Join us as Ms Wishner fashions a captivating tale of the rise of artist designed textiles in America. In 1955, the American firm D.B. Fuller & Co. launched the “Modern Master” series of printed cottons and rayons. These artistic fabrics—sixty in all—were the result of Daniel Fuller’s collaboration with five of the European contemporary art world’s most famous names: Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, and Raoul Dufy (Georges Braque and Paul Klee were included in 1956). These household-name artists’ participation in Fuller Fabrics’ design process and marketing was enthusiastic and without selfish motivation—they delighted in providing a democratic, affordable entrée into art connoisseurship.

Fuller’s campaign was not the first of its kind, but one of the most prominent in a broader trend in mid-century apparel and furnishing fabrics. European and American luminaries Salvador Dalí, Giorgio de Chirico, Marcel Vertès, Henry Moore, Alexander Calder, Stuart Davis, Saul Steinberg, Rockwell Kent, Andy Warhol, and a multitude of talented but lesser-known artists all designed textiles that are especially sought after today. Major initiatives by the Midtown Gallery and the Associated American Artists group, both in New York City, were significant partnerships with well-established textile firms to bring “fine art by the yard” to all. These textiles were promoted through trade publications, advertisements and editorials in mainstream periodicals, by museums and department stores, and by use in fashionable clothing and interior schemes.

Using Fuller’s ‘Modern Master’ series as an in-depth case study, this colorfully illustrated lecture examines the intersection of commerce and art in American post-war consumerism. Major museum collections, archival research, and primary source material provide insights into a dynamic period when design and artistry were deemed crucial to the daily lives of everyone in America, not just the wealthiest or most erudite individuals.

Creating paradise on earth has inspired the evolution of conservatories from Napoleonic France to Jeffersonian America. It is a story of taste, travel and technology. As world exploration increased in the 16th century, rare and beautiful plants made their way to Europe from the four corners of the globe. By the mid-18th century, industrial technology produced the iron and glass necessary for the full-scale development of conservatories. The Empress Josephine received the Tsar of all the Russias in her glass palace, where she exhibited the finest specimens of roses, orchids, palms and other delicate blooms. King George IV of England, Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria, countless aristocrats and the newly minted millionaires of the 19th century each created conservatories to grace their grand estates.

In the United States, the vast resources of a continent made their way into the design and improvement of conservatories throughout the Victorian Age. The honored place of nature in the 19th century made a major impact on the desire to use conservatories as a link between interiors and the out of doors. Conservatories appeared in the houses of the wealthy but also in public gardens and parks, for any city with civic pride and cultural aspirations featured an opulent glass building to showcase plants, ornamental trees and shrubs. Horticultural expertise and theatrical display combined to make these structures theaters of pure architectural fantasy. One conservatory might be in the classical style, another inspired by the Gothic. Never had practical technology and whimsical design been paired so successfully.

This illustrated lecture will feature conservatories across Europe and America in both private houses and public gardens. Period paintings, illustrations and photographs will bring these structures to life.