LOS ANGELES — Paris Photo LA makes for a hard act to match — the fair is star-studded, popular with the public, and brings the glamour of the original French edition to California. The second iteration of that event took place this past weekend. The Los Angeles Modernism Show and Sale, the preeminent local design fair, also set up shop on April 26 and 27. Though the fairs ran concurrently, and Paris Photo LA invariably drew larger crowds, there was presence enough at Modernism to suggest that this fair, too, has the potential to become an important event on the city’s cultural calendar. Wares and sales here varied greatly between the event’s 40 exhibitors — a product, in part, of the rather broad interpretation of what counts as “modernist” design.
Mid-century modernism originally gained currency across the United States in the 1950s and ’60s as a distinctly Californian movement. Considering this, one might have expected to find an emphasis on California design at the LA Modernism Show and Sale. Many pieces of furniture, however, were Scandinavian in origin — vintage production items without an attributed designer that might be found at a wide variety of mid-century dealers across the United States. There was also clothing, books, jewelry, and decorative art for sale, but certain materials and pieces stood out for their quality and rarity.
Brazilian rosewood, one of the staple materials of mid-century Danish design, appeared at several of the sale’s furniture dealers. Some of the recent interest among dealers and collectors in the material is a matter of access: Brazilian rosewood trees have been listed as an endangered species since the 1990s and their wood is very difficult to obtain. Its reddish hue and curvilinear grain were prominently displayed inside the booth of dealer Josh Zimber, who owns the O.C. Modern design gallery in Long Beach, California. Zimber’s offerings included a Danish rosewood corner cabinet, made by an unknown craftsman, with large front panels that emphasized the wood’s articulated swooping grain. The highlights among all of O.C. Modern’s wares were, in fact, two Brazilian rosewood pieces: a side table designed by George Nelson for Herman Miller circa 1965, with porcelain handles and aluminum feet, and a 1978 Eames chair made of Brazilian rosewood and upholstered in black leather. Elsewhere at the sale, Palm Springs-based gallery A La Mod displayed a 1965 Ward Bennett Brazilian rosewood desk with aluminum feet, selling for $15,000 and in mint condition. With clean lines and minimal details, the desk’s two small square drawers and featureless 6.5-foot-long workspace embrace the material’s distinctive appearance as decoration enough.
Though California design accounted for a relatively small portion of the objects at the sale, locally made pieces were among its most interesting wares. Los Angeles-based Reform Gallery eschewed the predilection for Scandinavian design by showcasing the work of California craftsman Gerald McCabe. Based in Venice Beach, McCabe is known both for the high quality of his work and his collaboration with Pierre Koenig to furnish the Case Study Houses in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Handmade pieces for sale by the master carpenter, who worked chiefly in sedua and oak woods, included a rectilinear king bed frame, an oak bench, and small end and side tables. Prices for McCabe’s work ranged from $2,400 to $9,000 — surprisingly low for such craftsmanship. McCabe, however, never gained the sort of international renown accorded to Charles and Ray Eames, in part because his pieces were never mass manufactured.
Other notable items at the fair included a set of four cardboard chairs, custom made by Frank Gehry for local Japanese restaurant R23 in the early 1990s (and altogether different from Gehry’s more famous Easy Edges line of cardboard furniture), selling for $5000 at the O.C. Modern booth. Local dealer NoHo Modern featured pieces by Los Angeles-based artist Norman Zammitt, better known for his large-scale colorfield paintings than for the thin, rainbow-hued acrylic poles available at the event. Highly unusual, and rare even in the Los Angeles design market, the pieces were going for $15,000 and $18,500, respectively.
The organizers of the LA Modernism Sale and Show might do well to put greater emphasis in future years on work like McCabe’s and Zammit’s, decidedly Californian and largely unavailable outside the state. Though this year’s iteration featured several outstanding objects, there were also some mediocrities. A set of Tamara Coatsworth glass panels decorated like sticks of gum appeared random and kitschy alongside the sale’s standout pieces. Late 19th-century Impressionist paintings in one booth faced contemporary sculptural desks in another. This disparity perhaps accounts for the sale’s relatively low price points — nothing was marked above $50,000.
Dealers noted that sales were moderate, but were still enthusiastic about the opportunities provided to connect with new clients and colleagues this year in Los Angeles.
