Campbell's Soup Cans

Campbell's Soup Cans (sometimes referred to as 32 Campbell's Soup Cans) is a work of art produced in 1962 by Andy Warhol.

It consists of thirty-two canvases, each measuring 20 inches (510 mm) in height × 16 inches (410 mm) in width and each consisting of a painting of a Campbell's Soup can—one of each of the canned soup varieties the company offered at the time.The individual paintings were produced with a semi-mechanized silkscreen process, using a non-painterly style. Campbell's Soup Cans' reliance on themes from popular culture helped to usher in pop art as a major art movement.

For Warhol, a commercial illustrator who became a successful author, painter, and film director, the work was his first one-man gallery exhibition as a fine artist. First exhibited in the Ferus Gallery of Los Angeles, California, it marked the West Coast debut of pop art. The combination of the semi-mechanized process, the non-painterly style, and the commercial subject initially caused offense, as the work's blatantly mundane commercialism represented a direct affront to the technique and philosophy of abstract expressionism. The abstract expressionism art movement was dominant during the post-war period, and it held not only to "fine art" values and aesthetics but also to a mystical inclination. This controversy led to a great deal of debate about the merits and ethics of such work. Warhol's motives as an artist were questioned, and they continue to be topical to this day. The large public commotion helped transform Warhol from being an accomplished 1950s commercial illustrator to a notable fine artist, and it helped distinguish him from other rising pop artists. Although commercial demand for his paintings was not immediate, Warhol's association with the subject led to his name becoming synonymous with the Campbell's Soup can paintings.

Warhol subsequently produced a wide variety of art works depicting Campbell's Soup cans during three distinct phases of his career, and he produced other works using a variety of images from the world of commerce and mass media. Today, the Campbell's Soup cans theme is generally used in reference to the original set of paintings as well as the later Warhol drawings and paintings depicting Campbell's Soup cans. Because of the eventual popularity of the entire series of similarly themed works, Warhol's reputation grew to the point where he was not only the most-renowned American pop art artist,but also the highest-priced living American artist.

Biography for Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol was born Andrew Warhola in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1928. In 1945 he entered the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) where he majored in pictorial design. Upon graduation, Warhol moved to New York where he found steady work as a commercial artist. He worked as an illustrator for several magazines including Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and The New Yorker and did advertising and window displays for retail stores such as Bonwit Teller and I. Miller. Prophetically, his first assignment was for Glamour magazine for an article titled "Success is a Job in New York."

Throughout the 1950s, Warhol enjoyed a successful career as a commercial artist, winning several commendations from the Art Director's Club and the American Institute of Graphic Arts. In these early years, he shortened his name to "Warhol." In 1952, the artist had his first individual show at the Hugo Gallery, exhibiting Fifteen Drawings Based on the Writings of Truman Capote. His work was exhibited in several other venues during the 1950s, including his first group show at The Museum of Modern Art in 1956.

The 1960s was an extremely prolific decade for Warhol. Appropriating images from popular culture, Warhol created many paintings that remain icons of 20th-century art, such as the Campbell's Soup Cans, Disasters and Marilyns. In addition to painting, Warhol made several 16mm films which have become underground classics such as Chelsea Girls, Empire and Blow Job. In 1968, Valerie Solanis, founder and sole member of SCUM (Society for Cutting Up Men) walked into Warhol's studio, known as the Factory, and shot the artist. The attack was nearly fatal.

At the start of the 1970s, Warhol began publishing Interview magazine and renewed his focus on painting. Works created in this decade include Maos, Skulls, Hammer and Sickles, Torsos and Shadows and many commissioned portraits. Warhol also published The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (from A to B and Back Again). Firmly established as a major 20th-century artist and international celebrity, Warhol exhibited his work extensively in museums and galleries around the world.

The artist began the 1980s with the publication of POPism: The Warhol '60s and with exhibitions of Portraits of Jews of the Twentieth Century and the Retrospectives and Reversal series. He also created two cable television shows, "Andy Warhol's TV" in 1982 and "Andy Warhol's Fifteen Minutes" for MTV in 1986. His paintings from the 1980s include The Last Suppers, Rorschachs and, in a return to his first great theme of Pop, a series called Ads. Warhol also engaged in a series of collaborations with younger artists, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Francesco Clemente and Keith Haring.

