The Art Deco Difference

The Aesthetic Movement (c.1865–1900) in decorative arts was a by-product of the radical literary philosophy of "Art for art's sake," championed by, among others, the flamboyant Oscar Wilde. The Arts and Crafts Movement (1856–c.1918) was populated by reformers like William Morris, who believed the industrial revolution and the promotion of mass-produced replicas of historical styles were murdering the souls of the workers. Art Nouveau and Jugenstil (c.1880–c.1918) responded to rigid and academic dictums in the decorative arts with free, organic lines and a lightening of colors and shapes.

By contrast, the style we have come to know as Art Deco took form (and its name), not from a philosophy or a spirit of social reform, but from a single event, planned to re-establish France's international pre-eminence in the decorative arts following the devastation of World War I. To be sure, the Art Deco style borrowed from the movements listed above—but only those elements which were consistent with its message of progress and modernity. Art Deco had no interest in looking back, only forward.

The event was the 1925 Paris Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Moderne which ran from April to October. Nations were invited to exhibit their original and progressive designs and manufactured goods. Notably absent were Germany, invited too late to produce an exhibition, and the United States. Herbert Hoover, then Secretary of Commerce declined the invitation, stating that there were no significantly 'modern' products being made in the U.S. in 1925. He need not have worried about the U.S.'s ability to match the criteria set out by the host country. No other country relied more heavily on their historic strengths than France, generally ignoring their own directive.

To put into perspective the diversity of designers who influenced the 1925 Paris Exposition, it may be fun to take a look at a few pieces in the Kirkland collection with connections to that historic event.

Hector Guimard (1867–1942) is best known as the father of French Art Nouveau for his iconic design of the Paris Metro stations in 1900. In 1901, Guimard joined five fellow French designers to form the Societe des Artistes Decorateurs. It was through the creation and planning of that organization that the 1925 Paris Exposition was realized. This Art Nouveau Planter (c.1900) by Hector Guimard sits on the Endre Thek cabinet in the Watercolor Room.

Edgar Brandt (1880–1960) was considered the master of decorative metalwork when he created the iron railings for Jacques-Emil Ruhlmann's Pavilion of a Wealthy Collector. The exhibit generated criticism for ignoring the everyday consumer. Maybe Brandt's Pelican Ash Receiver (1925) created that same year, would have been more within their reach. You'll find it in the Watercolor Room as well.

When the Italian company Richard-Ginori won the 1925 Paris Exhibition's Grand Prix for their small neoclassical room, the young Gio Ponti (1891–1979) had been its creative director for 2 years, bringing with him dramatic changes in the style produced by the company. His inspiration was the classical world, but his aim was to interpret it in a uniquely modern way.
In 1971 Ponti designed the North Building of the Denver Art Museum and it was during this time that his friendship with Vance Kirkland blossomed. The museum is fortunate to have a number of Ponti pieces. This exquisite vase, entitled Il Trionfo Delle Aamazzoni (The Triumph of the Amazons) (1925) is currently on view in Exhibition Room I.

Josef Hoffman (1870–1956), co-founder, with Koloman Moser, of the Weiner Werkstätte (1903-1933) was the architect chosen to oversee the Austrian section of the Exposition. One featured exhibit was his Room of Relaxation—walls covered in WW patterned wallpaper with no furniture of any kind, just a deeply upholstered floor with cushions and niches in walls instead of tables. In the Watercolor Room, you'll see his earlier Weiner Werkstätte designs for a Table and Chair for the Jacob and Josef Kohn Co. (c.1905).

René Lalique (1860–1945) created a colossal glass fountain for the Paris show in addition to a dining room for the Sèvres Pavilion and a pavilion devoted to his own work. He also led the jury for glass works. He had been a star of Art Nouveau since the turn of the century, known for his jewelry designs, glass wares and automobile mascots. While you're in the Watercolor Room, take a look at his exquisite Coquilles Bowl (1924).


In 1925, the French put up more than 100 buildings to house their own exhibits. All but one celebrated historic French classicism and ornament. Le Corbusier (1887–1967 born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret), Pierre Jeanneret(1896–1967) and Charlotte Perriand (1903–1999) designed the Pavilion de l'Esprit Nouveau to "deny decorative art, and to affirm that architecture extends to even the most humble piece of furniture, to the streets, to the city, and to all." Authorities were so upset by the trio's work that they erected a twenty foot high fence to hide the building. Only the intervention of the Minister of Fine Art forced the fence to be removed just before the opening of the Exposition.

