Silver to Steel: The Modern Designs of Peter Muller-Munk

Scaife Galleries Nov. 21, 2015–Apr. 11, 2016

A German émigré to the US who moved to Pittsburgh in 1935, Peter Muller-Munk (1904–1967) was a brilliant silversmith, a pioneering industrial designer and educator, and a visionary spokesperson for his profession. Silver to Steel: The Modern Designs of Peter Muller-Munk is the first retrospective of his four-decade career, and it situates Muller-Munk among the most influential designers of his generation. With more than 120 works of hand-wrought silver and popular midcentury products, supported by drawings, multimedia interviews, and period advertising, this exhibition presents the untold story of a man who rose from anonymity as a young silversmith at Tiffany & Co. to become a crucial postwar designer, promoting the practice of industrial design across the globe through one of the top design consultancies in America—Pittsburgh-based Peter Muller-Munk Associates (PMMA).

The exhibition opens with Muller-Munk’s celebrated Modernist silver of the 1920s and 1930s. His best-known designs—the streamlined Normandie pitcher (1935) and the skyscraper-inspired Waring Blendor (1937)—reveal his transition from silversmith to industrial designer and herald an eye-opening presentation of his previously undocumented mass-produced objects. These highly functional and visually striking designs include cameras, radios, cocktail coolers, power tools, and refrigerators; and total environments for gas stations, international expositions, and mass-transit vehicles. PMMA’s contributions to public projects like the famous Unisphere for the 1964 World’s Fair, have been overlooked for decades. The firm counted Alcoa, Bayer, Bell & Howell, Bissell, Mellon Bank, Pittsburgh-Corning, Silex, SOHIO, Texaco, US Steel, Waring, and Westinghouse among its scores of national clients. For these and other firms Muller-Munk produced thousands of designs.

Silver to Steel will reestablish Muller-Munk’s position as one of the preeminent industrial designers of the mid-20th century and provide visitors the opportunity to explore the impact of good design on everyday life.

Silver to Steel is co-organized by Rachel Delphia, The Alan G. and Jane A. Lehman Curator of Decorative Arts and Design, and Jewel Stern, independent scholar and curator.

Additional Resources

Exhibition Images

Support

Support for Silver to Steel: The Modern Designs of Peter Muller-Munk is provided by the Kaufman Endowment; the Henry L. Hillman Fund; the National Endowment for the Arts; The Fellows of Carnegie Museum of Art; Richard, Priscilla, Bill, and Janet Hunt; Trib Total Media; the Alan G. & Jane A. Lehman Foundation at the request of Ellen Lehman and Charles Kennel; the Bessie F. Anathan Charitable Trust at The Pittsburgh Foundation at the request of Ellen Lehman; Edith H. Fisher; Anonymous; the Alexander C. & Tillie S. Speyer Foundation; Richard L. Simmons; The Roy A. Hunt Foundation; The Barrie and Deedee Wigmore Foundation; and Sheryl and Bruce Wolf.

Silver to Steel: The Modern Designs of Peter Muller-Munk is sponsored by: Macy’s, Trib Total Media, Wells Fargo Advisors, Art Works, National Endowment for the Arts, and Pittsburgh Port Authority.