Russel Wright (April 3, 1904 – December 21, 1976) was an American industrial designer. His best-selling ceramic dinnerware was credited with encouraging the general public to enjoy creative modern design at table with his many other ranges of furniture, accessories, and textiles. The Russel and Mary Wright Design Gallery at

Manitoga Manitoga was the estate and modernist home of industrial designer Russel Wright (1904–1976) and his wife Mary Small Einstein Wright. It is located along New York State Route 9D south of Garrison, New York, a short distance north of the Bea ...

in upstate New York records how the "Wrights shaped modern American lifestyle".

Designer

Wright's approach to design came from the belief that the dining table was the center of the home. Working outward from there, he designed tableware to larger furniture, architecture to landscaping, all fostering an easy, informal lifestyle. It was through his popular and widely distributed housewares and furnishings that he impacted the way many Americans lived and organized their homes in the mid-20th century. In 1927 Wright married Mary Small Einstein, a designer, sculptor, and businesswoman, after a short yet carefree summer together in Woodstock, New York, where they were involved in the New York artist's Maverick Festival and artist colony. Mary studied sculpture under Alexander Archipenko. Together Mary and Russel went on to form Wright Accessories, a home accessories design business, and began creating small objects for the home consisting of cast metal animals and informal serving accessories of

spun aluminum Metal spinning, also known as spin forming or spinning or metal turning most commonly, is a metalworking process by which a disc or tube of metal is rotated at high speed and formed into an axially symmetric part. Spinning can be performed by hand ...

and other materials. The couple also wrote the best-selling '' Guide to Easier Living'' in 1950, which described how to reduce housework and increase leisure time through efficient design and household management. Russel Wright Studios continues to work with corporate and public clients in the licensing and manufacturing of his designs and products.

Dinnerware

Wright is best known for his colorful

American Modern American Modern was a distinct American design aesthetic formed in the period between 1925 and World War II. American Modern was created by a pioneering group of designers, architects and artists, among them were Norman Bel Geddes, Donald Deskey, ...

design, the most widely sold American ceramic dinnerware in history, manufactured between 1939 and 1959 by Steubenville Pottery in Steubenville, Ohio. Another iconic design was Wright's "American Modern" flatware designs for John Hull Cutlers Corporation in c. 1951. He also designed top selling wooden furniture,

dining accessories and textiles. His simple, practical style was influential in persuading ordinary Americans to embrace Modernism in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Wright's trademarked signature was the first to be identified with lifestyle-marketed products. Russel Wright (American, 1904-1976)

Wright designed several popular lines of Melmac melamine resin plastic dinnerware for the home and did early research on plastic Melmac dinnerware for restaurant use. Wright's first Melmac line of plastic dinnerware for the home, called "Residential" was manufactured by Northern Plastic Company of Boston beginning in 1953. "Residential" received the Museum of Modern Art Good Design Award in 1953. "Residential" was one of the most popular Melmac lines with gross sales of over $4 million in 1957. The line remained popular for many years continuing in production by Home Decorators, Inc. of Newark, New York. Wright introduced his Melmac dinnerware line called "Flair" in 1959. One of the patterns of "Flair", called "Ming Lace" has the actual leaves of the Chinese jade orchid tree tinted and embedded inside the translucent plastic. As with his ceramic dinnerware, Wright began designing his Melmac only in solid colors, but by the end of the 1950s created several patterns ornamented with decoration, usually depicting plant forms.

Furniture

Wright designed a succession of popular furniture lines for many furniture companies beginning in the early 1930s through the 1950s. His most popular line of essentially Art Deco American Modern "blonde" wooden furniture was produced by the Conant-Ball company of Gardner, Massachusetts between 1935 and 1939, and bore the branded mark "American Modern Built by Conant-Ball Co. Designed by Russel Wright". Wright also worked with the Old Hickory Furniture Company in Martinsville, Indiana on unique rustic furniture with Wright's modern stylings. The collection was introduced in 1942 and some of the designs stayed popular through the 1950s.

