The Miller Company Collection of Abstract Art (c. 1945-55) was formed in

Meriden, Connecticut Meriden is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, located halfway between the regional cities of New Haven, Connecticut, New Haven and Hartford, Connecticut, Hartford. In 2020, the population of the city was 60,850.Emily Hall Tremaine Emily Hall Tremaine (1908–1987) was a prominent art director and collector. She published ''Apéritif'', a society magazine. Early life Tremaine was born in Butte, Montana, in 1908. The Tremaine Collection Hall Tremaine's interest in art beg ...

in c. 1945. Works from the collection were featured in the ''Painting toward architecture'' exhibition, putting forth post-WWII art, design and architecture crossovers, originating at the

Wadsworth Atheneum The Wadsworth Atheneum is an art museum in Hartford, Connecticut. The Wadsworth is noted for its collections of European Baroque art, ancient Egyptian and Classical bronzes, French and American Impressionist paintings, Hudson River School lands ...

in Hartford, CT, and travelling to 28 additional venues in 1947–52 across the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

.Preece, R. J. (2017
"Rethinking 'Painting toward architecture' (1947-52)"
''artdesigncafe.com / Sculpture magazine''. Retrieved June 26, 2018.Louchhiem, Aline. (December 1947). "Abstraction on the assembly line". ''ARTnews''. Retrieved June 26, 2018.Housley, Kathleen L. (2001). ''Emily Hall Tremaine: Collector on the Cusp''. Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation: Meriden, CT. The company was part of the wave of developing corporate art collections at that time. The Tremaines’ concept was to refer to circa 1920s European art and design crossovers and apply those general principles to post-WWII America and recent technological developments in their fluorescent lighting. They encouraged architects and designers to adopt these principles to develop new interior design forms to incorporate Miller Co. lighting into commercial interiors.

''Painting toward architecture'' exhibition (1947-52)

The exhibition featured and referred to leading Modernists in European and American art and architecture with a connection to then-Miller Company lighting designs. Artworks exhibited included works by

Josef Albers Josef Albers (; ; March 19, 1888March 25, 1976) was a German-born artist and educator. The first living artist to be given a solo show at MoMA and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, he taught at the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College, ...

Leo Amino Leo Amino was a Japanese-American sculptor known for his Abstract Expressionist sculptures created with a variety of materials, including wood, wire, and plastics. Biography Born in 1911 in Taiwan, to Japanese parents, he spent much of his earl ...

Jean Arp Hans Peter Wilhelm Arp (16 September 1886 – 7 June 1966), better known as Jean Arp in English, was a German-French sculptor, painter, and poet. He was known as a Dadaist and an abstract artist. Early life Arp was born in Straßburg (now Stras ...

Hans Arp Hans Peter Wilhelm Arp (16 September 1886 – 7 June 1966), better known as Jean Arp in English, was a German-French sculptor, painter, and poet. He was known as a Dadaist and an abstract artist. Early life Arp was born in Straßburg (now Stras ...

Harry Bertoia Harry Bertoia (March 10, 1915 – November 1978) was an Italian-born American artist, sound art sculptor, and modern furniture furniture designer, designer. Bertoia was born in Arzene, San Lorenzo, Province of Pordenone, Pordenone, Italy. A ...

Ilya Bolotowsky Ilya Bolotowsky (July 1, 1907 – November 22, 1981) was a leading early 20th-century Russian-American painter in abstract styles in New York City. His work, a search for philosophical order through visual expression, embraced cubism and ge ...

Georges Braque Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...

Alexander Calder Alexander Calder (; July 22, 1898 – November 11, 1976) was an American sculptor known both for his innovative mobiles (kinetic sculptures powered by motors or air currents) that embrace chance in their aesthetic, his static "stabiles", and his ...

Mary Callery Mary Callery (June 19, 1903 – February 12, 1977) was an American artist known for her Modern and Abstract Expressionist sculpture. She was part of the New York School art movement of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. It is said she "wove linear ...

, Stuart Davis,

Max Ernst Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German (naturalised American in 1948 and French in 1958) painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism ...

