As one of America's most prolific and influential industrial designers, Norman Bel Geddes helped create the Streamlined style that defined American design throughout the 1930s and early 40s. In addition to cars, trains, and other industrial designs, Bel Geddes—who had substantial experience as a theatrical designer—created a number of memorable exhibitions for world's fairs, including the 1934 Century of Progress exhibition in Chicago and the New York World's Fair of 1939. Through these large exhibitions, Bel Geddes sought to promote both American technology and culture, thereby helping to bolster national pride during the difficult years of the Great Depression. His "Patriot" radio design of 1939 likewise features technology, in this case a radio encased within the unabashedly patriotic stars-and-stripes motif of its case, to create an optimistic and useful emblem of American technology, industry, and identity.
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Artwork Details
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Title:"Patriot"
Designer:Norman Bel Geddes (American, Adrian, Michigan 1893–1958 New York)
Manufacturer:Emerson Radio and Phonograph Corp., New York
Date:ca. 1940
Medium:Green plastic: Catalin (phenol formaldehyde)Red and white plastics: cellulose acetateClear plastic: vinylchloride polymer
Dimensions:8 × 11 × 6 in., 6.5 lb. (20.3 × 27.9 × 15.2 cm, 2.9 kg)
Classification:Machines & Appliances
Credit Line:John C. Waddell Collection, Gift of John C. Waddell, 2001
Object Number:2001.722.11
Marking: (on front, between two red dials, gold): [treble clef] / Emerson / Radio and / Television; (on bottom of radio dial face, in black): Emerson Radio and Phonograph Corp. N.Y.U.S.A.
John C. Waddell, New York (by 1999–2001; his gift to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Modern, 1925–1940: Design for a New Age," May 16, 2000–January 7, extended to February 4, 2001, unnumbered cat. (p. 167; as "'Patriot' Radio," 1940, lent by John C. Waddell Collection, Promised Gift of John C. Waddell).
Newport Beach, Calif. Orange County Museum of Art. "American Modern, 1925–1940: Design for a New Age," May 25–August 19, 2001, unnumbered cat.
Flint, Mich. Flint Institute of Arts. "American Modern, 1925–1940: Design for a New Age," September 14–December 16, 2001, unnumbered cat.
Philadelphia. Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. "American Modern, 1925–1940: Design for a New Age," January 11–April 7, 2002, unnumbered cat.
Charlotte. Mint Museum of Craft and Design. "American Modern, 1925–1940: Design for a New Age," May 3–July 28, 2002, unnumbered cat.
Tulsa. Philbrook Museum of Art. "American Modern, 1925–1940: Design for a New Age," August 23–November 17, 2002, unnumbered cat.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s," September 5–December 10, 2023, unnumbered cat. (pl. 85).
Norman Bel Geddes. Miracle in the Evening. Ed. William Kelley. Garden City, N. Y., 1960, p. 349.
Philip Collins. Radios: The Golden Age. San Francisco, 1987, ill. pp. 52 (advertisement), 53 and 111 (both color) (Philip Collins collection), calls it "Emerson 'Patriot' Model 400 and dates it 1940.
Grace Glueck. "Design Review: When Americans Awoke to Modern Styles." New York Times (May 19, 2000), p. E32.
Linda Hales. "From Mainstream to Streamlined America." Washington Post (May 20, 2000), pp. C1–C2 ill.
Allison Rudnick. Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2023, pp. 26, 198, colorpl. 85.
Rachel Mustalish in Allison Rudnick. Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930s. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2023, p. 52.
Mitchell Abidor. "Hope and Despair in the American Socialist Movements of the 1930s: 'Art for the Millions' at the Metropolitan Museum of Art." publicseminar.org. October 2, 2023.
Karen Wilkin. "Yesterday's Tomorrow." New Criterion 42 (December 2023), p. 33.
How did a decade of unprecedented financial strife, radical social upheaval, and technological innovation shape art and cultural identity in the United States?
Norman Bel Geddes (American, Adrian, Michigan 1893–1958 New York)
1938
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