Following routine gall bladder surgery, Andy Warhol died February 22, 1987. After his burial in Pittsburgh, his friends and associates organized a memorial mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York that was attended by more than 2,000 people.

In 1989, the Museum of Modern Art in New York had a major retrospective of his works.

The Andy Warhol Museum opened in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in May 1994.

Gallery of American Chair

"The African Chair: Marcel Breuer and Gunta Stölzl with Works by Bauhaus Artists"

"African Chair"

Oak and cherrywood
Painted in blue, different reds, yellow, gold;
adapted to the colour scheme of the fabric
Warp: strongly twisted hemp
Weft: hemp, wool, cotton. silk
1921
179.4 x 65 x 67.1 (HxWxD)

Bauhaus-Archiv, Berlin

The African Chair, created by Marcel Breuer in collaboration with the weaver Gunta Stölzl. The only previously known documentation of this throne-like piece of furniture was a contemporary black-and-white photograph. Made of painted wood with a colourful textile weave, this chair embodies the spirit of the early Bauhaus like no other object. It is the first work by Marcel Breuer, who later went on to write design history with his tubular steel furniture. With the support of the Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation, it was possible to secure this legendary and unique work for the collection of the Bauhaus Archive in Berlin.

Even today, the colourfully painted and upholstered oak chair evokes visual associations that are linked to its title; however, this provides no information about the original purpose of the chair. A wide range of hypothetical uses at the time of its inception are possible: the chair could have served as a 'throne' for the Bauhaus director, who defined his role as master of a building lodge in accordance with the self-image of the early Bauhaus. The throne-like construction could also refer to the understanding of architecture as the mother of all arts in classical architectural theory, with the architect as leader and organiser - a role with which Walter Gropius identified all of his life. Equally conceivable is the interpretation of this piece of furniture as a symbolic wedding chair, giving expression to the close relationship between Marcel Breuer and Gunta Stölzl at the time. All of these attempted explanations are filtered from the many ideas and theories that were circulating simultaneously in the early years of the Bauhaus; neither then nor later was any specific comments made regarding the chair. With the emergence of the Bauhaus maxim Art and Technology - A New Unity beginning in 1923, it became a symbol for an era of Bauhaus history that had come to an end. Accordingly, it is a peerless physical manifestation of the complex conceptual universe of the early Bauhaus.

The Bauhaus Archive is presenting this chair within the context of additional works from the early Bauhaus which emphasise its unique significance. The exhibition also includes a representation of Marcel Breuer's Bauhaus Film, which was published in 1926 and attempts to demonstrate the development of furniture design at the Bauhaus - from the African Chair to tubular steel furniture.

Biography for Marcel Breuer

Marcel Breuer (1902-1981), born in Hungary and trained at the Bauhaus in Weimar, Germany, is heralded as having produced the first tubular steel armchair, his pieces pioneering the demand for tubular steel furniture throughout the 1920s and 1930s. These pieces, along with his innovative laminated wood furniture and his unique architectural interpretation of light and space yielded a great deal of international respect and inspired the work of a wide range of designers. Breuer is seen as one of the forefathers of the energetic aesthetic of uninhibited experimentation, combined with a high standard of artistry, that the design industry enjoyed throughout the second half of the century.

Breuer studied under Walter Gropius at the Bauhaus from 1920-24. During his student years he designed furniture for the Bauhaus model house, and created pieces like the hand-carved "African" throne. Although whimsical and formally a distant relative to his later work, the chair initiated the technique of taut, minimal upholstery that would become one of his trademarks touches. He also designed a solid, blocky armchair for the Sommerfield House in 1921, and a desk chair with a woven, multicolored seat and back. Both of these pieces exhibit a starkly different method of achieving comfort than his later streamlined, even clinical, pieces. When the Bauhaus moved to Dessau in 1925, Breuer designed furniture for the new campus and became head of the furniture workshop, a position that he held until 1928. Also in 1925, Breuer created the famous tubular steel "Wassily" chair, purportedly inspired both by constructivist aesthetics and by the handlebars of his new bike. This piece, made for Wassily Kandinsky's space in Dessau, and referred to by the Bauhaus designers as "the abstract chair," made the user look as though they were floating on the upholstered seat within the steel cube frame. The chair was innovative in that it was extremely light, and was built entirely from ready-made tubes that were welded together. Several different companies sold the piece until it was picked up by Knoll.