Career

Russel's early art training was under

Frank Duveneck Frank Duveneck (né Decker; October 9, 1848 – January 3, 1919) was an American figure and portrait painter. Early life Duveneck was born in Covington, Kentucky, the son of German immigrant Bernhard Decker. Decker died in a cholera epidemic whe ...

at the

Art Academy of Cincinnati The Art Academy of Cincinnati is a private college of art and design in Cincinnati, Ohio, accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. It was founded as the McMicken School of Design in 1869, and was a department of the U ...

while still in high school. While following his family's tradition of studying for a legal career at Princeton University, he was a member of the

Princeton Triangle Club The Princeton Triangle Club is a theater troupe at Princeton University. Founded in 1891, it is one of the oldest collegiate theater troupes in the United States. Triangle premieres an original student-written musical every year, and then takes ...

and won several Tiffany & Co. prizes for outstanding World War I memorial sculptures. This, along with the urging of his academic adviser at Princeton, confirmed his conviction gained in the year before college while a student at the

Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may stu ...

under

Kenneth Hayes Miller Kenneth Hayes Miller (March 11, 1876 – January 1, 1952) was an American painter, printmaker, and teacher. Career Born in Oneida, New York, he studied at the Art Students League of New York with Kenyon Cox, Henry Siddons Mowbray and with Willia ...

and Boardman Robinson, that his future was in the field of art. Wright left Princeton for the New York City theater world and quickly became a set designer for Norman Bel Geddes. This early association with the theater led to further work with George Cukor,

Lee Simonson Lee Simonson (June 26, 1888, New York City – January 23, 1967, Yonkers) was an American architect painter, stage setting designer. He acted as a stage set designer for the Washington Square Players (1915–1917). When it became the Theatre Gui ...

, Robert Edmond Jones, and Rouben Mamoulian. His theater career came to an end when George Cukor closed his Rochester, New York stock company at the end of 1927. Upon returning to New York City, he started his own design firm making theatrical props and small decorative cast metal objects. Although firmly rooted in the

Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...

, he spent the entirety of his professional artistic career in New York, employing such early instrumental modern design practitioners and artists as

Petra Cabot Petra Cabot (February 21, 1907 – October 13, 2006) was an American designer and artist, perhaps best known for styling of the Skotch Kooler for the Hamilton Metal Products Company. According to ''The New York Times'', the Skotch Kooler could ke ...

, Henry P. Glass and Hector Leonardi in his growing industrial design firm.

Personal life

Russel Wright was born in Lebanon, Ohio into a historic old American family, Wright's mother had direct lineage with two signers of the Declaration of Independence, and his father and grandfather were local judges. Both his parents were Quakers. Wright's only child, Annie, was only two years old when Mary died in 1952, necessitating Wright's raising their adopted daughter as a single parent. Annie Wright continues to manage her father's designs and products through Russel Wright Studios.

Manitoga

After his wife's death, Russel Wright retired to his estate,

in Garrison, New York, building an eco-sensitive Modernist home and studio called Dragon Rock surrounded by extensive woodland gardens. Dragon Rock is constructed of wood, stone, and glass, and has been considered "one of the most idiosyncratic homes in the country". Wright designed the site, creating eleven woodland walking trails. Development of the site included in-filling a quarry and rerouting a stream. The house includes furniture that he designed or modified, as well as the Russel and Mary Wright Design Gallery where his pottery and functional objects for the home are displayed. It is on the National Register of Historic Places and a US Department of Interior designated National Historic Landmark. Manitoga is open to the public, operated by the non-profit Russel Wright Design Center, with tours and hiking trails.

Collections

Wright's work is found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum of the Smithsonian Institution; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

;

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 paintings and more than 450,000 works ...

; Manitoga/The Russel Wright Design Center; and other public collections.

References

Bibliography

* ''Guide to Easier Living'' by Mary and Russel Wright. (Reprint, Gibbs Smith, 2003) . * ''Russel Wright: Good Design Is For Everyone - In His Own Words'' Manitoga/The Russel Wright Design Center. (Universe, 2001) . * ''Russel Wright: creating American lifestyle'' by Donald Albrecht, Robert Schonfeld, Lindsay Stamm Shapiro. Catalog of an exhibition at

Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum is a design museum housed within the Andrew Carnegie Mansion in Manhattan, New York City, along the Upper East Side's Museum Mile. It is one of 19 museums that fall under the wing of the Smithsonian Inst ...

, New York (Harry N. Abrams, 2001) . * ''Collector's Encyclopedia of Russel Wright'' by Ann Kerr (Collector Books, 2002, 3rd Edition) , .

External links

Official Russel Wright Studios websiteManitoga / The Russel Wright Design CenterRussel Wright Product DesignsRussel Wright Dinnerware colors
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Russel American industrial designers American furniture designers Dinnerware designers 20th-century ceramists Art Students League of New York alumni 1904 births 1976 deaths Modernist designers People from Lebanon, Ohio Artists from Ohio