diverse audiences of its era. Examining advice manuals, advertisements in Life and Ebony, furniture, art, and more, Mid-Century Modernism and the American Body offers a powerful new look at how codes of race, gender, and identity influenced—and were influenced by—Modern design and shaped its presentation to consumers.

Taking us to the booming suburban landscape of postwar America, Kristina Wilson demonstrates that the ideals defined by popular Modernist furnishings were far from neutral or race-blind. Advertisers offered this aesthetic to White audiences as a solution for keeping dirt and outsiders at bay, an approach that reinforced middle-class White privilege. By contrast, media arenas such as Ebony magazine presented African American readers with an image of Modernism as a style of comfort, security, and social confidence. Wilson shows how etiquette and home decorating manuals served to control women by associating them with the domestic sphere, and she considers how furniture by George Nelson and Charles and Ray Eames, as well as smaller-scale decorative accessories, empowered some users, even while constraining others.

A striking counternarrative to conventional histories of design, Mid-Century Modernism and the American Body unveils fresh perspectives on one of the most distinctive movements in American visual culture.

Author / Editor information

Kristina Wilson is professor of art history at Clark University. She is the author of The Modern Eye and Livable Modernism. Instagram @kristinawilsonartdesign

Reviews

"For generations, the history of modern design has been treated as if it had nothing to do with race. No longer: Wilson’s deeply researched and beautifully written book shows us how modernism was deployed to reinforce exclusionary conceptions of whiteness, while also attending to the experiences of Black designers and consumers. Timely and necessary, this work makes an essential contribution to our understanding of design history and postwar America."—Glenn Adamson, author of Fewer, Better Things: The Hidden Wisdom of Objects

"This important book addresses a large gap in the literature by rereading Modernism through the lens of race and ethnicity and their intersection with issues of gender. Showing how Modernism is not only not neutral but also actively promotes whiteness while eliding matters of race, this work makes a significant contribution. Readers will appreciate the caliber of Wilson’s accessible and authoritative analysis."—Grace Lees-Maffei, author of Design at Home: Domestic Advice Books in Britain and the USA since 1945

"In this insightful and pointed investigation, Wilson deftly reveals the linkage between the sanitized and whitewashed Modernist design creed of the mid-twentieth century and vital issues of the body, particularly race. With an overwhelming wealth of visuals, this book makes us look again at designed objects and reconsider our interiors—and way of living—then and now. It will be a touchstone on the subject for years to come."—Elizabeth Guffey, author of Retro: The Culture of Revival

"Brilliantly examining the role of Modernism in the creation of American values after the Second World War, Wilson brings to light the parallel histories that emerged in a segregated society obsessed with forging racial and gender difference through architecture and design. This pathbreaking book demonstrates the astonishing ways in which contrasting Black and White identities were created through the use of African art and non-Western objects as decorative elements that established notions of racial otherness."—Gwendolyn Dubois Shaw, author of Seeing the Unspeakable: The Art of Kara Walker

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	V
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1 The Body in Control Modernism and the Pursuit of Better Living Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
Chapter 2 “Modern Design? You Bet!” Ebony, Life, and Modernist Design, 1950–1959 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	69
Chapter 3 Like a “Girl in a Bikini Suit” and Other Stories Narrating Race and Gender at Herman Miller Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	117
Chapter 4 “The Quick Appraising Glance” Decorative Accessories and the Staged Self Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
Epilogue The Ubiquity of Mid-Century Modernism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	214
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	220
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	238
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245
Photo Credits Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	254