NEW YORK, NY.- The Museum of Jewish Heritage—A Living Memorial to the Holocaust opened The Contemporary Jewish Museum’s acclaimed exhibition Designing Home: Jews and Midcentury Modernism, the first exhibition to explore the Jewish contribution to Modernism. This is the first time the exhibit is being seen in New York.

The exhibition explores the role of Jewish architects, designers, and patrons in the formation of a new American domestic landscape during the post WWII decades of the twentieth century. Featuring a dazzling array of vintage furnishings, textiles, ceramics, posters, dinnerware, photographs, and more, Designing Home highlights the work of more than thirty creative professionals who helped spark America’s embrace of midcentury modernism, a bold new direction in design and thought.

The exhibition showcases the essential contributions of both well-known designers and architects, among them Anni Albers, George Nelson, and Richard Neutra; as well as others whose fascinating life stories and important contributions have received much less critical attention. Designing Home also examines significant patrons, merchants, and media figures who helped disseminate the midcentury modern aesthetic and worldview to a broad audience.

Donald Albrecht, Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of the City of New York, is the guest curator of the exhibition.

Dr. David G. Marwell, Director of the Museum of Jewish Heritage, said that, “This exhibit focuses on the themes of exile, achievement, and expression that were a vital part of the Jewish American experience from the 1920s through the 1960s. We hope visitors walk away from this exhibition with a newfound appreciation for the forward thinking designs and the men and women who created them. ”

With more than 100 objects, Designing Home has been organized around five key areas.

The first section features furniture and products for the home as well as textiles, ceramics, and graphics. Here visitors can see original pieces ranging from Alvin Lustig’s 1949 Lustig Chair made of gently curving molded plywood and metal and George Nelson’s iconic 1956 Marshmallow Sofa to Henry Dreyfuss’s pink Princess Phone and his Honeywell Thermostat. Tableware by Ernest Sohn is featured amongst other examples of decorative and functional ceramics. A variety of book and record covers by designers such as Alex Steinweiss, Paul Rand, and Elaine Lustig Cohen are also on view. These pieces are presented within an immersive environment of life-sized photographs of period home interiors.

The second gallery features original furnishings by Bauhaus architect Harry Rosenthal from Richard Neutra’s 1938 Schiff House. The furniture was commissioned by Dr. and Mrs. William Schiff in Berlin and was brought to San Francisco; Neutra was asked to design the house for the furniture. Select pieces, on loan from San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), are on view. This is the first time the Schiff House furniture has been shown in New York.

A small gallery has been dedicated to examples of Judaica designed by well-known designers such as Anni Albers, Judith Brown, and Ludwig Yehuda Wolpert.

Spotlights on significant architecture from the era are presented throughout the galleries including areas dedicated to Joseph Eichler’s designs and the Walker Art Center’s 1947 Idea House. The contributions of influential entities such as the Walker Art Center, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Arts & Architecture magazine, Black Mountain College in North Carolina, Chicago’s Institute of Design, and Pond Farm in Guerneville, CA, as well as those of individual patron and merchant tastemakers like Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., the son of Pittsburgh department store owner Edgar Kaufmann, Sr. whose store was one of the nation’s most trendsetting retail environments, are illustrated through a timeline within the exhibition.

A final area illuminates Hollywood’s role in promoting modern design to the American public. Movie clips featuring modern settings and fashion, vintage commercials, and illustrated title sequences by such luminaries as Saul Bass are being featured. Bass’s well-known movie poster designs are also a highlight of this section.