04 Engineered America Panels

GAT Exh. Engineered America panel Draft 3, PF edit

1

It has been by paying naked attention first to the thing itself that American plumbing, American shoes, American bridges, indexing systems, locomotives, printing presses, city buildings, farm implements, and a thousand other things have become notable in the world. —William Carlos Williams, poet, (1883– 1963)

In the early 20th century, the United States became an industrial power and a major exporter of brand-name products. The country also became more urban. The 1920 U.S. Census revealed that, for the first time, more Americans lived in towns and cities than in rural areas. After World War I, while Europe struggled to reconstruct itself, Americans enjoyed peace and relative plenty. Much of what artists began to define as typically American emerged from these urban and industrial changes. Some artists celebrated the urban skyline of skyscrapers and suspension bridges, while others made art —sometimes witty and ironic—about the modern rush hour, the efficient American factory, and new consumer products. As the influential Vanity Fair editor Frank Crowninshield boasted, his generation sought an art “which shall truly represent our age, even if it is one of telephones, submarines, aeroplanes, cabarets, cocktails, taxicabs, divorce courts, wars, tangos, dollar signs.”

GAT Exh. Engineered America panel Draft 3, PF edit

2

[SUB-THEME PANEL IN SECTION ON CITIES] New York, grandiose and glittering—the modern Wonder City of dynamic pulses, wireless, magnetism, electricity and tempered steel, of piled-up architecture like magic pinnacles of Alpine ice . . . —Henry Tyrell, xxxx , (???–???) New York! New York! I should like to inhabit you! I see there science married to industry In an audacious modernity . . . — Arthur Cravan, poet, (1887– 1918) Artists on both sides of the Atlantic pictured the United States as more radically modern than Europe and freed from the burdens of the past. They were particularly impressed by the transformation of lower Manhattan from a city of four- to six-story walk-ups [Phil: or buildings several stories tall?] to one of towering skyscrapers. The soaring buildings, along with new and rapidly proliferating forms of public transportation, changed the city’s profile and brought thousands of people to work in downtown New York. Traffic choked the streets as never before, lending Manhattan and the American metropolis in general a new kind of energy. The term “rush hour” was invented in these decades to describe the urban blur of traffic and pedestrians that occurred as commuters crossed the new bridges and crowded on rapid transit systems at the beginning and end of each day. The spread of electric lights across New York, especially on Broadway in the theater district, created another spectacle, converting night into day. Joseph Stella, a painter born in Italy who immigrated to Manhattan, described the “new” New York as “an immense kaleidoscope—everything is hyperbolic, cyclopic, fantastic.”

GAT Exh. Engineered America panel Draft 3, PF edit

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[SUB-THEME PANEL IN SECTION ON FACTORIES] America. The Motherland of Industry possesses some majestic original constructions …that almost bear comparison with the work of the ancient Egyptians in their overwhelming monumental power. — Walter Gropius, architect, (1877–1943) Today . . . we have a timely appreciation for the mechanistic brilliance and precision of this era. We care about the perfect line and mass, the unornamented plasticity of workable objects, such as the dynamo and the steam drill, as well as the cool and satisfying distinction which electricity contains. [should we delete “the unornamented plasticity of workable objects”?] — Marsden Hartley, artist, (1877–1943) Industrial structures rarely inspire art making today. But they did in the early 20th century when architects and artists found beauty in American factories, grain elevators, and industrial storage tanks. As early as the 1910s, European architects such as Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier sought out American grain elevators and flat-roofed factories, praising their streamlined, undecorated surfaces, and the anonymous engineers who designed them. They found in these utilitarian structures a majesty and elegance comparable to that of the ancient Egyptian pyramid. In these structures, form appeared to follow function, one of the stated ideals of modern architecture. Painters and photographers were equally enthusiastic about these humble structures and made their bold volumes, gleaming surfaces, compelling geometries, and unornamented plainness a primary American subject.

GAT Exh. Engineered America panel Draft 3, PF edit

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[SUB-THEME PANEL IN SECTION ON AMERICAN THINGS/CONSUMER PRODUCTS] These standard advertised wares—toothpastes, socks, tires, cameras, instantaneous hot-water heaters—were [the American’s] symbols and proof of excellence; at first the signs, then the substitutes, for joy and passion and wisdom. — Sinclair Lewis, author, (1885– 1951) As the United States modernized, inventors and designers created new appliances and products that brought great timesaving and convenience to everyday life. Artists painted and photographed these new American things—the toasters, alarm clocks, safety razors, typewriters, spark plugs, and cocktail shakers. Some of these modern still-lives applaud the elegance of modern product design while others commented tongue-incheek on contemporary culture’s obsession with new things. These new products, designed in streamlined forms and modern materials such as rubber, aluminum, and plastic, were advertised widely on billboards and in magazine ads as America’s contributions to modern living. Packaging for such items as foodstuffs, cigarettes, and mouthwash were also recast in modern designs of bold colors and modern graphics. Many of these goods were aggressively marketed in countries around the world, initiating an export trade that continues to this day. As one example, according to the memoirs of journalist Janet Flanner, French artist Pierre de Massot drank American Coca-Cola for breakfast rather then the standard cup of espresso, believing that the coffee was old-fashioned and the American soft drink was very contemporary.