In this visionary "machine for living," as Le Corbusier called it, pure form replaced decoration and foreshadowed the modernism that would eventually replace Art Deco. A few years later, he and his collaborators designed the Basculant Chair (1928). You can have a look for yourself in Exhibition Room II.

–Mary Beth Orr, Volunteer and Public Programs Coordinator

Ruba Rombic

"When you come to think of it, there is no reason why a vase should be spherical instead of angular, is there? Or a goblet rounded instead of cornered?"

- "Ruba Rombic, an Epic in Modern Art."

Ruba - an epic poem

Rombic - for rhomboid, a geometric shape with no parallel lines

This large yellow-green fishbowl (Phoenix Glass Company 1928) is a remarkable new addition to our Ruba Rombic art glass collection. (Incidentally, the acquisition of this single large piece required that the entire collection be moved to the corridor wall case previously inhabited by George Ohr's pottery. You can now find George's work in the first case on the left as you enter the large exhibition room from the foyer.)

The Ruba Rombic pattern was designed in 1928 by Reuben Haley during the time he was associated with the Consolidated Lamp and Glass Company of Coraopolis, PA. It has been called "perhaps the best art moderne (art deco) glass ever made." Haley used irregular, sharp rhomboidal planes to create angular lights and shadows, a striking departure from the symmetrical curved shapes of traditional glassware. Haley was influenced by Arte Moderne, now known as Art Deco, and Cubist art he saw during a trip to the 1925 Paris International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts. He interpreted the avant garde spirit of cubist paintings in the medium of mold-blown glass. One reviewer credited Haley and Consolidated with originating an American contribution to Arte Moderne.

His design also captured the crazy and adventurous spirit of the Roaring Twenties in America prior to the stock market crash of 1929. The line created a sensation when it debuted and was produced by Consolidated until 1932 when the company closed. In the grips of the Great Depression, America reverted to more conservative tastes and utilitarian objects. In this way, the creation of Ruba Rombic and fate of Consolidated trace the social mood and economic fortunes of the country during this period.

Looking at the fishbowl as it sits within in the collection, you'll notice that it is a distinctly different and unusual color. The line was manufactured in 16 colors and our collection includes 10 of those, but nestled among the other colors, the pale yellow-green fishbowl stands out because it is a unique type of glass.

The bowl is made of 1/4" thick vaseline glass, so called because its distinct color was thought to resemble petroleum jelly - as it looked in the 1920's. It is the incorporation of 2% Uranium Dioxide to the glass formula that gives it this appearance. Some other types of glass resemble vaseline glass under normal light, but true vaseline glass or uranium glass glows a bright florescent green under ultraviolet light. This is the only way to tell for sure if a piece contains Uranium Dioxide.

Besides its iconic design and unique color, the bowl is exceptional for yet another reason. It is the only piece manufactured not by Consolidated, but by the Phoenix Glass Company of nearby Monaca, PA. The patent for the "Fishbowl or Similar Article" was issued to Thomas W. McCreary, manager of Phoenix on May 10, 1928. The explanation for this seeming incongruity is that Kenneth Haley, son of Reuben and trained in glassmaking by his father, was employed by the Phoenix in 1928 and it was he who designed the fishbowl.

Kirkland Museum has one of the largest collections of Ruba Rombic glass and ceramics on display in North America. The initial production included thirty shapes in five colors. Eventually there were thirty-seven or so items, created in sixteen colors. The Kirkland Museum owns forty five pieces in eleven colors. The first pieces were collected by Vance Kirkland himself.

–Mary Beth Orr, Volunteer and Public Programs Coordinator

New Hamilton Hamilton Painting in Front Foyer

Hamilton Hamilton, Untitled (probably Turquoise Lake, near Boulder Colorado), 1875, oil on canvas

Hamilton Hamilton was born in Oxford, England in 1847. His family moved from England to the United States when he was still a young boy. They settled in the small community of Cowlesville, New York, then moved to Connecticut soon after, where Hamilton Hamilton remained for most of his life. He was clearly blessed with a natural talent for painting and was self-taught for the first part of his career. He finally received formal training around 1870 when he went to Paris. Upon his return to the United States he decided to take a sketching trip to the West, which was very fashionable at the time. Hamilton found great inspiration in the landscapes of Colorado. He sketched enough compositions over the course of a few months to complete 47 paintings, some of which were finished back in his New York studio.

Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art is thrilled to have just acquired one of those few paintings from his first sketching trip out West. The painting is signed and dated 1875 in the lower left. For Kirkland Museum, one of whose principal missions is to showcase early through modern Colorado art history, it is significant to have a painting that predates Colorado statehood by 1 year. The painting depicts the romantic landscape of central Colorado. Hamilton Hamilton chose a soft palette of oranges and violets to convey a sense of early sunrise or possibly a quiet sunset. The water is perfectly still and the calming trees and rocks create a very relaxing composition. Interestingly, the impressionistic application of paint in his landscapes created both shock and admiration among his contemporaries. His Colorado landscapes were praised and many of them were even included in the renowned 1876 Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, the first official World's Fair in the United States.

Kirkland Museum is also in possession of a particularly fine, large watercolor of a mother and daughter by Hamilton Hamilton (currently not on view).

Hamilton Hamilton returned to the West in 1879 to sketch more landscapes. Upon returning to New York he moved his studio to New York City and made friends with some of the giants of art history, including Thomas Moran, Winslow Homer and William Merritt Chase. Although Hamilton Hamilton enjoyed much success in his life, he became a casualty of the new wave of European Modernism that took hold in America during the 1920s. America's shift towards Cubism and other new approaches to painting meant that Hamilton Hamilton's style was no longer in vogue. He died not long after in 1928 in Norwalk, Connecticut. Although the new fad of Modernism took over the 20th century, Hamilton Hamilton remains engrained in the canon of art history as one of the important American landscape and portrait painters of the late 19th and early 20th century.

New Herbert Bayer Textile

white moon on green by Herbert Bayer 1961

German born artist Herbert Bayer has been a long time favorite of art connoisseurs, dealers and historians. His influential and diverse stylistic changes throughout the 20th century have secured him a well-deserved place in Art History. Bayer is internationally recognized as one of the leading artists to emerge from the German Bauhaus art school of the 1920s and early 1930s. His unique combinations of color, form and compositions are unmistakable and appeared in a variety of different mediums during his lifetime. Kirkland Museum' s most recent Herbert Bayer acquisition is a wool textile entitled white moon on green. Created in 1961, this work is a rare example of just how far Bayer was willing to experiment with different mediums.

Herbert Bayer began working on his "Moon and Structures" compositions in the 1960s. Bayer's "Moon and Structure" paintings never repeat themselves. He believed these simple geometric forms, when combined with vibrant colors, held endless possibilities. The textiles he created during this time were not recreations of his paintings. They were entirely unique and, like white moon on green, were created in small editions of around 10-20. The brilliant example on display at Kirkland Museum was created by the German manufacturer Ewald Kroener, an avid collector of Herbert Bayer. Bayer felt textiles offered an alternative that couldn't be found in paint. The wool dye created a unique visual experience. He picked up this idea from the color expressions found in Moroccan textiles. In 1972 Bayer wrote, "It was the power and the glow of the North African light which opened my eyes again to the world of pure colors. I had the clear feeling and the immediate impulse to forget my previous works and to start again at the beginning with an emptied mind and a clean table, to learn anew." Visitors are invited to experience one of Herbert Bayer's most unique mediums up close and personal, now on display at Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Arts.

Three New Landscapes

This untitled mountain scene by Raphael Lillywhite (1929) along with the untitled Platte scene by Alexis Comparet and Harvey Otis Young's The Clearing (c.1880) are all very recent acquisitions that have been added to the Museum Foyer to further strengthen our collection of early landscape paintings. All three are included in our current exhibition, Driven to Abstraction: Colorado Art from 1880 to 2007.

The Clearing is especially notable because of Young's combined use of different materials. The first layers of pigment are watercolor which can easily be seen in the sky background. Young then layered oil paint on top to create the detailed scene. Hmm, oil and watercolor together...sound like any other painter you know of?