Antiques – In April 1914 the Modernist Studios in New York City held an “Exposition of Bad Taste.” Wallpaper patterns that had been popular in the 1880s served as the backdrop for a crowded display comprising “marble-topped furniture, seaweed, wax flowers, and other treasures under glass; samplers, homemade paintings, ornate chinaware of every description, and countless articles such as were considered extremely genteel in the old days.” Guests at the opening joined in singing around an organ that had been “dragged from the company room of a Vermont homestead.” The only modern object present, as the New York Times noted in its bemused coverage of the event, was “a shiny fire extinguisher.” – read more
