Mid-century Modernised

THE NEW YORK DESIGNERS, DECORATORS AND DEALERS MAKING MID-CENTURY MODERN

“I believe in living, not creating monuments. I like luxury materials executed in ways that are practical and don’t scream, “This is expensive.” It goes without saying that it’s going to be beautiful” — Robert Stilin

Although modern interiors are often an amalgam of styles, the classics of 20th century design, from the likes of Mathieu Matégot, Charotte Perriand and Jacques Adnet have become everyone’s new old favourite aesthetic. The writer and art historian Cara Greenberg first coined the phrase “Mid-Century Modern” as the title for her seminal 1984 book, Mid-Century Modern: Furniture of the 1950s, about a period that has since become a global and iconic design movement. It’s an aesthetic captured perfectly in Case Study House #22 (1960), the famous Julius Shulman photograph of Pierre Koenig’s recently completed Stahl House, built high in the Hollywood Hills, where mid-century design is superimposed onto the glowing lights of Los Angeles after dark. Just as the Stahl House emphasized simple horizontal planes, the restraint, functionality and elegance of mid-century design is one of the reasons for its enduring popularity. This is a trend, at least in part, driven by a socially-conscious generation; there’s a greater appreciation for authenticity and that good-quality things will always be beautiful no matter what, and also no matter what’s fashionable. In recent years a new wave of New York designers, decorators and dealers have been rethinking mid-century style for contemporary lifestyles and environments, mixing it with the work of emerging artists and young talents to create what future generations might look back on as twenty-first century style.

*Alexandre Birman’s Park Avenue apartment, designed by Studio Mellone, image c/o Studio Mellone*

*Galerie Michael Bargo, image c/o Galerie Michael Bargo*

NEAL BECKSTEDT

Known for his restrained yet welcoming interiors, architect and designer Neal Beckstedt describes himself as a modernist, with an appreciation of craftsmanship, be that antique or contemporary. In the apartment Beckstedt designed at One United Nations Park, a luxury residential tower designed by Richard Meier & Partners, Mid-century-inspired elements — bold hues and sinuous curves — add drama, while an otherwise neutral palette of greys and woods lend a calming touch and create consistency. “Playing off of the modernist building was really the first launch point for the design,” Beckstedt told Architectural Digest. “It’s keeping with the mid-century modern style, but clean and straightforward.” For a SoHo loft, Beckstedt incorporated a mix of French mid-century, Scandinavian, and custom pieces. “One of the clients had a strong knowledge of design and already had a few things in mind that he wanted to find, including a Jean Prouvé cabinet,” says Beckstedt. “It was clear he truly appreciated the rarity and value of the piece, which was exciting”. Without falling into pastiche, Beckstedt manages to convey a sense of internationalism while keeping the design rooted in New York; in essence, it’s a twenty first century take on classic mid-century style. This mixing of old and new, conflating styles and periods reflects Beckstedt’s preference for simple, pared back interiors that contain mid-century and contemporary furnishings. “Every space needs some vintage elements to give some sense of history and authenticity,” Beckstedt says of his approach to design, “I look for pieces that are graceful, rich in detail yet very functional in its purpose.”

ANDRE MELLONE

A trained classicist, the Brazilian-born designer Andre Mellone likes to use the word “international” when describing his design sensibility; his refined style and ability to seamlessly mix old and new has attracted a clientele that includes influential figures in the worlds of art and fashion. Whilst drawing inspiration from a variety of sources, Mellone feels most passionate about mid-century design: “I feel I have a legitimate claim to it, because I grew up in the 1970s and ’80s.” The son of Brazilian industrial designer Oswaldo Mellone (whose circle of friends included Sérgio Rodrigues and Jorge Zalszupin, two giants of Brazilian mid-century design, and the Pritzker winner architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha,) Mellone grew up in a modernist glass house, with a sunken living room, built-in banquettes and furnishings by Saarinen, Bertoia and Poul Henningsen. Mid-century was the prevalent style in Brazil due its explosion during the 1940s through to the 1960s — Oscar Niemeyer, Lúcio Costa, Vilanova Artigas and Paulo Mendes da Rocha, to name but a few — and Mellone was educated and influenced by men who extolled mid-century design as modern, forward-thinking and real.

