Daniella Ohad

I am so often asked by my readers and students about the sources of the images I feature in my posts and lectures. I would like to recommend one of the great sources for vintage photos of mid-century and Atomic Age design and architecture. USModernist, a nonprofit educational archive for the documentation, preservation, and promotion of […]

When French critic Roland Barthes published an article on Citroën DS, shortly after its debut in 1955, he coined the term ‘Goddess.’ Following his influential essay, entitled ‘Mythologies,’ the car came to symbolize French chic of the mid-century era. ‘It is obvious that the new Citroën,’ he said, ‘has fallen from the sky in as

For the opening of Part III in the online program The Story of Modern Design this Friday, I selected British designer Christopher Dresser (1834-1904) as the representative of those Victorian visionaries who pioneered modern design. Dresser is an old love of mine, a true Renaissance man of the Industrial Revolution era. He perceived himself as

If you walked into Yufuku, Tokyo’s most ambitious design/craft gallery, you left different. Because at Yufuku, you could see the most progressive and exceptional Japanese art, where the intersection of the ‘contemporary,’ the ‘crafted,’ and the ‘Japanese’ is demonstrated in the most intriguing and poetic ways. Lacquer, bamboo, ceramics, metal art, glass, could not have

Thank you, Design Cucina, for asking me to contribute a recipe for COVID days. This platform for and by the international design community, was initiated by London-based design historian/curator Libby Sellers and by Maria Cristina Didero, the brilliant editor of ICON Magazine.  Nearly three months after closing of New York, everyone is asking me if

To acknowledge the concluding talk in The Story of Modern Design (Part II), devoted to French Art Deco, I would to look at the legacy of brilliant architect Robert Mallet-Stevens (1886-1945). One of the least known of his generation, Mallet-Stevens ordered that his archives be destroyed upon his death.​For the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern

The most beloved skyscraper in New York. On this day, May 28, 1930, the Chrysler Building opened to the public. Designed by American architect William Van Alen (1883-1954), this metal spire, at 405 Lexington Avenue, was the tallest man-made structure in the world, surpassing 40 Wall Street. 11 months later it lost this title when

 fORThe position of French decorator Jean Royère (1902-81) as the embodiment of the blue chip designer has long been cemented in the art market. Since the late 1990’s, Royère was rediscovered and his organic, somewhat whimsical furniture and lighting have been sought after by art collectors, leading interior designers, and tastemakers across the globe, marked

She was born in Budapest, on the banks of the Danube River in 1935. As a result of a series of anti-Jewish measures which Hungary had enacted, her father was taken from his home in the middle of the night, placed in a working camp, and from there was sent to the freezing borders of

Last week, Italian designer Nanda Vigo (1936-2020) passed away in Milan. In the landscape of Italian design of the 70s, Vigo’s work was always progressive, futuristic, multidisciplinary, and conceptual. While she is often associated with the Italian Radical Design Movement, I think that her lamps, interiors, furniture, and installations, are more typical to space-age design,