George Sakier (1897 – 1965) was a multifaceted artist who worked as an interior designer, painter, art director, engineer, and packaging designer. He was also a pioneering industrial designer in the United States. His career was as varied as it was extensive, and his influence on the development of a modern design aesthetic was felt not only in the United States but also in Europe.
Sakier emerged as an arbiter of modernism and one of the first industrial designers during this period, particularly in the 1930s. His designs for the American Radiator Company’s bathroom and kitchen fixtures reveal some of the earliest manifestations of a uniquely American modernist style. Sakier quietly disseminated his modern aesthetic throughout the country through the market appeal and affordability of his industrially designed products.
Education
From the late 1910s he studied at the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn New York; Columbia University Graduate School in New York and painting in Paris.
Biography
At the age of 19, he published the textbook Machine Design and Descriptive Geometry. He began working as an engineer, designing automatic machinery; and was introduced to art during World War I by painting camouflage patterns. He taught machine design and engineering mathematics after the war. In 1925, he was appointed assistant art director of French Vogue, and he campaigned for the restoration of the Mayan collection housed in Paris’ Trocadéro. The collection was subsequently put on view.
Returning to New York, he became art director of the magazines Modes and Manners and Harper’s Bazaar. From 1927, he was head of the bureau of design development of the American Radiator and Standard Sanitary Corporation, where he designed bathtubs and wash basins, and was simultaneously an independent designer.
Kitchen Designed by George Sakier’, 1939. From Decorative Art 1939 -…
Kitchen Designed by George Sakier’, 1939. From Decorative Art 1939 – The Studio Year Book, edited by C. G. Holme. [The Studio Ltd., London, 1939]. Artist Unknown. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images
He was one of the few staff designers in an American company during the 1920s. From 1929, he designed for Fostoria Glass in Moundsville, West Virginia, for which he executed a distinctive and extensive collection of domestic glassware.
Through Sakier’s efforts at Fostoria, American open-stock glassware for the first time became more popular than European. Sakier believed in furnishing the public with what it wanted rather than what it needed; he raised no objection when one of his designs was copied and sold in inexpensive variety-store chains.
Sakier designed the first prefabricated bathrooms, available as complete units or as separate components; 233 units were first installed in a Washington apartment building in 1933—34. His freelance-design activities produced $15,000 to $25,000 income a year by the mid-1930s.
Exhibitions
In c1918, he showed canvases at the Galerie Julien Lévy in Paris, and a one-person 1949 exhibition at the Philadelphia Art Alliance. His work included in 1934 ‘The Industrial Arts Exposition,’ National Alliance of Art, Rockefeller Center, New York; 1939 ‘New York World’s Fair.’
Sources
Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing.
Klein, C. (2012). The Quiet Dissemination of American Modernism: George Sakier’s Designs for American Radiator. Design Issues, 28(1), 81-90. Retrieved May 10, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/41427812
Now Important 20th Century Design. Sakier, George collection of ten object sotheby’s n08920lot6fv3den. (n.d.). http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/lot.56.html/2012/20th-century-design-n08920.
Wikipedia contributors. (2020, December 15). George Sakier. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:42, May 10, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_Sakier&oldid=994487141
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George Sakier (1897 – 1965) American Industrial Designer
George Sakier (1897 – 1965) was a multifaceted artist who worked as an interior designer,Read More →
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Thomas Lamb – Industrial Designer – “The Handle Man”
Thomas Lamb founded his textile design studio at seventeen, specialising in advertising, fashion, and magazine illustration. In the 1920s, his bedspreads, napkins, and draperies were immensely popular. Many New York department stores carried them, including Lord & Taylor, Macy’s, and Saks Fifth Avenue.Read More →
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Anton Grot (1884 – 1974) Polish Art Director
Antoni Franciszek Groszewski was born in Kiebasin, Poland, and passed away in Stanton, California. He majored in interior decoration, illustration, and design at the Krakow art academy and a technical school in Königsberg, Germany. In 1909, he changed his name and moved to the United States.Read More →
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Gere Kavanaugh American textile, industrial & interior designer
Kavanaugh worked for General Motors as a stylist, primarily designing exhibitions to demonstrate autos and creating displays, model kitchens, and interiors. She was one of the company’s first female designers, called the “Damsels of Design” by design director Harley Earl. Read More →
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Eames Chair Review: We Tested the Lounge Chair and Ottoman
First developed by lifelong couple and design partners Charles and Ray Eames in 1956, the lounge chair was the duo’s interpretation of a 19th-century club chair—designed to resemble a worn first baseman’s mitt and made of high-quality materials like supple leather, wood veneer, and cast aluminum.Read More →
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Keith Haring Mural – Collingwood, Australia
Those who have an interest in the art world will instantly recognize this Melbourne wall mural as the work of Keith Haring. Haring was born in 1958 and was known for being one of the main figures who brought street art into the mainstream sphere. His social activism and philanthropic values made Haring an iconic…
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Richard Schultz (1930 – 2021) American sculptor and furniture designer
In 1951, he became a member of Knoll’s design development group. Initially, he collaborated on the wire Diamond sitting collection with Harry Bertoia. Schultz designed the Petal table in 1960, steel-wire lounge chairs in 1961, and outdoor Leisure Collection seating and tables in 1966 for Knoll. He designed a 1981 collection of outdoor furniture while…
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Paul Howard Manship (1885 – 1966) – American Sculptor
Paul Howard Manship was an American Sculptor. He was influenced by Hindu and Buddhist Indian Sculpture. He began his artistic education at the St. Paul School of Art in Minnesota, and he attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts before moving onto New York City’s Art Student League. Throughout his subsequent career, he created more…
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Best Amateur Living Space: The Hunter Greenhouse – Catskills Mountains
The winner of the 2018 Remodelista Considered Design Awards Best Amateur Living/Dining space is Ely Franko, for his project The Hunter Greenhouse in the Catskills. His project was chosen as a finalist by guest judge Stephen Alesch , who had this to say: “What a perfect little hideout—full of surprise and compact good energy!Read More…
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Wharton Esherick (1887 – 1970) American Sculptor and Furniture Designer
As a result, his sculptural furniture and furnishings are his most well-known works. For his leadership in designing non-traditional designs and supporting and inspiring artists/craftspeople by example, Esherick was dubbed the “dean of American artisans” by his peers during his lifetime. Esherick’s impact can still be apparent in contemporary artisans’ work, especially in the Studio…
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Pio Manzù (1939 – 1969) Italian industrial designer – Encyclopedia of Design
Pio Manzù (1939 – 1969) was an industrial designer from Italy. He designed automobiles, taxis, and tractors for Fiat, lighting and appliances for Olivetti, packaging for Form, Industrial Design, Style Auto, and Interiors, and wrote for Form, Industrial Design, Style Auto, and Interiors. He created the Parentesi lamp, which Achille Castiglioni finished in the late 1970s.
Marc Harrison (1936 – 1998) American Industrial designer – Encyclopedia of Design
Marc Harrison (1936-1998) was an industrial designer from the United States. Harrison sustained a significant brain injury in a sledding accident when he was eleven years old. He had to relearn simple functions like walking and talking as a result of the crash.
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