Irving Harper Marshmallow Sofa long overdue...Recently I had the great fortune to speak with an extremely knowledgeable art dealer in New Jersey. The gist of our conversation was about George Nelson and his many wonderful mid-century modern designs, or what I thought were his designs. Turns out many were not.
What comes to mind when I think about Nelson designs are the whimsical atomic ball clocks and the iconic Marshmallow sofa. Although manufactured by a George Nelson company, these designs were the brain child of a man named Irving Harper. Mr. Harper, still living today at age 90, stays away from the lime-light now as he did in the heyday. A modest man but a brilliant designer, architect and scupltor. Unfortunately, little is known about him and he is rarely given due credit for the designs that have made George Nelson famous.
Paul Kowalchuk of TDA Archives, an archival company representing artists of many genres and mediums, recently had the pleasure to meet with Mr. Harper who, at 90, is finally coming to the forefront and getting his overdue recoginzion. TDA is planning a series of exhibits as well as some extremely rare offerings of Irving Harpers work. Most noteably, heading to auction, is an unusual double sized Marshmallow sofa. It has been stated that only two double sized sofas were made during the Mid-Century modern era. They were commissioned for the lobby of the Contenential building in NYC. Today, one of the sofas is in private collection and the other is held in the collection of TDA Archives. Mr. Harper recently met up with his iconic design and for the first time layed eyes on a double sized Marshmallow sofa. He got much joy out of authenicating and signing his most famous work. As well, he was photographed sitting on the sofa for future magazine and newspaper editorials.
I was fasinated by Mr. Kowalchuk and his vast knowledge of design and art in general. I am looking forward to keeping an eye out for more offerings from Mr. Harper and news of up-coming sales of his work, especially the Marshmallow sofa. Anyone interested in more information should go to TDA's website (TDA stands for The Deep Archives) : http://www.thedeeparchives.com/fine.htm Be sure to go to the fine art section, you will also find contact information for Paul Kowalchuk.
Dear Grom
This subject has been discussed in great length before. I understand your excitement having met with this knowledgeable gentleman, but it seems to me that he has too much of a personal interest to be objective. I think that Irving Harper's contributions to the George Nelson office are well documented and that there is nothing that indicates that Irving Harper has recieved less attention than is due.
Recently a well known Canadian was asked why it take him so much time before he wrote and published his memoires. His answer was that he had to wait for a number of people to die... In the case of The Eames', Nelson, Mies van der Rohe etc. many attempts were made to (in the best case) to either clarify the contributions of collaborators or (in the worst case) to re-write history. On this scale Paul Kowalchuk is further to the second than to the first scenario and I would simply disregard it as an effort related to the commercial activity of TDA and not to the clarification of history. I think that with this effort Mr Kowalchuk disqualifies himself as an historian and your descroption of him "...and his vast knowledge of design and art in general does not sem as appropriate as expected.
By the way the Marshmallow sofa was not produced by "a George Nelson company"
... but we have seen more blatent commercial efforts on this forum, congratulations for attracting attention to the TDA site and it's commecial activities in such a civilized manner.
this story is like those...
this story is like those kids abused by priests. Why do you have to wait 'til you are 40 to tell the story? (because you are broke and need money!) and if he was abusing you, why you kept going back to church camp? maybe he liked it and now he's ashamed!
Now back to the harper issue. Why wait 'til everybody that was involved in the story is dead to claim your design? If I'm a designer for an Ad agengy, the designs belong to the agency.
Joel Pirella
I know that you probably meant your comment in jest, but I have to say that it is in the absolute worst taste and insensitivity to compare the abuse and trauma of minors with the Harper/Nelson debate. Your suggestion that a minor ensnared in a situation of sexual abuse and intimidation would remain silent because "he liked it" is inexcusably stupid.
That being said
That being said: Joel is absolutely correct. Any person that is an employee (Harper) of a company (Nelson Associates) relinquishes all rights to the company. I had to go through this with a client who had altered some of my work. Ugg. Luckily I was working as an outside contractor, and thereby held onto all of the rights to my work.
yep
since i never work as a subcontractor but always as an 'inhouse'designer, i designed a lot of stuff, some nice (pity i cannot 'put my name on it') but also a lot of dull, ugly and not worth speaking of designs (gladly i didn't had to put my name on it!). the rights belongs to the company you work for, is also stippulated in your contract but one time it stroke me when my boss didn't like my design personnally but some months later it was exhibited in a designexhibition and the name tag said 'design by "my (ex)bosses name'...
Way off course
Koen: You seem knowledgeable, but I must state that your opinion on Kowalchuk is based on what clearly is a secondary telling of the conversation had between he, and Grom. You fail big time here. Your "authoritative" voice is stifled by your inability to discern between "fact" and an "assumption". It seems all you have done is to make assumptions about this gentleman in question (an innocent third-party to the forum--no doubt), and discuss them as though they are fact, then give a half-witted opinion about what you "think" his professional position is. You appear to be a "topical--sensationalist"-- giving little-thought and a quick-response reply, without regard to the topic at hand, or of whom you are talking about. Stick to talking about Design-- that's what this forum is for. Ralph Cantor
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