A WRIGHT TURN

Article by: KIM YEAGER , Star Tribune
Updated: January 29, 2008 - 1:49 PM

Innovative and iconic industrial designer Russel Wright stamped his modern sensibilities on the American public, delivering goods from furniture to flatware to the masses. An exhibit of his work, opening in February at the University of Minnesota, shares his prolific and wide-ranging designs.

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Wright's residential plastic ware was the bestselling dinnerware in the United States in 1957, winning the Museum of Modern Art's Good Design award in 1953.

Photo: , Manitoga and Decorative Arts Center of Ohio

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RUSSEL WRIGHT

Who: An industrial designer of furniture, accessories, dishes, glassware, table linens and art pottery, among other items.

Born: 1904 in Lebanon, Ohio; died 1976.

Design "firsts": Aluminum serving accessories, blond furniture, stainless steel flatware, aluminum blinds, plastic dinnerware for the home.

Influenced by: Traditional Asian and Japanese design.

Home and studio: Manitoga ("Place of the Great Spirit") in Garrison, N.Y. His 80-acre woodland garden that began as an abandoned quarry and logging site surrounds the studio.

IF YOU GO

Where: "Russel Wright: Living With Good Design," at U of M Goldstein Museum of Design, 364 McNeal Hall, 1985 Buford Av., St. Paul.

Runs: Feb. 9 through April 20.

Opening party: 7 to 9 p.m. Feb. 8, with 8 p.m. remarks by curator Robert Stearns.

Lecture: 5:45 p.m. Feb. 11 by landscape architect/Manitoga expert Carol Franklin, 100 Rapson Hall, 89 Church St., Minneapolis.

Admission: Free (donations accepted).

More information: http://goldstein. design.umn.edu.

LEARN MORE

• "Russel Wright: Creating American Lifestyle" by Donald Albrecht, Robert Schonfeld and Lindsay Stamm Shapiro, Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.

• "Guide to Easier Living'' by Russel and Mary Wright, Gibbs Smith, reissue of 1950 Simon & Schuster publication.

• "Collector's Encyclopedia of Russel Wright'' by Ann Kerr, Collector Books.

• "Russel Wright Identification and Price Guide" by Joe Keller and David Ross, Schiffer Books.

• www.russelwrightcenter.org, site dedicated to the Russel Wright Design Center and Manitoga, a National Historic Landmark.

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The Conant-Ball American Modern adjustable lounge chair, designed in 1935.

Manitoga and Decorative Arts Center of Ohio
Water pitchers from Wright’s American Modern line: More than 250 million pieces of American Modern cast and glazed ceramic dinnerware were produced from 1939 to 1959 at the Steubenville Pottery in Ohio.

Manitoga and Decorative Arts Center of Ohio