"I honestly could have spent another three years on it," Elissa Auther, the Museum of Arts and Design's Windgate research and collections curator, tells AD PRO of her new exhibition. That showcase, titled "Vera Neumann Paints a Scarf," focuses on the life and work of the prolific female designer. And we really do mean prolific—according to Auther, Neumann copyrighted 8,000 designs during her lifetime.
Auther clearly respects and has an affinity for her subject, but even so, she would willingly spend upward of another thousand days researching Neumann's work because there's just so much stuff to investigate. "She produced an enormous amount of work," Auther says. "She has a huge cult following, and there's always new things I find online."
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There's another reason Neumann's oeuvre is so extensive: "She consciously wanted to reach the middle market," Auther notes. "'I don’t believe only the wealthy deserve good design' is one of her most famous quotes." But this guiding principle may have been a double-edged sword. While Auther thinks it may have contributed to why Neumann isn't more widely known and respected today, it helped make her commercially successful, and it was routed in deeply held egalitarian principles.
She was "comfortable" identifying as an artist, designer, and businesswoman, Auther notes. "I think that goes along with her democratic ethos," she adds. "[Vera] was very influenced by Bauhaus ideals."
Born in 1907, Neumann founded her own company in 1942, which kicked off her career. Members of the Bauhaus school were not just distant figures; they were midcentury peers. Vera and her husband George—her partner in work and in life—were "members of the Good Design movement," Auther explains. "They were naturally in sync with other modernists of their generation." The couple was also friends with Marcel Breuer. He designed their house in Hudson, New York, as well as their company showrooms—photographs of which are included in the exhibition.
The scope of this New York show delves at times very deeply into the purview of interior design. Organized in five sections, the exhibition begins with an overview of Vera the woman, and the growth of her company. There is an introduction to her signature ladybug motif, as well as a discussion of her brilliant self-marketing. Savvily aligning her image with that of an artist, Vera regularly deployed the phrase "Vera paints…" to great success. The phrase, reflected in the exhibition title, is a nod to her silk scarves—the product for which she is best known.
But her paintings—of abstracts, florals, fish, you name it—are also addressed as stand-alone works. They formed the basis for her interiors textiles too, the likes of which Schumacher recently brought back to life with a capsule collection. In the exhibition, an entire section looks at Neumann's "art of table setting," and her table linens in particular.
It is those linens with which Auther has a personal connection. "My mother had the fern-themed place mats," she says. "I still have the Christmas linens." Later, Auther reflects, "I grew up with Vera in my home. I've met so many people who know Vera from that domestic context. There’s a nostalgic aspect to it."
