Ceiling Light
Victor Gruen
1 of 2
Object Label
Victor Gruen, a revolutionary genius in the field of corporate branding and marketing, is now best known as the architect of America’s first enclosed shopping mall. He created this light fixture for Barton’s Bonbonnière, a candy store founded by a fellow Austrian Jewish émigré at Broadway and 81st Street in Manhattan in 1938. In addition to giving the store a large plate-glass façade to entice customers inside, Gruen completely integrated the store’s interior design and retail components, decorating the candy boxes and shopping bags with small colored dots that echoed the painted disks of the lights. A great critical success, the formula was repeated in more than fifty identical stores nationwide by 1952.
The ceiling lights were clearly inspired by the kinetic metal mobiles that sculptor Alexander Calder began making in Paris in the 1930s. They are an excellent example of the blurring of the boundaries between the so-called high and low arts that characterized the twentieth century.
The ceiling lights were clearly inspired by the kinetic metal mobiles that sculptor Alexander Calder began making in Paris in the 1930s. They are an excellent example of the blurring of the boundaries between the so-called high and low arts that characterized the twentieth century.
Caption
Victor Gruen (American, born Austria, 1903–1980). Ceiling Light, ca.1952. Painted metal (iron, steel, copper alloy, aluminum), 41 x 36 x 40 in. (104.1 x 91.4 x 101.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Marie Bernice Bitzer Fund, 2005.22. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)
Designer
Title
Ceiling Light
Date
ca.1952
Geography
Place manufactured: United States
Medium
Painted metal (iron, steel, copper alloy, aluminum)
Classification
Dimensions
41 x 36 x 40 in. (104.1 x 91.4 x 101.6 cm)
Credit Line
Marie Bernice Bitzer Fund
Accession Number
2005.22
Frequent Art Questions
Look at those colors! This is a ceiling light designed by the American Victor Gruen in 1952. Victor Gruen was inspired by the work of Alexander Calder in creating this piece. At this point in design history there was a blurring of boundaries between high and low arts in forms and materials. This is an example of using common materials--iron, aluminum--to create works of art.
Is this light fixture part of the collection?
Absolutely! The Luce Open Storage contains objects from our American Art, Decorative Arts, and Arts of the Americas collections. This ceiling light is by Victor Gruen and dates to the early 1950s. Gruen was inspired by Alexander Calder's kinetic metal mobiles from the 1930s, which makes this work an interesting intersection between the so-called "High" and "Low" arts in the design world where Calder's fine art mobiles come together with the low art of industrial, or product, design.Why has the museum decided to display this work outside instead of placing it inside the glass shelf?
A big part of the reason is that this is how the lamp was meant to be installed, so it gives the viewer a better idea of what it is supposed to look like.Also, hanging from the ceiling, the lamp is not in danger of being touched, so it's still a safe place for the object.Thank you!
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