Mildred Constantine and Arthur Drexler, Jerry Lieberman [Designer]: THE PACKAGE. New York City: Museum of Modern Art and Doubleday, 1959. First edition [The Museum of Modern Art Bulletin, Vol. XXVII, No. 1, Fall 1959]. Slim quarto. Debossed and printed saddle stitched aluminum foil wrappers. 40 pp. 53 black and white reproductions. Catalog of 142 items. The rare foil wrappers lightly oxidized, rubbed and crimped along spine, but a very good copy of this scarce, upgraded MoMA Bulletin.
7.5 x 10-inch staple stitched MoMA Bulletin with 40 pages and 53 black and white illustrations. Published in conjunction with the MoMA exhibit from September 9 through November 1, 1959. The aluminum foil wrappers makes this version slightly different from the straight up MoMA bulletin; most likely this version was for retail sale.
Includes work from Container Corporation of America, Max Braun, Dieter Rams, Raymond Loewy Associates, Harley Earl Associates, Karl Gerstner, Therese Moll, Gottfried Honegger, J. R. Geigy, Kaj Franck, Chanel, Ciba Pharmaceuticals, Brownjohn Chermayeff & Geismar [BCG], Olle Eksell, Charles Averill, Roberto Menghi, Lippincott & Marguelis, and many others.
A Museum of Modern Art press relase dated June 12, 1959: “Packaging, which has become a major design and manufacturing activity in America, will be the subject of an international exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art from September 9 through November 1. Several hundred examples of well designed commercial and industrial packages, ranging from wrapping paper to a 370 cubic foot container, have been selected from 10 countries for the first exhibition of its kind to be presented at the Museum.
“The structure of the package, not merely surface decoration or applied graphic design, will be stressed in the show. Experimental and industrial packaging, seldom seen by the general public, will be included as well as packages found in grocery, drug, hardware, and department stores here and abroad. Folding cardboard cartons; collapsible tubes; spun foam cocoons; metal, plastic and glass boxes; cloth and paper bags are among the objects in the show. Both disposable and re-usable packages and both private and stock molds have been selected.
“The exhibition is under the direction of Mildred Constantine, Associate Curator, and Arthur Drexler, Director, of the Department of Architecture and Design. Container Corporation of America, Reynolds Metals Company and the National Distiller and Chemical Corporation arc co-sponsoring the exhibition. The Museum will publish an illustrated catalog to accompany the show.
“The variety of products manufactured today and the methods by which they are distributed have presented many new problems to package designers," says Miss Constantine. "In recognition of those problems, the exhibition is intended to re-examine and broaden the concept of the package.”
“Examples of the outstanding contributions of graphic and industrial designers as well as of engineers to modern packaging will be shown, with emphasis on the imaginative use of new and old materials.
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