American Designers' Gallery (1928) Design Group -Decorative Arts

Founded to Promote the Decorative Arts

The American Designer’s Gallery was founded in New York in 1928 to promote high aesthetic standards in the modern decorative arts and support designers’ professional standing. Its headquarters were located at the gallery of interior designer and decorator Paul Frankl. Donald Deskey, Ruth Reeves, Joseph Urban, and Henry Varum Poor were among the members.

Exhibitions

The inaugural show, held in the Chase National Bank building in New York in 1928, had 15 designers in ten entire rooms with some exhibitions. In 1929, there was a second exhibition.

Sources

Byars, M., & Riley, T. (2004). The design encyclopedia. Laurence King Publishing.

More Design Groups

Royal Designer for Industry – high quality industrial design

The British Royal Society of Arts (RSA) established the Royal Designer for Industry designation in 1936 to encourage high-quality industrial design and elevate the reputation of designers. It is given to persons who have demonstrated “consistent excellence in beautiful and efficient industrial design.”Read More →
Deutscher Werkbund German artistic and production association

The organisation, Deutscher Werkund was founded in Munich (1907) to improve products’ design through the joint efforts of artists, craftsmen, and manufacturers: its leading lights were Behrens, Theodor Fischer, Hermann Muthesius and Fritz Schumacher.Read More →
Memphis Group – it has little to do with Tennessee

Memphis was a movement in interior design introduced at the annual Milan Furniture Fair in 1981. It consisted of a group led by Memphis guru Ettore Sottass of avant-garde Italian designers. With outrageous interpretations of traditional furnishings and accessories, Memphis shocked the traditionally quiet industry.Read More →
Gruppo 9999 Italian Architecture and Design Group

Gruppo 9999 was a group of radical architects founded in Florence in 1968 by Giorgio Birelli, Carlo Caldini, Fabrizio Fiumi and Paolo Galli. Read More →
Archizoom avant-garde Italian design studio

Four architects—Andrea Branzi, Gilberto Corretti, Paolo Deganello, Massimo Morozzi—and two designers—Dario Bartolini and Lucia Bartolini—founded Archizoom this Italian avant-garde design studio in 1966 in Florence, Italy. They focused on exhibition installations and architecture and designing interiors and goods as part of the Italian Anti-Design or Radical Design movement.Read More →
Atika (1987 – 1999) – Czech Design Group

Formed in 1987, Atika was aligned with the Anti-Design orientation of Archizoom, Alchimia, and Memphis in Italy. One of its goals was to support Post-Modernism, seeking an outlet for experimentation and new means of expression. Its expressive language used signs of symbolic meanings that referred to nature, society, and urban destruction. Read More →
Unit One avant-garde 🇬🇧 group of architects, designers, 🎨 artists

Unit One was a British avant-garde community of architects and fine artists were created by designer, artist, and teacher Paul Nash to encourage Modernism in art and architecture in England. Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, and Ben Nicholson were among the group’s most prominent members, as were the architects’ Wells Coates and Colin Lucas. Read More…
Group of Ten (est. 1970) 🇸🇪 design collective promoting creative individuality

Because its members had previous careers in the textile industry, they wanted to be free to promote their creative ideas. Read More →
Groupe des Cinq French fraternity of designers

Its members included Pierre Chareau, Raymond Templier, Dominique (André Domin and Marcel Genevriere), and Pierre Legrain. In 1926 and 1927, they showed their work as the Groupe des Cinq at Galerie Barbazanges, Paris. The gallery, at 109 rue du Faubourg St. Honoré, was designed by André Lurcat. The association is not to be confused with…
Société des Artistes Décorateurs (Society of Decorative Artists) – France

The creation in 1901 of the Société des Artistes Décorateurs (SAD) reflected the increasing significance in France of this new profession of Decorative Arts. This resulted from a series of government-funded projects carried out in the fine and applied arts schools of France to improve the status of applied arts and training. Read More →
MARS (Modern Architectural Research Group) (1933 – 1957)

The MARS Group, or Modern Architectural Research Group, was a British architectural think tank created in 1933 by numerous famous architects and architectural critics participating in the British modernist movement. The MARS Group was created after several prior but unsuccessful attempts to establish an organization to promote modernist architects in the United Kingdom, similar to…
École de Nancy – Art Nouveau artisans and designers

Between 1890 and 1914, the École de Nancy, or Nancy School, was a group of Art Nouveau artisans and designers based in Nancy, France. The furniture designer Louis Majorelle, the cabinet maker and glass artist Jacques Grüber, the glass and furniture designer Émile Gallé, and the Daum crystal factory were important contributors.Read More →
American Designers’ Gallery (1928) Design Group -Decorative Arts

The American Designer’s Gallery was founded in New York in 1928 to promote high aesthetic standards in the modern decorative arts and support designers’ professional standing. Its headquarters were located at the gallery of interior designer and decorator Paul Frankl.Read More →
“Arbeitsrat für Kunst” art and architecture group in Germany

The Arbeitsrat für Kunst (Workers’ Council for Art) was an art and architecture organisation in Germany.Read More →
Superstudio (1966 – 1978) Italian avant-garde design group

Superstudio was an avant-garde architectural and design group that was closely linked to the Radical Design movement in Italy. Founded by Adolfo Natalini and Cristiano Toraldo di Francia in Florence in December 1966.Read More →

You may also be interested in

‘Exposition Universelle’ Paris 1900
Like a number of its predecessors and successors, the main object of the international 1900 Paris exhibition was to proclaim French preeminence in decorative arts, in this case, Art Nouveau, which had increased worldwide in the previous decade. One of the critical goals of the organisers was to stress the continuity between past and present-day French cultural achievements.

Group of Ten (est. 1970) design collective promoting creative individuality – Encyclopedia of Design
The Group of Ten (Tio-Gruppen) was established in 1970. Gunila Axén, BrittMarie Christofferson, Carl Johan De Geer, Susanne Grundell, Lotta Hagerman, Birgitta Hahn, Ingela Hakansson, Tom Hedqvist, Tage Müler, and Inez Svensson established the TIO Gruppen a Swedish design collective, which mirrored a renaissance of interest in handicrafts.

History of Design: Decorative Arts and Material Culture, 1400-2000 – Encyclopedia of Design
by Bard Graduate Center (Author), Pat Kirkham (Editor), Susan Weber (Editor) A comprehensive examination of the history of decorative arts and design throughout the world over the last 600 years.