Lisa Hix at Collectors Weekly was nice enough to point out this awesome article (I hope some of you will attend the show and send back a full report!):
Kem Weber: The Mid-Century Modern Designer Who Paved the Way for IKEA
By Ben Marks and Lisa Hix
When most people think of Mid-Century Modern, they conjure images of kidney-shaped coffee tables, boomerang-patterned lampshades, and wall clocks that explode in starbursts and other radiating designs. But in the 1930s, long before Mid-Century Modern was the definition of cool in Madison Avenue corner offices and Palm Springs living rooms, an architect and designer named Kem Weber was helping define a sleek, unfussy look that would become all the rage in the years that followed. As for his assemble-it-yourself Airline Chair (below), it was decades ahead of IKEA.
This fall, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) gives Weber and numerous other designers their due with California Design, 1930–1965: “Living in a Modern Way.” Curated by Wendy Kaplan and Bobbye Tigerman of the museum’s department of Decorative Arts and Design, the show runs from October 1, 2011 until March 25, 2012.