In 1928 he started a private practice in Berlin and came out with his "Cesca" cantilever chair and stool, named after his daughter and probably inspired by Mies Van der Rohe. He worked with other cantilever designs, exhibiting one of the few couches made in this style at a 1930 show in Berlin. In 1935 Breuer, for the English company Isokon, produced a laminated wood chaise lounge and chair that, although innovative in the way they mimicked the human form, were never made as sturdily as his steel pieces. A 1936 molded plywood chair he made inspired the work of the Eames a decade later and his nested tables revisited the form of some he produced earlier in steel. In 1937 he moved to America and worked as an architect with Gropius in Massachusetts. From 1937-1947 he taught architecture at Harvard, and was commissioned by his former student Eliot Noyes to design buildings for IBM. In 1946 he started his own office in New York City and over the next decade or so, designed and furnished over seventy remarkably similar private houses and college dormitories, for Bryn Mawr and Vassar, in and around New England. His work remains relevant due to his flexible structural philosophy that, "a chair...should not be horizontal/vertical, nor should it be expressionist, nor constructivist, nor designed purely for expediency, nor made to 'match' a table it should be a good chair."

HISTORY BICYCLE – TIMELINE

Date Development

1418			Giovanni Fontana built the first human powered land vehicle -- it had four wheels and used an endless rope connected via gears to the wheels.
1493			Sketches showing a primitive version of a bicycle, purported drawn by Leonardo Da Vanci, surfaced in 1974. Further examination of the drawings indicates these are not by da Vinci's hand. The speculation that these are a sketch by a pupil after a lost drawing by da Vinci is also considered false. An age test was performed, but the library in Milan (belonging to the Vatican) conceals its negative outcome. Experts consider the sketches a hoax.
1791			Comte de Sicrac is credited with building the "celerifer" - purportedly a hobby horse with two wheels instead of a rocker. This is now considered a patriotic hoax created by a French historian in 1891. It was debunked by a French researcher in 1976. In fact, a Jean Sievrac (!) of Marseille obtained an import price for a four-wheeled speed coach called celerifer in 1817.
1817			Variously called the running machine, velocipede, Draisienne and dandy horse, it was invented by Karl Drais, in response to widespread starvation and the slaughtering of horses, the consequence of a crop failure the year before (caused by the eruption of Tambora). It had a steer-able front wheel. This is the first appearance of the two-wheeler principle that is basic to cycling and motorcycling and minimizes rolling resistance. The velocipedes were made entirely of wood and needed to be balanced by directing the front wheel a bit. People then did not dare to lift the feet off safe ground, therefore the velocipedes were propelled by pushing off with the feet. After the good harvest in 1817 riding velocipedes on sidewalks was forbidden worldwide, since the velocipeders used the sidewalks, and because they could not balance on the rutted carriageway, the fad passed. It took nearly 50 years, until a roller-skating boom created a new public with a better sense of balance.
1839			Another entry in bicycle lore: Kirkpatric Mcmillan, a Scottish blacksmith adapted a treadle-type pedals to a bicycle, is considered a hoax.
1863			Bone Shaker or Velocipede: Made of stiff materials, straight angles and steel wheels make this bike literally a bone shaker to ride over the cobblestone roads of the day. The improvement is a front wheel with peddles -- direct drive, fixed gear, one speed. This machine was known as the velocipede ("fast foot"), but was popularly known as the bone shaker, They also became a fad, and indoor riding academies, similar to roller rinks, could be found in large cities.
1870			Ordinary: These are better know as the "high wheelers". It is more comfortable to ride than its predecessor, but it requires an acrobat so they popularity has always been limited. This was the first all metal machine to appeared. (Previous to this metallurgy was not advanced enough to provide metal which was strong enough to make small, light parts out of.) The pedals were still attached directly to the front wheel with no freewheeling mechanism. Solid rubber tires and the long spokes of the large front wheel provided a much smoother ride than its predecessor. The front wheels became larger and larger as makers realized that the larger the wheel, the farther you could travel with one rotation of the pedals. You would purchase a wheel as large as your leg length would allow. These bicycles enjoyed a great popularity among young men of means (they cost an average worker six month's pay), with the hey-day being the decade of the 1880's. Because the rider sat so high above the center of gravity, if the front wheel was stopped by a stone or rut in the road, or the sudden emergence of a dog, the entire apparatus rotated forward on its front axle, and the rider, with his legs trapped under the handlebars, was dropped unceremoniously on his head. Here the term "taking a header" came into being. This machine was the first one to be called a bicycle ("two wheel").