Lyonel Feininger Lyonel Charles Feininger (July 17, 1871January 13, 1956) was a German-American painter, and a leading exponent of Expressionism. He also worked as a caricaturist and comic strip artist. He was born and grew up in New York City, traveling to Germa ...

Perle Fine Perle Fine (born Poule Feine)(1905–1988) was an American Abstract expressionist painter.Juan Gris José Victoriano González-Pérez (23 March 1887 – 11 May 1927), better known as Juan Gris (; ), was a Spanish painter born in Madrid who lived and worked in France for most of his active period. Closely connected to the innovative artistic ge ...

, James Guy,

Jean Hélion Jean Hélion (April 21, 1904October 27, 1987) was a French painter whose abstract work of the 1930s established him as a leading modernist. His midcareer rejection of abstraction was followed by nearly five decades as a figurative painter. He w ...

Charles-Edouard Jeanneret Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

, Kunisada,

Paul Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...

Fernand Léger Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painting, painter, sculpture, sculptor, and film director, filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism (known as "tubism") which he gradually ...

Jacques Lipchitz Jacques Lipchitz (26 May 1973) was a Cubist sculptor. Lipchitz retained highly figurative and legible components in his work leading up to 1915–16, after which naturalist and descriptive elements were muted, dominated by a synthetic style of Cr ...

John Marin John Marin (December 23, 1870 – October 2, 1953) was an early American modernist artist. He is known for his abstract landscapes and watercolors. Biography Marin was born in Rutherford, New Jersey. His mother died nine days after his birth, ...

Roberto Matta Roberto Sebastián Antonio Matta Echaurren (; November 11, 1911 – November 23, 2002), better known as Roberto Matta, was one of Chile's best-known painters and a seminal figure in 20th century abstract expressionist and surrealist art. Bio ...

Carlos Mérida Carlos Mérida (December 2, 1891 – December 21, 1985) was a Guatemalan artist who was one of the first to fuse European modern painting to Latin American themes, especially those related to Guatemala and Mexico. He was part of the Mexican mura ...

Joan Miró Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , , ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan painter, sculptor and ceramicist born in Barcelona. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona i ...

Piet Mondrian Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (), after 1906 known as Piet Mondrian (, also , ; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), was a Dutch painter and art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He is known for being ...

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi- abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. As well as sculpture, Moore produced ...

László Moholy-Nagy László Moholy-Nagy (; ; born László Weisz; July 20, 1895 – November 24, 1946) was a Hungarian painter and photographer as well as a professor in the Bauhaus school. He was highly influenced by constructivism and a strong advocate of the i ...

Ben Nicholson Benjamin Lauder Nicholson, Order of Merit, OM (10 April 1894 – 6 February 1982) was an English painter of abstract art, abstract compositions (sometimes in low relief), landscape and still-life. Background and training Nicholson was ...

Georgia O'Keeffe Georgia Totto O'Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) was an American modernist artist. She was known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. O'Keeffe has been called the "Mother of Amer ...

I. Rice Pereira Irene Rice Pereira (August 5, 1902 – January 11, 1971) was an American abstract artist, poet and philosopher

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

Jose de Rivera Jose is the English transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic name ''Yose'', which is etymologically linked to ''Yosef'' or Joseph. The name was popular during the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods. * Jose ben Abin * Jose ben Akabya *Jose the Galil ...

Kurt Schwitters Kurt Hermann Eduard Karl Julius Schwitters (20 June 1887 – 8 January 1948) was a German artist who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including dadaism, constructivism, surrealism, poetry, sound, pain ...

Charles Sheeler Charles Sheeler (July 16, 1883 – May 7, 1965) was an American artist known for his Precisionist paintings, commercial photography, and the avant-garde film, ''Manhatta'', which he made in collaboration with Paul Strand. Sheeler is recognized ...

Rufino Tamayo Rufino del Carmen Arellanes Tamayo (August 25, 1899 – June 24, 1991) was a Mexican painter of Zapotec heritage, born in Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico.Sullivan, 170-171Ades, 357 Tamayo was active in the mid-20th century in Mexico and New York, ...

