Good Design

Is there art in a broomstick? Yes, says Manhattan's Museum of Modern Art, if it is designed both for usefulness and good looks. For the past three years, the museum has staged a kind of super shower, receiving thousands of new items of home furnishings through Chicago's Merchandise Mart, and selected a few hundred for good-design awards (signified by an orange and black label). Last week the museum exhibited the best of this year's crop.

The 400 items (chosen from a record 6,000 entries) ranged from preserve jars to crystal goblets, from plastic leaf rakes to automatic dishwashers. Most of them had bold, simple shapes; there were corkscrews and clothes hangers that might be mistaken for modern abstract sculpture. Cheap-looking plastic was disguised or dressed up, e.g., by pressing interesting-looking cloth weaves in plastic sheets. Furniture seemed more solid than in previous years, with more contrasting materials, e.g., brass and marble, and more expensive woods. Example: an oblong conference table in which eight pieces of walnut were matched perfectly to produce a flamelike pattern ($296).

Outstanding were vases and flasks, many with wide, bulbous bottoms and thin, graceful necks. Best: a pair of black & white ceramics shaped like ducks, usable as vases or pitchers ($15 and $20); a tapering Dutch vase that looked like a crystal flame ($60); a set of wide-mouthed pottery bowls ($8.50-$19). China had lively patterns, some designed as much to be looked at as eaten off. Standout: a serving set with a modern flower motif that might have been taken from children's wallpaper (tureen, $18).

Other eye-catchers: stainless-steel flatware, handles merging smoothly into tines and blades ($1.40 a fork); a Danish salad fork and spoon set of black, polished horn ($5); a pair of handwoven, Japanese bamboo scoops, for crackers or nuts ($1) ; a green-and-red curtain fabric with a stained-glass window design ($9 a yd.); a handy, steel portable fireplace ($150).

The museum also gave Manhattan a look at what it considers good design in cars. Explained the show's curator, Arthur Drexler: "Automobiles... are no less worthy of being appraised for their visual appeal than were Venetian gondolas [and] English landaus." In the museum garden, blending nicely with its modern sculpture, were ten recent models: a Lancia and Siata from Italy, an MG and Aston-Martin from Britain, a snappy little Porsche from Germany, a Comete and a Simca from France. The three U.S. models: a 1953 Studebaker, a Nash-Healey (standard Nash engine, with British chassis and Italian coachwork), and a big, hand-built Cunningham convertible with a long, oval-grilled snout and a racer's body. (Engine: Chrysler V8. Speed: up to 130 m.p.h. Price: $10,000.) As usual, the foreign cars had little chrome, rocket-smooth lines, little room or comfort for passengers. That, believes Curator Drexler, is all to the good: U.S. motorists are too pampered by big cars that do not make them feel as if they were riding at all. A well-designed car, he says, should "restore the motorist to the road."

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