1872			Friedrich Fischer (German) first mass-produces steel ball bearings, patented by Jules Suriray in 1869.
1876			Browett and Harrison (English) patent an early caliper brake.
1878			Scott and Phillott (English) patent the first practicable epicyclic change-speed gear fitted into the hub of a front-driving bicycle.
1879			Henry J. Lawson (English) patents a rear wheel, chain-driven safety bicycle, the “Bicyclette” (his earlier models were lever driven).
1880			Thomas Humber (English) adapts the block chain for use with his range of bicycles.
1880's			While the men were risking their necks on the high wheels, ladies, confined to their long skirts and corsets, could take a spin around the park on an adult tricycle. These machines also afforded more dignity to gentlemen such as doctors and clergymen. Many mechanical innovations now associated with the automobile were originally invented for tricycles. Rack and pinion steering, the differential, and band brakes, to name a few!
1880			Bicycle Activism: Good roads society organized by bicyclist and lobbied for good roads -- paving the way for motor vehicles!
1884			Thomas Stevens struck out across the country, carrying socks, a spare shirt and a slicker that doubled as tent and bedroll. Leaving San Francisco at 8 o'clock on April 22, 1884, he traveled eastward, reaching Boston after 3700 wagon trail miles, to complete the first transcontinental bicycle ride on August 4, 1884. After a pause, he continued east, circumnavigating earth, and returning to San Francisco on Dec 24, 1886.
1888			Pneumatic tire: First applied to the bicycle by an Irish veterinarian who was trying to give his sickly young son a more comfortable ride on his tricycle. This inventive young doctor's name was Dunlop. Now that comfort and safety could be had in the same package, and that package was getting cheaper as manufacturing methods improved, everyone clamored to ride the bicycle.
1890			Safety Bike: As the name implies the safety bike is safer than the ordinary. The further improvement of metallurgy sparked the next innovation, or rather return to previous design. With metal that was now strong enough to make a fine chain and sprocket small and light enough for a human being to power, the next design was a return to the original configuration of two same-size wheels, only now, instead of just one wheel circumference for every pedal turn, you could, through the gear ratios, have a speed the same as the huge high-wheel. Initially, the bicycles still had the hard rubber tires, and in the absence of the long, shock-absorbing spokes, the ride they provided was much more uncomfortable than any of the high-wheel designs. Many of these bicycles of 100 years ago had front and/or rear suspensions. These designs competed with each other, your choice being the high-wheel's comfort or the safety's safety, but the next innovation tolled the death of the high-wheel design -- pneumatic tires. This is basically the same design as standard contemporary bikes. The safety bike allowed large numbers of people to take up cycling. Bikes were relatively expensive so use was somewhat restrict to the elite.
1890			Mass Production: The bicycle helped make the Gay Nineties what they were. It was a practical investment for the working man as transportation, and gave him a much greater flexibility for leisure. Women would also start riding bicycles in much larger numbers.
1894			Change In Social Order: Betty Bloomer's bloomers become very popular. Ladies, heretofore consigned to riding the heavy adult size tricycles that were only practical for taking a turn around the park, now could ride a much more versatile machine and still keep their legs covered with long skirts. The bicycle craze killed the bustle and the corset, instituted "common-sense dressing" for women and increased their mobility considerably. Victorian women cyclists. American Music and women bicyclists. Women and bicycles.
1894			The bicycle messenger business started in California when a railway strike halted mail delivery for the Bay Area. An ingenious bicycle shop owner in Fresno came up with the idea to deliver it by bicycle. He set up a relay between Fresno and San Francisco, with 6 riders covering about 30 miles each. The last rider would cover 60 miles.
1894-95			Annie Cohan (a.k.a. Annie Londonderry) bicycles around the world. Scant information has her leaving Boston in June 1894 on her Sterling bike and finishing her ride in Chicago in Sept 1895.
1895			Ignatz Schwinn and Adolph Arnold formed Arnold, Schwinn & Company to produce bikes.
1896			"Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel. It gives woman a feeling of freedom and self-reliance." Susan B Anthony
1898 1899 1900			Major Taylor was the American cycling sprint champion, and he topped all European champions as well. Taylor was one of the first black athletes to become a world champion in any sport. (Taylor is celebrated in Andrew Richie's book Major Taylor: The Extraordinary Career of a Champion Bicycle Racer, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.)
1903			Internal hub gears invented by Sturmey Archer. By 1930 these were used on bikes manufactured around the world. Their dominance lasted until the 1950s the parallelogram derailleur was introduced.
