Mid-Century Modern: Australian Furniture Design's first sitting

It is commendable that the National Gallery of Victoria and its curator, Kirsty Grant, have taken the plunge and attempted to bring together an overview of predominantly Melbourne and Sydney furniture design from the end of World War II through to the early 1970s. The show is accompanied by a large and scholarly anthology, rather than simply a catalogue, which brings together a number of notable essays, especially those by Grant, Conrad Hamann, Peter Atkins and Denise Whitehouse. The book is beautifully designed by Thomas Deverall and very modestly priced.

Designers’ names, including Canberra’s Fred Ward, Lester Bunbury, Grant Featherston, Clement Meadmore, Douglas Snelling, Fred Lowen, (one of the Dunera boys who operated under a number of different labels), Schulim Krimper and Gordon Andrews dominate the exhibition. This is supplemented with a great display of printed fabrics, especially those produced by Frances Burke and Annan Fabrics.

One of the challenges of exhibitions of this nature is how to integrate furniture design into the domestic decor, and most of the designs considered in this exhibition were for domestic, rather than public use. A well tried strategy is the dollhouse principle, where a cluster of rooms is established and you are invited to peep in, usually over a suspended cord, and see what a typical bedroom or sitting room of a particular period looked like. Alternatively, displays of chairs, lounges, cupboards are established, where they are lined up and the viewer can map their pattern of change and evolution.

This exhibition opts for a bit of both, with installed environments as well as grouped displays of furniture. Termed ‘recreated modern interior vignettes’, one of the highlights is the Marion Hall Best interior designed for the Crebbin’s Castlecrag house which included Gordon Andrew’s Rondo chairs, a Mona Hessing shag-pile rug and Jack Meyers’ sound/wall sculpture now in the gallery’s collection. One of the more interesting aspects of the exhibition is the visual argument advanced for the intrinsic unity of concepts of ‘modern’, ranging from ‘spikey modern’ in the immediate post-war period, through to the later organic modern with rounded and more accommodating forms. The depth of the gallery’s collection has meant that the curator has managed to unite furniture styles with contemporary prevailing styles in painting and sculpture. Together with the furniture, rugs and wall hangings, there is also a selection of paintings and sculptures by a number of artists including John Brack, Godfrey Miller, Helen Maudsley, Kenneth Hood and Yvonne Audette.

by a wave of delight. Design in Australia in the post-war period did turn its back on the heavy, awkward and clunky forms which dominated some of Australian furniture design in the preceding period. There was a strong desire to appear ‘stylishly modern’ and to be different, but there was little consensus on how to achieve this. Robin Boyd promoted some modern furnishings but condemned others in his Australian ugliness

Inspiration for much of this design was still coming predominantly from abroad, although some designers, such as Fred Ward, did explore the use of native timbers. New materials, including different forms of foam, plastics and moulded plywood, did broaden the range of possibilities, but in retrospect some of these could not stand the test of time and started to disintegrate within a decade or two. Also the domestic market shifted with a more adventurous and affluent cliental prepared to opt for something different and to pay a bit more for it.

Certainly the much-promoted Grant Featherston Contour range of chairs was popular, but for me failed the comfort test, possibly because my body shape did not resemble those of the sleek models promoted by the designer. I am not certain that Australia, despite in the influx of creative migrants who enriched every aspect of our arts and culture, produced furniture designers of the standing of Arne Jacobsen or Charles and Ray Eames. The welded steel corded chairs by Clement Meadmore looked good and were excellent for everything, except sitting on. Omkstak utility stackable chairs, or the versatile David Mellor range of furniture from abroad, had in a number of ways the edge on what was being produced locally. Much of the design landscape in Australia started to change by the mid-70s and the largely all-male cast of designers made room for a number of women.

Looking back, some may have felt that perhaps they had been a bit over-hasty in throwing out the heavy oak tables or their Bauhaus-inspired chairs in favour of what proved to be a fairly ephemeral furniture style.

This is a beautifully presented show which reminds us of what was considered as modern in furniture design about half a century ago.

Mid-Century Modern: Australian furniture design, National Gallery of Victoria, Federation Square. Closes October 19.