The mid-century look 5/5

As the last century's 'mid-century' fades into history it increases the interest in past creativity and anyone curious about furniture design during those years will enjoy this book's comprehensive look at the subject. The eight main chapters (chairs; chaises longues; stools, sofas, tables, consoles and credenzas; desks and storage; beds) are further divided into sections, for example, Tables look at dining tables, coffee tables and occasional tables. About the only free-standing piece of furniture missing are wardrobes.

The longest chapter (Chairs with 106 pages) shows just how creative designers can be with a seating unit. Eero Aarnio's 1966 ball chair looks incredibly comfortable which probably doesn't quite apply to Poul Kjaerholm's 1952 PKO chair, despite its clever design. The Tables chapter shows how designers created original products with something that is just a flat surface and four legs, though sometimes just one leg. Cini Boeri's 1972 Lunario table is a circular piece of thick glass resting on a single offset round steel base. Isamu Noguchi 1944 model IN-50 coffee table is here and Yves Klein's 1961 Table Blue, a Plexiglass oblong case partially filled with blue pigment. The Desks and storage chapter had some interesting examples of office furniture, that chapter's intro essay reveals that companies became interested in well-designed furniture for their office staff and especially executive desks.

A really impressive thing about the book is the high-quality photos (over 450). They have all come from the Wright 20 auction house and were photographed on a white background so there is a uniform look to all the furniture throughout the pages. Each piece is one to a page with a technical caption and a hundred words or so about the designer and the product. The back pages have an index, directory of designers and a spread each about wood, plywood, plastics and steel (I would have expected to see these eight pages in the front pages). The author has written what will probably become the standard reference title for mid-century modern furniture.

 

A beautiful celebration of a great mind (5/5)

The author, Gary Berger, was familiar with Einstein from an early age but not being a scientist he, like most of us, couldn't really make sense of black holes, bending light, quantum physics and the general theory of relativity. Berger, though, felt a connection to this great mind of the last century and started to collect photos of Einstein. These weren't just any old photos but, rather uniquely, ones that were signed by Einstein. There are fifty-one, mostly portraits arranged historically with brief messages and signatures either written on the photo or the card they were mounted on. An additional fifty-three photos show covers of German scientific magazines with articles by Einstein and letters he wrote over his lifetime. 

The book is, quite stunningly, a beautiful photo biography of Einstein, his life story and discoveries accompany the photos and other graphics. The publisher has gone the extra mile to celebrate his life. The book is large and printed on thick semi-matt paper (with a two hundred screen for the images) several pages with Einstein's face are printed with silver ink and frequently these have large type quotes printed on tracing paper. Excellent typography throughout the pages enhance the large photos.

I must admit that I'm none the wiser about Einstein's theories but the words and photos about this humble, remarkable man made him come alive for me.