Understandably, Mellone still has an affinity for Brazilian furniture, but he’s equally enthused by design “classics” from the likes of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Charles and Ray Eames; this is despite the fact that many such pieces have fallen victim to a myriad copies, fakes, reproductions or, quite simply, are the product of over-saturation. “I just insist on finding an appealing way of doing it right,” he told Introspective. “I don’t mind using a Barcelona chair, even though it’s been used in every four-star hotel lobby. I don’t run away from the classics.”

At Clover Grocery, an upscale épicerie in Manhattan’s West Village (the studio’s first hospitality project,) Mellone was inspired by the food business of the 1920’s and 30’s, but primarily, by the kitchen at Milan’s Villa Necchi Campiglio, pairing blond wood shelves with bronze finishes and curvilinear counters in Bardiglio marble. Shoe designer Alexandre Birman, who share’s Mellone’s appreciation for mid-century furnishings, asked him to design his eyrie-like pied-à-terre at 432 Park Avenue. “We wanted to rethink a mid century environment housed in a contemporary building, mixed with young artists and contemporary artisans of fabrics and accessories,” Mallone told Architectural Digest. Carefully chosen original vintage pieces — like a rare prototype chair by Eames and a Nakashima free-form table — are mixed with contemporary furniture and art, including furniture by J.M. Szymanski and Rick Owens, ceramics by Heyja Do and a twisted iron bar work by Neil Beloufa.

*One Pine-Board chair (2017) by Green River Project, image c/o Galerie Michael Bargo*

ROBERT STILIN

Designer Robert Stilin, known for mixing blue-chip art and design with anonymous or industrial pieces — favourites include American Industrial shelving and light fixtures, antique oak farm tables, and Jules Leleu club chairs — has a fresh perspective on balancing old and new, based on comfort and pragmatism: “I make spaces that are not show places,” he told Introspective, “they’re places where you can live your life.” Through an alchemic layering of antique, vintage and contemporary, Stilin is able to create laid-back, curated interiors that, while referencing and taking inspiration from the past, feel wholly contemporary. “I think that a mid-century room is so boring, but I love mid-century furniture. I like pulling things out of different time periods and re-creating them for today’s lifestyle”.

In his own New York City apartment, easily identifiable pieces by Charlotte Perriand, Poul Kjærholm and Paul Laszlo sit next to furnishings that defy classification; an idiosyncratic, De Stijl–inflected Swiss club chair, a brutalist chrome coffee table and a set of vintage dining chairs that look as if they came from a 1950s French alpine ski chalet. Similarly, in an updated 1980s Hamptons beach house, the designer used a pale, monochromatic colour scheme as the backdrop for a collection of works by artists like Agnes Martin, Joan Brown and Damien Hirst, arranged in rooms furnished with pieces by such 20th-century masters as George Nakashima, Jean Royère, Charlotte Perriand, Maxime Old and Børge Mogensen. That these deftly layered, art-centric interiors look laid-back, liveable and relaxed is testament to Stilin’s keen sense of balance.

In the Upper East Side Manhattan duplex of an art collector, Stilin hung a Max Ingrand mirror over an Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann mantelpiece. A quartet of armchairs by Giò Ponti and Giulio Minoletti and a François-Xavier Lalanne sheep face a Mattia Bonetti coffee table — and the art, which includes an Andy Warhol flower painting, a gilded sculpture by Harry Bertoia and a large-scale piece by Richard Prince. “Even when we renovate, brand-new looks cold,” Stilin explains. “Old things have a history in them — a history of life that takes the edge off everything that’s new. And they look good,” As a result, he’s always on the lookout for French 1940’s and ‘50’s furniture, “anything by Børge Mogensen,” as well as mid-century ceramics, lamps and rugs. “That’s a big part of my work — adding different layers of texture and age.”