1920			Kids Bikes: The focus of planning and development of the transportation infrastructure was the private automobiles. Bicycles use declined and the bicycle was considered primarily as children's toys. Kids bikes were introduced just after the First World War by several manufacturers, such as Mead, Sears Roebuck, and Montgomery Ward, to revitalize the bike industry (Schwinn made its big splash slightly later), these designs, now called "classic", featured automobile and motorcycle elements to appeal to kids who, presumably, would rather have a motor. If ever a bike needed a motor, this was it. These bikes evolved into the most glamorous, fabulous, ostentatious, heavy designs ever. It is unbelievable today that 14-year-old kids could do the tricks that we did on these 65 pound machines! They were built into the middle 50s, by which time they had taken on design elements of jet aircraft and even rockets. By the 60s, they were becoming leaner and simpler.
1930			Tullio Campagnolo patents the quick release hub.
1930's			Schwinn introduced the fat tire, spring fork, streamline Excelsior, designed to take the abuse of teenage boys, which was the proto-type mountain bike. The Schwinn Excelsior frames became the model for the early mountain bikes almost fifty years later.
1938			Simplex introduced their cable shifted derailleur.
1940			Women bicyclists in the French Resistance. by Rebecca G. Halbreich, published in Ex Post Facto, 1994
1950s			Tullio Campagnolo introduced cable-operated, parallelogram derailleur. Campagnolo. For two decades Campagnolo equipment dominated true racing bikes. Eventually, he acquires 135 patents.
1958			Women ride in the first-ever World Championships on the road and track. Balina Ermolaeva becomes the first women's World Sprint Champion; Elsy Jacobs takes the road race.
1962			Renaissance: President's Council of Physical Fitness. Renewed interest in bicycle for recreation and fitness. This was the seed of a new major bicycle boom that accelerated through the 60's. The "English 3-speed" was the fancy consumer model of the time. Before the end of the decade it was the 10-speed derailleur "racing bike" which dominated the American market (the derailleur had been invented before the turn of the century and had been in more-or-less common use in Europe since).
1970			Earth Day: Increased awareness of westerns civilization's level of consumption of natural resources, air pollution, and destruction of the natural environment. This generated a new spurt in the growth of bicycle sales and bicycling, especially around college campuses.
1973			Oil embargo: Fuel shortages and shifts in relative price of transportation options created an environment which encouraged bicycle commuting. Many of the new recruits to bicycling stuck to it after the end of the embargo and became enthusiasts. There was also reinvigorated interest in the engineering of bicycles, including renewed interest recumbent and fairings.
1977			The prototype of the mountain bikes were first developed in Marin Co, California, north of San Francisco. Joe Breeze, Otis Guy, Gary Fisher, and Craig Mitchell were the earliest designers, builders and promoters.
1978			A new round of steep oil prices increases further encouraged bicycling. More bikes than car were being sold in the USA. Triple chain-ring cranks had become widely available, adding to the range of situation that bicycle were practical for.
1980's			Renewed interests in health and fitness, by the middle and upper class perpetuated the acceptance and growth of commuting, recreational and touring bicycling.
1980's			Bike messengers develop should backs to carry large envelopes flat. The style migrates into general use as an alternative to back packs, ruck sacks and purses.
1980's			Aerobic exercisers take the padding out of bike shorts and use them in exercise class. The style migrates into general use -- some wearers haven't exercised in decades.
1984			Tour de France Feminine run for the first time (winner: Marianne Martin.)
1984			Women's road race included in the Olympics for the first time (winner: Connie Carpenter.) Successes by American racing cyclist in the 1984 Olympics drew attention and added prestige to cycling. The ranks of racing cyclists grew substantially.
1984			Cogs began to be added to the rear gear cluster the number of speeds increase from 15 to 18, 21 and 24.
1984			Three-time national XC champion Jacquie Phelan founds the Women's Mountain Bike and Tea Society; the first formal outreach organization for women. WOMBATS is dedicated to introducing women to mountain biking in a fun, non-competitive environment.
1990			Shimano (Japanese) introduces integrated brake/gear levers.
1994			Sachs (SRAM) introduces PowerDisc, the first mass-produced hydraulic disc brake system.
1996			Mountain Bike compete at the Olympic Games for the first time in Atlanta, GA USA.
1986			Department of the Interior and Nielson surveys show that bicycling is the third most popular participatory sport after swimming and general exercise.
2000			Rohloff Speedhub 14 speed internal hub gearing system, with no overlapping ratios and a gear range as wide as a 27-speed derailleur system.
2002			Campagnolo introduces 10 cog rear cluster, allowing 30 speed bicycles.

