By TIM BROUK
tbrouk@journalandcourier.com
If an oval could talk, it would tell Florence Knoll, “thank you.”
Knoll, one of the most revered interior and furniture designers from 1940 to 1960, created an oval table for the office that has become an industry-wide standard decades later.
“She believed it was inviting and helped bring an open feeling to the office,” said David Bright, vice president in communications for Knoll, Inc.
Bright spoke on Knoll’s life and career Thursday to open the “Florence Knoll: Defining Modern” touring exhibit, which runs through Friday at Purdue University’s Patti and Rusty Rueff galleries inside Pao Hall for the Visual and Performing Arts.
“Defining Modern” has made stops in Philadelphia and New York City and is on its way to Boston and Columbus, Ohio.
The strong design program at Purdue, the university’s size and the sleek confines of the Rueff galleries helped bring in the exhibit that features several actual designs by Knoll and colorful prints that show a history of her work.
Visitors should not sit on the pieces that include stylized couches, tables, chairs and, yes, an oval office table. The set up is like a window into the future from the past.
“It’s so amazing how modern it looks when it was created so long ago,” said Amanda Recker, a sophomore majoring in visual communication and design.
Knoll was born Florence Schust in 1917 in Saginaw, Mich. She is still living, residing in Florida as Florence Knoll Bassett. Knoll got her start during the 1930s working out of the Kingswood School in Michigan before moving onto the Architectural Association in London. In the 1940s, she worked under the tutelage of Eliel Saarinen and Mies van der Rohe, and her designs took off when she moved back to America after getting in at the NYC architectural firm Harrison and Abramovitz.
After World War II, Knoll’s designs made use of open space, reductive light and brightly colored wall panels. Around this, the furniture shined with ultramodernism. Distinct curves, sharp angles and a feeling of openness in the room were the norm.
The way Knoll approached her clients was groundbreaking, too. She created “paste-ups” — three-dimensional blueprints or lay-outs that use the material or fabric of the carpeting, tile or furniture so they could see and feel what they would be getting. A few of Knoll’s more famous designs hanging in the Rueff gallery include CBS studios and parts of the John F. Kennedy airport.
Nancy Wright is a graduate from the interior design program at Purdue University. She works at the Knoll firm in Indianapolis and said most of the employees there are Purdue grads, too. Wright wanted to give back to her alma mater by bringing “Defining Modern” to Purdue.
Purdue students’ designs, models and projections fill the west Rueff gallery.
Hundreds of Purdue students, staff and faculty checked out the exhibit’s opening on Thursday and most left impressed and inspired. Sophomore Allison Brown said she doesn’t see furniture in her future career, but she can still get ideas from Knoll’s work.
“Her use of color and layout can be used in other design fields,” Brown said.