MICHAEL BARGO

From the third floor of a brick tenement (a former dosshouse) in New York’s Chinatown, decorator and design-dealer Michael Bargo runs a by-appointment gallery, dealing primarily in mid-century French furniture from the likes of Charlotte Perriand and Jacques Adnet to Jean Prouvé and Boris Lacroix. “I want the space to be an extension of my apartment and Instagram,” he explains, “a way for people to experience my aesthetic and way of approaching design.” Bargo sees education and the democratization of design as a benefit of social media and his Instagram feed — a “visual diary” and mood board for his inspirations and references — is an education in twentieth century design. “While my focus and interests have always been more on the vintage and antiques side of things, I think through things like Instagram people have become more knowledgeable of that world, and it’s opened it up,” he told Another, “Now there’s a huge interest in that 20th-century design world. For me that’s what’s exciting, people have much more knowledge and interest.”

Bargo moved in 2004 from Corbin, Kentucky to attend the New York School of Interior Design, and after graduating worked for the decorator Thomas O’Brien at Aero Studios. Before finding his current 2,000-square foot rental, Bargo started out selling from his one-bed Brooklyn Heights apartment, before opening the eponymous Galerie Michael Bargo in an inconspicuous shopping mall in Lower Manhattan. In Bargo’s current home and gallery space painted white walls and floors provide a serene backdrop to a collection of African figurines, Jeanneret lounge chairs and a series of conceptual hand-hewn pieces by Aaron Aujla and Benjamin Bloomstein, the up-and-coming artist duo behind New York furniture studio Green River Project.

Indeed in recent years, Bargo has been fostering young talents through a rotating series of exhibitions. The first was a solo show by Aujla and Bloomstein, the reference point being the seaside holiday cabin, Cabanon, Le Corbusier’s built in 1951 in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin — a small enclave between Monaco and Manton — on the Côte d’Azur in France. “There’s a certain elegance in his approach that really feels like it’s missing in New York City,” Aujla told W Magazine. “There’s a time and a place that Michael romanticizes — French mid-century — and what he does best is to imagine what that would look like today.” The three have since continued to work together, with Bargo hiring Green-River to work on his own kitchen, with Le Corbusier inspired laminate cupboard fronts and hand-carved pulls from the duo’s forthcoming hardware line.

*SoHo Penthouse, designed by Neal Beckstedt, image c/o Neal Beckstedt Studio*

GREEN RIVER PROJECT LLC

Since sculptor Benjamin Bloomstein and painter Aaron Aujla founded Green River Project in autumn 2017, they’ve built a discerning clientele ranging from artists Mirabelle Marden and Robert Gober, to the curator Suzanne Demisch and fashion brand The Row. Their work, which occupies the fluid space between art and design, and references everything from the first class train cabins of the 1960s to Indian modernism, has become gradually more refined and conceptual, elevating the familiar and evoking Donald Judd’s experiments in minimalism and raw functionality. “We’re taking a fine-art practice and saying, ‘How can we make it usable?’ ” explains Aujla of their approach.

Their first piece, which has since appeared in different iterations across collections, was the angular One Pine-Board chair, which is fabricated in less than 15 minutes from a single 12-foot piece of pine. Aujla carries out research and focuses on the art-historical context, while Bloomstein develops designs and prototypes. Whist the duo approach each piece like a sculpture, with an emphasis on form, each of their collections is imbued with an art historical narrative. For a collection inspired by the industrial-age the pair researched French designer Jean-Michel Frank, resulting in an aluminium table, its hard edges softened by mitered corners. A series of half-moon stools are upholstered in corduroy hand-painted by designer Emily Bode, Aujla’s long-time collaborator, an extension of the garments she offers to personalize with glyphs hand-drawn according to its wearer’s particular story; this is a practice she resurrected from a mid-century Purdue University tradition, that results in a sui generis garment that double as a walking billboard for the wearers cultural value system.

They recently worked with Andre Mellone on a residential project in São Paulo, using a version of the One Pine-Board chair as the basis for a sofa, love seat and an eight-foot dining set in African mahogany. As well as furniture, the pair have designed a wood shop in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and a Noguchi-inspired East Village storefront. Rather than follow the international design-week circuit, work is released on a seasonal calendar — more akin to the fashion-week schedule — which allows Bloomstein and Aujla to explore a range of materials and forms, execute several pieces and move on. The result is often an unexpected mésalliance of precision and immediacy, with a formal geometry echoing the early modernist architecture canon — in particular, the work of masters like Frank Lloyd Wright and Gerrit Rietveld — whilst remaining unabashedly contemporary.

Ben Weaver

Benjamin WeaverNovember 15, 2019