‘Cool’ works by women

The Danish Design and Swedish Modern movements had a powerful impact on American design in the 1940s but later got a bad rap through American designers’ all-too-familiar knockoffs of Marimekko dresses and Eero Saarinen chairs.

The National Museum of Women in the Arts is setting the story straight with “Nordic Cool: Hot Women Designers,” its first-ever design exhibit. The 100-year survey encompasses 240 objects designed by artists from Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Iceland.

In the whirlwind, 11/2-year time frame for preparing the show, co-curators Jordana Pomeroy and recently appointed Museum of Women in the Arts Director Judy Larson visited female designers and came up with a first-rate assortment of glass, ceramics, furniture, jewelry, architecture and digital short films.

“When selecting these objects for this show … we looked for originality and creativity and not necessarily for artists associated with the larger firms such as Royal Copenhagen and Orrefors,” Miss Pomeroy says. “We were surprised to find innovative designs in areas as new as clothes for nursing mothers and film.”

The one important defect in this remarkable, if somewhat unfocused, show is that it bites off more than it can chew, including the work of some 20O artists. Too much for anyone to absorb.

For example, consider the forceful impact of the first display in the opening section, set before an expansive, hot-red background. This initial grouping — Camilla Diedrich’s ceiling-hung “BPL Bubellampa (Bubble Lamp),” Nanna Ditzel’s geometric “Bench for Two,” Grete Prytz Kittelson’s huge, rounded “Blue Enamel Dish,” Rosa Helgadottir’s rubber, puff-binder and aluminum “Spacebags” and Hanne Vedel’s “Carpet Farre”— gives an idea of the techniques, design areas, materials and nationalities included in the show without overwhelming the visitor. The space and objects are designed sparely and invite viewers to meditate or, at least, pause for awhile.

Here, the curators follow Mies van der Rohe’s famous dictum, “Less is more.” Unfortunately, they largely ignore it for the rest of the show.

The opening section of the exhibit, “Design Pioneers,” includes such earlier Swedish designers as glassmaker Monica Bratt-Wijkander and Karin Larsson, a groundbreaker. Also found here is a dress decorated with black swirls, reminiscent of Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings, by Vuokko Eskolin-Nurmesniemi, who was among those who developed the signature Marimekko look.

Works by several of the more famous designers in the exhibit are shown in this opening section. They include: Nanny Still, whose “Harlequin,” a turned mold blown turquoise glass grouping, is one of the show’s signature works but is set unobtrusively on a low stand; Lillian Dahle, who shows her consummate use of dark woods in her Japanese-inspired “Folder” and “Bowl”; and Ann Wahlstrom, whose tall glass vases (“Soap Bubbles”) derive from blowing soap bubbles.

While it would have been inadvisable for the most part to cluster works by individual designers, there are exceptions. Clustering would have been a good idea, for example, in the placement of Nanna Ditzel’s bench and coffee table.

Miss Ditzel’s 1989 “Bench for Two” (maple and plywood with silkscreen printing) is placed in the first central display. It’s easily the star of the show and a tour de force of wood turning, brilliant design with curvilinear patterns, and innovative reconfiguration of usual chair designs. In a nearby, smaller gallery off the first main room is Miss Ditzel’s 1980 “Coffee Table,” made of stacked three-dimensional, undecorated rounds of maple wood. It would have been interesting to compare these two very different designs with some guidance from a map.

The co-curator says the artists dictated the themes of the show. Among the themes are Pioneers, Designs for the Masses, Defining Oneself, Landscapes and Seasons, Cycles of Life, At Home and Looking to the Future.

Some of the standouts in each section are: “Blue Enamel Dish,” created by Norway’s Miss Kittelson in the long-lived Norwegian enamel-making tradition (Pioneers); a dramatic half-circle for a wearer’s neck, with silver slivers created by Tone Vigeland, also from Norway (Defining Oneself); Norwegian Sigrid Eckhoff’s “Cherrox Monster Boots,” (Cycle of Life); and Icelander Halla Bogadottir’s “Necklace of Silver and Lava,” which reflects her often primeval surroundings (Flora and Fauna).

“Nordic Cool” is large and unwieldy, and, as a result, its organization could be questioned. Probably the best plan for future exhibits would be to show the “stars” in one section, the lesser-knowns in another and those exploring innovative uses of materials in another.

Allowing for the difficulties inherent in their ambitious vision, however, the curators have succeeded with this landmark exhibit.

WHAT: “Nordic Cool: Hot Women Designers”

WHERE: National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1250 New York Ave. NW

WHEN: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays through Sept. 12

TICKETS: $8 adults, $6 seniors and students, free for members and youths under 18

PHONE: 202/783-5000