THIS MODERN DECORATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22166, 20 July 1935, Page 22

THIS MODERN DECORATION

In Victorian times the sole end of decoration was to disguise the function of the thing decorated. The carpets were patterned to represent flowerbeds, and wallpapers to represent the foliage of the jungle. Men not yet proud of their material achievements. They were not yet machineminded. They were, if anything,

JIIAUVAVsVA* ' ashamed of progress. So beauty for them was misrepresentation, v illusion a kind of world - wide Ziegfield Follies. If we in New Zealand are not far removed from such an outlook, at least there are signs of a coming change to the modern view-point—that is, the idea that purpose must not be disguise, but the proper function of a thing decides the beauty of that thing. The chromium - plated steel tubing chairs (so noticeable in the Winter Exhibition) are a perfect example of the connection between beauty and function. But steel chairs belong in the drawing room. There is another room in many New Zealand homes where a

simple modern beauty

has for a long time held undisputed SW ay—undisputed because few people would dream of looking for beauty in the wash-house! Yet there it is. Immaculately-polished concrete wash tubs, with a shining zinc beading round the top. Beside them a steel-cased pumice boiler, neat, clean-looking, smooth, rounded. No effort in either

case to " beautify" by elaboration or disguise. Just two simple, remarkably efficient household utensils, proud of their purpose and because of it. Modernism is only common sense applied to things encrusted in tradition. Because the wash-house was not even " worthy " of tradition it became the first room to be modernised.