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Joseph Urban Audio Exhibition

Joseph Urban Audio Exhibition

Setting the Scene

Setting the Scene Transcript

Amy Dehan, Curator of Decorative Arts and Design, reads the exhibition introduction.

The Wormser Bedroom

The Wormser Family

Black and white photograph of Drake Tower, looking up from street-level.

The Drake Tower

Blueprint of the Drake Tower's 27th floor, showing Elaine's bedroom.

The Penthouse

Joseph Urban (1872-1933), Untitled Sketch, circa 1928. Joseph Urban Archive, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University

The Commission

Highlighted Artworks

A bed with a curved, upholstered, green headboard and matching green bedcover with trailing floral decorations on its skirt and black corseting at its corners.

Bed and Bedcover

Rectangular piece of carpet with a design of flowers, circles, and fish-shaped forms in blue, green, and beige on a black ground.

Two desk lamps with brass, skinny, angled stems, triangular frosted glass shades, and square black glass bases.

Pair of Lamps

$Pair of rectangular, bright green glass bottles cut in a way that refracts light in a triangular pattern. Bottle stoppers are fan-shaped in solid green glass.$ Perfume Bottles

Poodle, England (Staffordshire), mid-19th century, earthenware, Gift of Mary Reis Sullivan, John Reis and Richard Reis in memory of their mother Elaine Wormser Reis, 2018.144

Joseph Urban

Joseph Urban seated at his desk, looking away from the camera. Framed pictures hang on the wall behind him.

Joseph Urban (1872–1933)

Color drawing of a bedroom for a stage production, featuring colorful, transparent drapery with floral patterning.

Joseph Urban's Style

Joseph Urban, (American, b. Austria, 1872–1933), Heinrich Lefler (Austrian, 1863–1919), Mary’s Child, 1911, chromolithograph, Cincinnati Art Museum, Mary R. Schiff Library, Gift of Mrs. Samuel Taft, 1924

Illustrations

Black and white photo of an interior with dark furniture, dark floral wallpaper, a silver tea service and vase, and triangular hanging lamps.

Wiener Werkstätte of America

A painting by Gustav Klimt of a bare-breasted young woman looking to the side and wearing a colorful robe. She holds daffodils and stands in front of a colorful mural depicting flowers and men in robes.

The Role of the Dancer

Color drawing of an interior for a stage production, featuring black, white, red and blue geometric patterning.

Opera and Theater

A film still from 1931 depicting a man and woman standing in a circular interior

Ziegfeld Follies and Film

View of a set model for Ziegfeld Follies, displaying painted furniture details and the use of receding planes to produce the illusion of depth.

Color drawing of a gold and black building exterior, featuring balcony rows assembled in a triangle shape and decorated with delicate gold ornament.

Architecture and Interior Design

Highlighted Artworks

Pair of round multi-colored cigarette urns with circular bases.

Cigarette Urns

Set of chairs with curved backs that slope into arms with variegated striped cushions.

Gondola Chairs

Set of chairs with curved backs that slope into arms with variegated striped cushions.

North and South Walls, Ballroom, Central Park Casino, New York City, 1928

Color drawing showing details of the Hotel Gibson wall mural and stage backdrop, featuring animal, vegetal, and figural forms in deep blue, green, orange, and pink.

Stage for the Roof Garden Ballroom, Hotel Gibson

Unlocking the Room

A black and white image of Elaine Wormser’s bedroom with digitally created lines mapping out the space.

Unlocking the Room

Documents with images of furniture, blueprints, and archival photos of the room laid out on a table.

Searching for Clues

Woman adjusts the skirt of Elaine Wormser's bedspread as it drapes over the bed.

Preparing and Reuniting the Collection

Reproduction of Elaine Wormser's armchair, with blue and yellow striped sample upholstery draped over it. In the foreground, lying on top of a reproduction hassock, is a printout of the black and white photograph of the chair and a hassock.

The Role of Reproductions

A curved dressing table and chair, with enlarged archival photos of Elaine Wormser's bedroom sitting on the table.

Models: Getting it Right

Striped yellow, green, and blue fabric samples next to a colorful lidded box and dish.

Material Substitutions and Understanding Urban's Fabrics

Highlighted Artworks

A recreated design of Elaine Wormser's carpet on paper, next to woven carpet samples and colored yarns in beige, grass green, olive green, and dark and light blue.

Carpet Samples

Armless chair with striped upholstery in a blue and yellow variegated striped pattern.

Molded Samples, 2021, produced by R. Mark Adams (American, b. 1950), urethane plastic

Molded Samples

Choosing Modern

Six young women sit in a crowded stadium, with bobbed hair, cloches, raised hemlines, and scarves. Four of the six women look directly at the camera, the others look towards what is happening on the field.

Choosing Modern

Young woman sitting at her mirrored dressing table facing the camera.

Who Was the Modern Woman?

A city filled with the glowing lights of skyscrapers and electric streetlamps

color print depicting two leaping brown antelope and a woman with yellow bobbed hair, surrounded by geometric patterns in yellow and mauve

Collection of black and white photographs show home interiors.

The Old and The New

Highlighted Artworks

Large standing round mirror on a rectangular silver base. Green seat with gold trim and a blue cushion.

Mirror and Seat

Three-piece pajama set in pink, green, blue and white, with long full pants, V-neck blouse and long sleeve jacket.

Hostess Pajamas: Blouse, Pants, and Jacket

Sage green knee-length long-sleeved dropped-waist dress with metallic trim.

Black and light green hexagon-shaped compact with long twisted black cord and tassel.

Vanity Case

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