every endeavor. But history, like the sun, would prove
far too hot.
Electricity, the motor car, flight, speed, new machinery and
materials as well as the increasing movement towards
abstraction, combined with the exacting demands of
science, would result in one artistic and technical triumph
after another during the 1920s and '30s. Model number
0518, c. 1934, a suspension lamp designed by Pietro
Chiesa, with adjustable angle, gilt metal and opal glass
diffuser, visually personifies, in a single object, not only
this era, but foreshadows an aesthetic associated with
space travel.
Regrettably, then as now, there was also a darker side of
design in play, one which facilitated the development of ever
more accurate weapons of mass
destruction and supporting
paraphernalia, all of which ran
afoul of the positive aspects
of hope found in Modernism
and technology, as exemplified
by Fontana Arte's artistic
endeavors. Also, unfortunately,
certain political and economic
changes led to Fascism, which
selectively incorporated many
of the modern tendencies,
HYLAND
