by Ashley BrownCranbrook is a unique artistic and educational community in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Every detail of its landscape, architecture and interior design reflects a rich heritage of gifted craftsmen and artistic visionaries. Many parts of Cranbrook are regularly on view for visitors, such as Carl Milles's Orpheus Fountain, Eliel Saarinen's architecture and Albert Kahn's home for Cranbrook's founders, George G. Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth. This summer, Cranbrook Art Museum is exhibiting an element of historic Cranbrook design rarely presented to the public.
The Art Deco Rug: Studio Loja Saarinen and the Cranbrook Tradition, on view June 3 through August 20, 2000, explores a remarkable collection of rugs designed and executed at Cranbrook from 1928 to 1938 for use in buildings throughout the campus. The rugs are accompanied by related archival materials—such as vintage photographs illustrating the rugs in their original settings—that illuminate their history as well as the lives of their designers and creators.
Modern design in the 1920s and 1930s, often referred to as "art deco," after the landmark exhibition L'Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, in Paris in 1925, is epitomized in America by designs such as William van Alen's Chrysler Building, Donald Deskey's interiors for Radio City Music Hall and Paul Frankl's skyscraper bookcases. Instead of looking to the racing lights and daring architecture of the city, however, Cranbrook's interpretation of the style is more subtle, reflecting its pastoral setting. The soft palettes, gracefully rectilinear arrangements, sophisticated asymmetrical patterns and stylized natural motifs of the rugs in this exhibition convey Cranbrook's dedication to beautifying and unifying every element of architecture, landscape and interior design.
About 1930, Florence Davies, art critic at the Detroit News, wrote: "the rugs from Studio Loja Saarinen bespeak the contemporary spirit in their clean, logical patterns, which impart a sense of great beauty and strength because of their definitely architectural quality." Loja Saarinen, wife of renowned architect Eliel Saarinen, founded Studio Loja Saarinen at Cranbrook in 1928 in response to the concern over how to create textiles for Eliel's buildings. Loja employed numerous weavers, primarily women of Swedish background, to execute the textiles designed by Loja, Eliel and Maja Andersson-Wirde, a Swedish weaver who served as shop director for Studio Loja Saarinen. The designs for the rugs were influenced not only by the modern styles emanating from Paris and New York, but also by the Scandinavian backgrounds of the designers and by Cranbrook's strong arts and crafts foundation.
The Saarinens designed the majority of textiles at Cranbrook, in particular the window treatments, upholstery and floor coverings at Kingswood School Cranbrook and at Saarinen House, their Cranbrook residence. In addition to executing these textiles, Studio Loja Saarinen also wove rugs for important commissions, such as the Chrysler Showroom on Jefferson Avenue in Detroit and Frank Lloyd Wright's design for Edgar Kaufmann's office in Pittsburgh. The rugs created at Studio Loja Saarinen were shown in numerous major exhibitions, which helped establish Cranbrook's significance in modern American design.
The exhibition is supplemented by a focus within the museum's permanent collection on French art deco. Selections include works by Paul Poiret, Emile Decoeur and Rene Lalique. The Art Deco Rug: Studio Loja Saarinen and the Cranbrook Tradition are curated by Ashley Brown, Assistant Curator.
The exhibition opens at Cranbrook Art Museum on Friday evening, June 2, and launches the museum's Friday evening summer programming. On Friday, June 2, the public is invited to attend the opening reception and enjoy an informal fashion show of vintage art deco clothing. The exhibition and fashion show are sponsored by the Detroit Area Art Deco Society.
Cranbrook Art Museum is located at 1221 N. Woodward Avenue in Bloomfield Hills. The summer hours (June, July, August) are: Tuesday through Sunday, 11:00 am to 5:00 pm, and Friday, 11:00 am to 10:00 pm. For more information call 248-645-3323.