Mark Tobey Mark George Tobey (December 11, 1890 – April 24, 1976) was an American painter. His densely structured compositions, inspired by Asian calligraphy, resemble Abstract expressionism, although the motives for his compositions differ philosophi ...

John Tunnard John Samuel Tunnard (7 May 1900 – 12 December 1971) was an English Modernist designer and painter. He was the cousin of landscape architect Christopher Tunnard. Life Tunnard was born in Sandy, Bedfordshire, and educated at Charterhouse Sc ...

and

Theo van Doesburg Theo van Doesburg (, 30 August 1883 – 7 March 1931) was a Dutch artist, who practiced painting, writing, poetry and architecture. He is best known as the founder and leader of De Stijl. He was married to artist, pianist and choreographer Nelly ...

.(July 16, 2016
"The Painting toward architecture exhibition (1947-52) by the Miller Company Collection of Abstract Art: Documentation and historical information"
''artdesigncafe''. Retrieved June 26, 2018. Photographs of Modern architectural designs accompanied the artworks starting in December 1948 and included work by

Le Corbusier Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...

Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in conne ...

(

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...

Oscar Niemeyer Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (15 December 1907 – 5 December 2012), known as Oscar Niemeyer (), was a Brazilian architect considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer was ...

, and

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

. Also, as part of the overall ''Painting toward architecture'' initiative, Oscar Niemeyer was commissioned to make a design with

Roberto Burle Marx Roberto Burle Marx (August 4, 1909 – June 4, 1994) was a Brazilian landscape architect (as well as a painter, print maker, ecologist, naturalist, artist and musician) whose designs of parks and gardens made him world-famous. He is accredite ...

for the unbuilt Tremaine House. In the exhibition, Roberto Burle Marx's ''Design for a garden'' was exhibited. A self-published exhibition catalogue, ''Painting toward architecture,'' was released in November 1948. The catalogue essay was written by

Henry-Russell Hitchcock Henry-Russell Hitchcock (1903–1987) was an American architectural historian, and for many years a professor at Smith College and New York University. His writings helped to define the characteristics of modernist architecture. Early life He ...

and

Bradbury Thompson J. Bradbury Thompson (March 25, 1911 – November 1, 1995) was an American graphic designer and art director known for his work designing magazines and postage stamps. Early life and education J. Bradbury Thompson was born on March 25, 1911 in To ...

designed the catalogue. The travelling exhibition received national media coverage and deepened a discussion on Modern art and architecture in the United States. Apart from ''Painting toward architecture'', there were other Miller Company art shows at

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...

(1945),

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

(1951),

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

(1951-52), and

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

in Hartford (1958). Throughout this time period, artworks were loaned to many other exhibitions at various museums.

Special exhibition at Museum of Modern Art, New York

From February to April 1949, during the ''Painting toward architecture'' (1947-52) exhibition run, the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

exhibited ''From Le Corbusier to Niemeyer: Savoye House - Tremaine House 1949''. According to the museum, "The theme of this show is based on Henry Russell-Hitchcock’s book on the Miller ompanyCollection of abstract art, Painting toward architecture..." Documentation showing Le Corbusier's iconic

Villa Savoye Villa Savoye () is a modernist villa and gatelodge in Poissy, on the outskirts of Paris. It was designed by the Swiss- French architect Le Corbusier and his cousin Pierre Jeanneret, and built between 1928 and 1931 using reinforced concrete.Courla ...

was juxtaposed with Oscar Niemeyer's

maquette A ''maquette'' (French word for scale model, sometimes referred to by the Italian names ''plastico'' or ''modello'') is a scale model or rough draft of an unfinished sculpture. An equivalent term is ''bozzetto'', from the Italian word for "sketc ...

of an integrated ''Design for a garden''

gouache Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouache h ...

-work (1948) for the unbuilt Tremaine house. In 2010, Berry Bergdoll, a curator at MoMA asserted the importance of the exhibition as fusing strands of the geometric and organic soon after WWII.

