334
334
Rare Modern Design Surveys, sixteen
Rare Modern Design Surveys, sixteen
estimate: $500–700
result: $1,500
provenance: Collection of Mark McDonald
Complete Lot Details
Seven Decades of Design Wahneta T. Robinson, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, 1968. n.p. pages, Softcover.
Prize Designs for Modern Furniture for the International Competition for Low-Cost Furniture Design Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1950. 78 pages, Softcover.
Design: A Creative Approach Sybil Emerson, International Textbook Company, Scranton, 1955. 125 pages, Hardcover.
Modern Furnishings for the Home 2 William J. Hennessey and Eliza Dornin Hennessey, Reinhold Publishing Corporation, New York, 1956. 368 pages, Hardcover.
Modern Furnishings for the Home William J. Hennessey, Reinhold Publishing Corporation, New York, 1952. 296 pages, Hardcover.
Contemporary Art Applied to the Store and its Display Frederick Kiesler, Brentano's Publishers, New York, 1930. 158 pages, Hardcover.
The New Interior Decoration: An Introduction to Its Principles, and an International Survey of Its Methods Dorothy Todd and Raymond Mortimer, Charles Scribner's Sons, London/New York, 1929. 42 pages, Hardcover.
Exhibitions and Displays Erberto Carboni, Silvana Editoriale d'arte, Milan, 1957. 217 pages, Hardcover with dustjacket.
Dynamic Display: Technique and Practice Frank J. Bernard, The Display Publishing Co., Cincinnati, 1952. 260 pages, Hardcover with dustjacket.
Organic Design in Home Furnishings, Reprint Edition Eliot F. Noyes, Ayer Company Publishers, North Stratford, NH, 2001. 48 pages, Hardcover.
Mark McDonald
The Founder of Mid-century Design
Mark McDonald has always been at the epicenter of the world that is mid-century design, to a large extent, it is a world he created. For over forty years, Mark has pioneered whole fields of collecting, providing the scholarship and creating the market for mid-century furniture, studio jewelry, ceramics and Italian glass.
In 1983, Mark opened Fifty/50 with partners Mark Isaacson and Ralph Cutler. This groundbreaking gallery defined collectors’ taste. At the time, modern works were still largely overlooked; Mark and his partners collected and presented the rarest and most interesting pieces, often working with the makers themselves, to create compelling exhibitions accompanied by catalogs documenting the work.
In the 1990s, Mark opened Gansevoort Gallery, where he continued to curate collections and exhibitions of lasting impact. Over the years, he established relationships with artists and their estates becoming the go to authority on the designs of Art Smith, Ilonka Karasz and Leza McVey, among others. His enthusiasm for the material extended beyond the gallery floor to the back room where lucky visitors got to flip through Mark’s impressive design reference library and discuss the importance of works with him.
A connoisseur and wealth of knowledge, Mark became a resource for prominent collections across the globe—private and public alike. He inspired a generation of collectors and dealers introducing designers and their production to an audience that continues to grow. In 2002, Mark closed Gansevoort and established 330 gallery in Hudson, New York. Now, semi-retired, Marks splits his time between New York and Florida. He still collects, curates, supports, and shepherds the scholarship of mid-century design.