History of Bicycle

A student of Leonardo da Vinci, named Giacomo Caprotti, created the original design for a bicycle. But a Frenchman named Monsieur Sivrac in the 1790s created the first bicycle. It was called the Célérifère (say-lay-ri-fair). It had no pedals, so you had to use feet to ride it. It also had no handlebars, so you couldn’t steer it. You would have to go straight. It was made out of wood.

The next step in bicycle evolution was the Laufmaschine. It was also known as the Draisienne and the Hobby Horse. A German man named Baron von Drais made it in 1817. Unlike the Célérifère, it had the ability to steer.

Kirkpatrick Macmillan created the first bicycle with pedals in 1839. You would push the pedals back and forth which turned the wheel.

In the early 1860s, a Frenchman named Pierre Lallement made the velocipede. It had two steel wheels. The one in front was slightly larger than the other. Its pedals were connected to the front wheel, so when you pedaled, the front wheel would rotate pulling the back one with it.

Bicycles with high wheels were very popular in the late 1800s. In 1871, the high wheel bicycle was invented; it was the first bicycle to be called a bicycle. They were the first all metal bicycle, because up to that date, light metal parts could not be made strong enough. They had one big wheel in the front and one small wheel in the back. They ran a lot more smoothly than bicycles before it but were a lot more dangerous. If you hit a rock or rut or sometimes even by applying the brakes, you would fly over the handlebars of your bike.

highwheel bicycle

For the women with long skirts and dresses and the better dressed men, there was the tricycle. The tricycle was a three-wheeled machine that worked just like the bicycle only it was safer. However, it was harder to steer on turns. They were made in the 1880’s.

To make the high-wheeled bicycle safer, they switched the front and back wheels around, putting the smaller wheel in front and the larger wheel in back. This design made the bicycle less likely to tip forward. These bicycles were known as high wheel safety bikes.

