Curtaining the Curtain Wall Traversing the Boundaries of the American Postwar Domestic Environment

Frank Bros Advertisement from Arts & Architecture, June 1953

Architects typically repudiate curtains, believing that this element that modulates vision compromises the architect’s conception, obscuring and softening the precise geometry of architectural forms. Decorators, for their part, consider curtains essential; veiling sunlight and views, curtains make domestic privacy possible and offer relief from the austere spaces created by architects often obsessed with form at the expense of comfort. Joel Sanders, “Curtain Wars: Architects, Decorators, and the Twentieth-Century Domestic Interior,” Harvard Design Magazine no.16 (Winter/Spring 2002):14-20.

George Nelson and Henry Wright, Tomorrow’s House (New York: Simon and Schuster, Inc., 1945)

George Nelson and Henry Wright, Tomorrow’s House (New York: Simon and Schuster, Inc., 1945)

Advertisement for Thermopane windows, from Architecurral Forum, August 1949

“The American’s house was never his castle; it does

not even afford him privacy. Although one is more

or less familiar with his frustrations, nobody ever

thought to impute them, at least partly, to his house.

So mixed up is he that he is losing track of its very

functions…The livingroom has been turned into

the meanest sort of auditorium, unfit for

conviviality, and probably no other civilization has

produced gardens as melancholy as ours; aesthetics

apart, our suburban front lawns and backyards are a

gigantic waste of potential outdoor living space.” Bernard Rudofsky, Behind the Picture Window (New York: Oxford University Press, 1955), 6-8.

Panaview Advertisement from Arts & Architecture, December1954

“Views were not just compared to paintings, photomurals, and scenic wallpaper, they were kin: all were media that organized visible light into a brand of scenery available to enhance a sense of interior space.” Sandy Isenstadt, The Modern American House: Spaciousness and Middle Class Identity (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 233.

“A Tree-Shaded House in Town,” from Richard Neutra, Mystery & Realities of the Site (New York: Morgan & Morgan, 1951), 48.

“Fortisan by Celanese” advertisement, Interiors, January 1956, pp.36-37.

Mary Roche, “Bringing in the View,” New York Times (March 30, 1947)

Not so long ago a window was simply a square hole in the wall. It was supposed to serve

a number of purposes, but adding grace and beauty to the room was not one of them.

Nor was it the focal point, the gathering place for people in the room…All this has

changed. In the contemporary home, tremendous stress is placed on “fenestration” …

The window has acquired a new place and purpose in the whole scheme of living. Dorothy Liebes, “Enhancing the View,” New York Times (October 3, 1948).

Philip Johnson, arch., Davis House, Wayzata, Minnesota, 1954; Richard Kelly, lighting design

Aurora by Columbia, advertisement, Interiors, August 1955, p.83 Columbia Mills, advertisement, Interiors, November1955, p.68

Richard Kelly, Curtains with imbedded electric lights, Kelly Apartment, New York City, ca. 1958

Philip Johnson, arch., Four Seasons Bar and Grill Room, Seagram Building, New York City, 1958; curtains by Marie Nichols; Richard Kelly, lighting design Photograph: Hagen Stier

William A. Burden Apartment, Philip Johnson, architectural renovation; Richard Kelly,, lighting design; New York City, 1954

Fine Fabrics, advertisement, Interiors, January 1955, p.34.

Anton Maix Fabric Advertisement, Interiors, October, 1955, pp.81

“The association of women with private space and

domesticity is not simply reflected in the practice of

interior decoration but actively produced by it.”

Peter McNeil, “Designing Women: Gender, Sexuality, and the Interior

Decorator, c.1890-1940” Art History no.4 (December, 1994): 631-657.