Browse Exhibitions

November 27, 1950: ROUTE
1) Nov. 29, 1950 - Jan. 31, 1951
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK -- Brooklyn Museum
Sidney W. Davidson, Chm. Gov. Com.
Charles Nagel, Director

2) Mar. 7, 1951 - May 7, 1950
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS -- Art Institute, Chicago
Chauncey McCormick, President
Daniel Catton Rich, Director

3) June 18, 1951 - July 31, 1951
SAN FRANCISCO -- M.H. de Young Memorial Museum
Herbert Fleischacker, President
Walter Heil, Director

4) Sept. 5, 1951 - Oct. 21, 1951
PORTLAND, OREGON -- Portland Art Museum
Dr. Wm. K. Livingston, President
Thomas C. Colt, Jr., Director

5) Nov. 27, 1951 - Jan. 8, 1952
MINNEAPOLIS -- Minneapolis Institute of Fine Arts
Russel A. Plimpton, Director

6) Feb. 13, 1952 - Mar. 27, 1952
HOUSTON, TEXAS -- Museum of Fine Arts
J. W. Link, Jr., President
James Chillman, Jr., President

7) May 4, 1952 - June 14, 1952
ST. LOUIS -- City Art Museum of St. Louis
Daniel K. Catlin, President
Perry T. Rathbone, Director

8) Sept. 7, 1952 - Oct. 22, 1952
TOLEDO, OHIO -- Toledo Museum of Art
C. Justus Wilcox, President
Blake-More Godwin, Director

9) Nov. 27, 1952 - Jan. 8, 1953
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Albright Art Gallery
Seymour H. Knox, President
Edgar C. Schenck, Director

10) Feb. 12, 1953 - Mar. 27, 1953
PITTSBURGH, PENN. -- Carnegie Institute
James M. Bovard, President
Wallace Richards, Director

11) May 1, 1953 - June 15, 1953
BALTIMORE -- Baltimore Museum of Art
J. G. D. Paul, President
Adelyn D. Breeskin, Director

12) Oct. 1, 1953 - Nov. 15, 1953
PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND -- Museum of Art
Mrs. Murray S. Danforth, Chairman
Roberta M. Alford, Acting Director

Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1947 - 1952. 10-12/1950, 099. View Original

November 27, 1950: LARGEST MUSEUM SHOW EVER BROUGHT TO U.S. HAS NATIONAL PREMIERE AT BROOKLYN MUSEUM
FORMAL INAUGURATION WEDNESDAY EVENING (NOV. 29) WITH ITALIAN AMBASSADOR PRESENT

Open to General Public Thursday, November 30th through January 31st
To Tour Twelve Major Cities from Coast to Coast for Three Years

FIRST COMPREHENSIVE VIEW OF POST-WAR SPIRITUAL AND INDUSTRIAL REBIRTH IN ITALY WHICH HAS BEEN ACHIEVED UNDER DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT -- WITH U.S. ECONOMIC AID

Many Types of Wares Being Introduced to American Public First Time
Range in Size from Full-scale Interiors to Women's Accessories & Toys;
In Cost from Unique Luxury Items to Moderate-priced Household Furnishings

SIMILAR OR IDENTICAL ITEMS TO BE MADE AVAILABLE BY LEADING US. RETAILERS --- CAN HELP ITALY NARROW DOLLAR GAP; LITTLE COMPETITION WITH U.S. INDUSTRY

"ITALY AT WORK", the Exhibition of Contemporary Italian Decorative and Industrial Arts, the largest museum show ever brought to this country from abroad, will have its U.S. premiere at THE BROOKLYN MUSEUM, opening to the general public Thursday, November 30th, following a special invitational preview Wednesday evening, November 29th, at which the Italian Ambassador to the United States, the Honorable Allberto Tarchiani, will be guest of honor.

FORMAL OPENING
The inauguration of this significant exhibition on Wednesday evening, Nov. 29th, will be preceded by a formal dinner (at 7 p.m.) for approximately 200 persons, given in the Sculpture Court of the Brooklyn Museum by Adrian Van Sinderen, President of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, and Mrs. Van Sinderen, to be followed by a reception and viewing at 8:45 p.m. There will be short addresses by Ambassador Tarchiani (representing the Hon. Alcide De Gasperi, President of the Council of Ministers of the Italian Republic, and head of the Honorary Committee of the Exhibition) and by Dr. Max Ascoli, Italian-born American philanthropist who, with Mrs. Ascoli, shortly after the war, with private funds, set up CADMA, a non-profit organization which fostered the beginnings of the crafts movement and was subsequently expanded into the C.N.A. (Compagnia Nazionale Artigiana) through which official U.S. aid from the Export-Import Bank was channeled.

