Machine Art (1934 Original Edition)
The rare first printing for Museum trustees of the exhibition catalog for the important Machine Art exhibit of 1934, which took place at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. With section headings such as "Industrial Units," "Household and Office Equipment," and "Kitchenware," the exhibit of these objects was somewhat shocking to audiences in an art museum environment. The exhibit was one of the earliest museum presentations of industrial design as a serious area of artistic activity.
Curator Philip Johnson also employed a groundbreaking presentation for the exhibition. He took dramatic steps to display the objects to their greatest effect, for example hiding the decorative molding of the Museum's then 19th-century brownstone location in order to present a sleeker, more modern environment in which the objects could be appreciated. Later exhibits of industrial design followed this playbook.
With a colophon on the last page stating "Twenty-five hundred copies of this catalog were printed for the trustees of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, by the Blanchard Press, Inc., New York, March, Nineteen Thirty-Four". Later facsimile printings of the catalog exist from 1969, and 1994 for the exhibition's 60th Anniversary, but the original 1934 printing for Museum trustees remains quite scarce. There was a hardcover trade edition published by W.W. Norton, also in 1934. Item #1595.
Condition: Very Good-, scuffing, wear and some soiling to covers with some chips to paper covering spine; previous owner's name in pen to front cover and to title page; now in a custom mylar jacket.
Price: $650.00