Modernist design at the Miller Company

During this time, as part of a wider Modernist agenda, Miller Co. activities included

Philip Johnson Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the pos ...

closely consulting on product design for the company for at least a three-year period

, formerly at the internationally influential

in Germany, was hired to work on the corporate logo; and

Serge Chermayeff Serge Ivan Chermayeff (born Sergei Ivanovich Issakovich; russian: link=no, Сергей Ива́нович Иссако́вич; 8 October 1900 – 8 May 1996) was a Russian-born British architect, industrial designer, writer, and co-founder of ...

, president of the "New Bauhaus", the School of Design in Chicago, to contributed graphic design and interior design concepts utilizing Miller Co. lighting.

Tremaine Collection

By the mid-1950s, the growing art collection activity morphed away from the Miller Co. to the private Tremaine Collection and the Tremaine's art and design decision-making activities took place in Meriden,

Madison, Connecticut Madison is a town in the southeastern corner of New Haven County, Connecticut, United States, occupying a central location on Connecticut's Long Island Sound shoreline. The population was 17,691 at the 2020 census. Madison was first settled in 16 ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, and beyond. In actuality, many artworks marketed as from the Miller Co. were privately owned by the Tremaines and lent for the corporate initiative. Over the years, the Tremaines collected hundreds of artworks and exhibition many in hundreds of national and international exhibitions. Works purchased early on in artists' careers include ''

Three Flags ''Three Flags'' is a 1958 painting by American artist Jasper Johns. The work comprises three canvases painted with hot wax. The three canvases form a tiered arrangement, with each canvas approximately 25% smaller than the one below, thereby cre ...

'' by Jasper Johns (1958), now at the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

, New York, ''

Marilyn Diptych The ''Marilyn Diptych'' (1962) is a silkscreen painting by American pop artist Andy Warhol depicting Marilyn Monroe. The monumental work is one of the artist's most noted of the movie star. The painting consists of 50 images. Each image of t ...

'' by Andy Warhol (1962) (of which

Emily Hall Tremaine Emily Hall Tremaine (1908–1987) was a prominent art director and collector. She published ''Apéritif'', a society magazine. Early life Tremaine was born in Butte, Montana, in 1908. The Tremaine Collection Hall Tremaine's interest in art beg ...

is credited as a collaborator), now at

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is ...

in London, and Roy Lichtenstein's '' I Can See the Whole Room...and There's Nobody in It!''. In the late 1960s, the Tremaines offered land that they partly owned on their Arizona ranch to

Walter de Maria Walter Joseph De Maria Roberta Smith (July 26, 2013)Walter De Maria, Artist on Grand Scale, Dies at 77 '' New York Times''. (October 1, 1935July 25, 2013) was an American artist, sculptor, illustrator and composer, who lived and worked in New Y ...

to test his now-iconic '' The Lightning Field'', a 1-mile x 1 km earthwork designed to attract lightning into an art performance with metal poles, before its relocation to New Mexico. In 1984, the Tremaine Collection was exhibited at the

in Hartford, CT. Over 150 art works were exhibited. "By the early 1980s the Tremaine collection had grown to more than 400 works by European and American artists", reported the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', and it was "considered by museum directors, dealers and art writers to be one of the greatest private collections of 20th century art in the world", reported the ''

Hartford Courant The ''Hartford Courant'' is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is considered to be the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. A morning newspaper serving most of the state north of New Haven ...

''. The collection was estimated to be worth $84 million in 1987 (equivalent to $ million in ). In 1988, many artworks in the Tremaine collection were sold at auction at

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...

in New York. The total amount of sold artworks was $25.8 million.

Jasper Johns Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker whose work is associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and pop art. He is well known for his depictions of the American flag and other US-related top ...

' ''White flag'' sold for $7 million, the highest price paid for an artwork by a living artist at that time. In 1991, 50 additional artworks were sold at Christie's New York.Rief, Rita. (June 7, 1991)
50 paintings to be sold from Tremaine estate
''New York Times''. Retrieved April 28, 2019.

References

{{Reflist Art collections in the United States