Art: Beauty by Machine

“The objects in the exhibition are produced by machines for domestic, commercial, industrial and scientific purposes. Beauty determined the choice . . . whether their fine design was intended by artist or engineer, or merely a concomitant of machine production.”

This preamble explained last week’s assemblage of objects in Manhattan’s Museum of Modern Art, newly fitted for the occasion with aluminum, steel and micarta walls and black & white glass showcases. A huge red propeller on the Museum stoop keynoted the show. Inside was a glittering confusion of coils, springs, carpet sweepers, kettles, mirrors, ladles, automobile headlights, slide rules. In one corner a water faucet stood on a pedestal. On black velvet was a cluster of dental instruments. There was an array of tubular steel chairs, a number of suspended springs so delicate they responded to a breath.

A jury which included Amelia Earhart Putnam, Madam Secretary Perkins (who voted by mail from a catalog) and Professor John Dewey found most beautiful a section of spring, an outboard propeller, a ring of ball bearings. The voting public chose a larger propeller, a triple mirror, a metal measure.