A DESK, CIRCA 1935

Details

WARREN McARTHUR (1885-1961)
A DESK, CIRCA 1935
tubular and cast aluminium, plastic-laminated wood, ebonised wood
28 ¾ in. (73 cm.) high; 46 ½ in. (118 cm.) wide; 24 ¾ in. (61.5 cm.) deep

Provenance

Gansevoort Gallery, New York.

Special Notice

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Lot Essay

A former student of mechanical engineering, McArthur had been exposed to progressive industrial design and architecture since an early age, having grown up in the Chicago home that his father had commissioned from Frank Lloyd Wright. After a series of diverse adventures as an industrial designer, in 1929 McArthur settled in Los Angeles to establish a metal furniture business. Selecting aluminium tubing as his medium – a material is relative abundance due to the region’s aviation industries – McArthur devised a system of standardised components that could be assembled to deliver immense diversity of form. These progressive and modern furnishings swiftly attracted a sophisticated Hollywood clientele, and examples were used to furnish the Warner Brothers theatres, in addition to numerous other applications, including Frank Lloyd Wright’s Biltmore Hotel, Arizona. The cool, sleek industrial styling of his designs endure as icons of the American Machine Age aesthetic.

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