TO BE SHOWN IN 12 LEADING U.S. MUSEUMS UNTIL END OF 1953
Organized as a cooperative effort by twelve leading U.S. museums (of which the Brooklyn Museum was chosen because of its leadership in the fields of decorative and industrial design), and aided by the Italian Government, the Compagnia Nazionale Artigiana of Rome and various U.S. agencies, including the E.C.A. and the Department of State, this important exhibition will tour the United States for three years. Following its New York showing at The Brooklyn Museum, which ends January 31st, it will visit in turn: Chicago, San Francisco, Portland, Minneapolis, Houston, St. Louis, Toledo, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Providence. (See last page of this release for details.)

2500 OBJECTS CHOSEN BY DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN JURY
OVER TWO YEARS IN PLANNING AND ASSEMBLING
Originally conceived by Meyric R. Rogers of the Art Institute of Chicago, who, on post-war visits to Europe had been particularly impressed by the great spiritual, as well as political and economic recovery made by the Italians after decades of debilitating totalitarianism, the 2500 objects which make up the show were selected by an important Jury of American experts in design who spent several months early this year touring thousands of miles, the length and breadth of Italy, visiting some 250 artisans and craftsmen in their frequently obscure working places. The members of the Jury of Selection were:

MEYRIC R. ROGERS, Curator of Decorative and Industrial Arts, The Art Institute of Chicago
CHARLES NAGEL, Architect; Director, The Brooklyn Museum
WALTER DORWIN TEAGUE, Industrial Designer, New York
RAMY ALEXANDER, Vice-President, Compagnia Nazionale Artigiana, Rome (who has just arrived from Italy to attend the opening)

BASIS OF SELECTION -- CATEGORIES REPRESENTED
"The exhibition is contemporary both in date and in feeling", according to Charles Nagel of the Brooklyn Museum. "Every item, almost without exception, was created in 1950. We ruled out everything shown us which was purely traditional in design. With the requirements that the design of each object be intrinsically fine and that the solution to each problem be fresh and now, we then admitted any fine artifact regardless of the humbleness of its use or the simplicity of its materials.

"In many instances, the Italian designer has made a virtue of the post-war limitations of luxurious raw materials. The same artistry that was once devoted to vessels of gold and silver has now been applied to works in copper and brass -- with the advantage, in tune with modern times any place in the world, that good design can be owned by almost anyone.

"I found it particularly interesting that a factory which had never made anything except ropes has suddenly, out of the same raw hemp, created handsome fabrics -- which I think will be a delight to Americans. Similarly the glassworks of Empoli which, for generations, have devoted themselves solely to making bottles for Chianti, have burst forth with table and decorative glasswares, of the same green glass but of unexpected beauty and originality.

The exhibition will be centered around five full-scale interiors, commissioned by the Jury from Italy's leading architects. Each room is completely appointed with furnishings of the architects' design or selection -- the roles of architect and interior decorator having gone together throughout Italian history.

They are: Foyer for a Marionette Theatre by Fabrizio Clerici of Rome
Terrace Room by Luigi Cosenza of Naples
Private Chapel by Roberto Menghi of Milan
All-Purpose Room (for moderate income) by Carlo Mollino of Turin
Dining Salon by Gio Ponti of Milan

The ecclesiastical and liturgical materials are of considerable significance. In addition to such particularly Italian arts as "pietra dura" (hard-stone inlay) and "intarsia" (inlaid wood), other crafts to be represented are:

Furniture
Metalwork
Leatherwork
Straw-work
Ceramics
Glassware
Mosaics
Bookbindings
Enamels
Office Machines
Lighting Fixtures
Toys
Textiles
Ironwork
Women's Accessories
Tiles

EXHIBITION SETTING AT BROOKLYN MUSEUM BY DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN DESIGNERS
Some 10,000 square feet of the imposing entrance hall of the Brooklyn Museum and its ground-floor galleries have for weeks been undergoing alterations end redecoration to display the exhibits under the general supervision of Walter Dorwin Teague, leading industrial designer; and by Victor Proetz, outstanding American architect and furniture designer; Michelle Murphy, Design Consultant of the Industrial Division of the Brooklyn Museum and staff members. Says Mr. Teague:

"In planning a setting for the ITALY AT WORK exhibition, I selected a color scheme which I think will have a nostalgic interest for all those who know and live Italy. The dominant notes are cerulean blue of the ItalIan sky and a clear light yellow that should recall Italian sunlight, with accents of the pale burnt orange which appears so often in architecture and especially in the sails of the boats on the Bay of Venice.

"Many of the objects in the collection are intended for outdoor use, and we hope that all of them will look well in this outdoor setting. In displaying such a great variety of items, running from costume jewelry through ceramics and textiles to industrial products and furnished rooms, it is necessary to use a wide variety of display techniques. This I think the staff of the Brooklyn Museum has done with great skill and the collection as a whole should be exciting in its diversity."

MERCHANDISING IN THE UNITED STATES
Although the primary interest of the Sponsoring Museums is educational, to give Americans their first comprehensive view of a new cultural renaissance burgeoning in an old civilization, they also hope that those items will arouse a consumer demand for similar objects that will permanently benefit the Italian workmen -- and serve to cement our diplomatic and economic relations with Italy.

Every object in the exhibition, from the greatest to the smallest, will be given an approximate retail price in the U.S. by the H.I.H. (House of Italian Handicrafts, a subsidiary of the C.N.A.). Some of the items are already on sale here, and more are being imported by such leading stores as Lord and Taylor and Gimbel Bros. in Manhattan; Abraham and Straus, Brooklyn; Stix, Baer and Fuller, St. Louis; Marshall Field, Chicago; The Halle Bros., Cleveland; McCurdy's, Rochester; The Wm. Hengerer Co., Buffalo; Jackson's, Oakland; Meier and Frank, Portland, etc.

The Honorary Committee
Hon. Alcide De Gasperi - President of the Council of Ministers of the Italian Republic
Hon. Count Carlo Sforza - Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs
Hon. Ivan M. Lombardo - Italian Minister of Foreign Commerce
Hon. Giuseppi Togni - Italian Minister of Industry and Commerce
Hon. Willard L. Thorpe - U.S. Asst. Sec. of State for Economic Affairs
Hon. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney - U.S. Asst. Sec. of Commerce
Hon. James Clement Dunn - U.S. Ambassador to Italy
Hon. M. Leon Dayton - Chief, E. C. A. Mission to Italy
Hon. Herbert Gaston - Chairman of the Board of the Export-Import Bank
Dr. Max Ascoli - Publisher, Editor and Founder, Handicrafts Development, Inc.
Winthrop Aldrich - President, Chase National Bank
David Freudenthal - President, House of Italian Handicrafts, Inc.
Chauncey McCormick - President, Board of Trustees, Art Institute of Chicago
Sidney W. Davidson - Chairman of the Governing Committee, Brooklyn Museum
Hon. James D. Zellerbach - Former Chief, E. C. A. Mission to Italy

Committee of Organization
Hon. Ivan M. Lombardo - Chairman (Italian Minister of Foreign Commerce)
Meyric R. Rogers - Executive Secretary (Curator of Decorative and Industrial Arts, The Art Institute of Chicago)
Ramy Alexander - Regional Secretary for Italy (Vice President, Compagnia Nazionale Artigiana)
Paul Hyde Bonner - (Special Assistant to Chief E.C.A. Mission to Italy)
Dr. Charles Rufus Morey - (Cultural Attache, U.S. Embassy, Rome, Italy)
Daniel Catton Rich - (Director, The Art Institute of Chicago)
Charles Nagel - (Director, Brooklyn Museum of Art)

Committee of Selection
Meyric R. Rogers - Curator of Decorative and Industrial Arts, The Art Institute of Chicago
Charles Nagel - Director, The Brooklyn Museum
Walter Dorwin Teague - Industrial Designer, New York
Ramy Alexander - Vice President, Compagnia Nazionale Artigiana, Rome

Brooklyn Museum Archives. Records of the Department of Public Information. Press releases, 1947 - 1952. 10-12/1950, 095-8. View Original 1, View Original 2, View Original 3, View Original 4