Safety bikes were the next step in bicycle evolution. With stronger metals available, they were able to make a small sprocket and chain that was light enough for a human being to power. The safety bike had two wheels the same size. In 1888, an Irish veterinarian named Dunlop, invented the pneumatic tire. These tires were a lot more comfortable to ride on. The pneumatic tire design was sometimes used on safety bikes.

In 1920, the kid’s bike was introduced. Since adults were riding in automobiles, the market needed someone to buy their bicycles.

The mountain bike was first mass-produced in the early 1980’s at a time when bicycling became popular for exercise and recreation.

Although the mechanics of bicycles have improved over time, the basic concept of this people-powered machine has stayed the same for hundreds of years.

History of Coca Cola Bottle

In 1886, Coca-Cola was only sold out of soda fountains for 5 cents a glass. In those days, putting soda-drinks in bottles wasn't an easy task since a way to get an air-tight seal on a bottle had not yet been developed.

In 1894 a man by the name of Joseph Augustas Biedenharn, a 28 year old candy merchant from Vicksburg, Mississippi, began selling Coca-Cola in bottles. The bottle he used is known to us as the Hutchinson stopper-type glass bottle, utilizing an iron stopper and rubber washer.

In 1899, Asa Griggs Candler, owner of Coca-Cola, gave two young attorneys, Benjamin F. Thomas and Joseph B. Whitehead of Chattanooga, Tennessee, the rights to bottle Coca-Cola across most of the United States. Because Candler wasn't confident it could be done, the two men only had to pay one dollar for the bottling rights. Thomas and Whitehead not only succeeded, they also started a network of bottling companies. Soon there after, a third Chattanooga lawyer by the name of John T. Lupton would join their venture. By 1909, 379 bottling companies were in operation across the United States.

By 1905, Coca-Cola would be sold in the second bottle type. This bottle is known to us as the crown top, straight-sided bottle, utilizing a cap instead of a stopper. These bottles came in amber, clear and light green colors, and were also the first to have labels on them. Millions of these bottles were used until Coca-Cola started running into problems with their competitors who were trying to imitate Coca-Cola. The imitators came up with names like Coke-Ola, Koka-Nola, Its-a-Cola, Klu Ko Kolo, Loco Cola, Toca-Cola and Zero-Cola. This of course posed a serious problem for Coca-Cola.

Fortunately in 1913, Harold Hirsch, a lawyer for the Coca-Cola Company, came up with a plan. He helped Coca-Cola launch a national competition in which bottle manufacturers across the country would be asked to design a distinctive bottle - a bottle which a person could recognize even if they felt it in the dark, and so shaped that, even if broken, a person could tell at a glance what it was. The bottle manufacturer that won this competition was the Root Glass Company of Terre Haute, Indiana. Inspired by a picture of a cocoa pod which was found in an encyclopedia at the Emeline Fairbanks Memorial Library, Earl R. Dean, the designer, made a pencil sketch of the bottle. From this sketch, the contour bottle prototype was made. The prototype never made it to production since its middle diameter was larger than its base. This would make it unstable on the conveyor belts. Dean then reduced the middle diameter and the Contour Coca-Cola Bottle was born.

The Contour Coca-Cola Bottle became one of the few packages to achieve trademark status by the U.S. Patent Office. Today, it's considered the most recognized package design on the planet ... yes, even in the dark !

Today, there are only two prototype bottles in existence. One is enshrined in a showcase by the Coca-Cola Company at it's museum in Atlanta, Georgia. The other bottle, as well as Dean's original pencil drawing, is in the possession of one of his sons.

The Memphis Group

The Memphis group comprised of Italian designers and architects who created a series of highly influential products in the 1980's. They disagreed with the conformist approach at the time and challenged the idea that products had to follow conventional shapes, colours, textures and patterns.

The Memphis group was founded in 1981. One of the leading members of the group Ettore Sottsass called Memphis design the 'New International Style'.

Memphis was a reaction against the slick, black humorless design of the 1970's. It was a time of minimalism with such products as typewriters, buildings, cameras, cars and furniture all seeming to lack personality and individualism.

In contrast the Memphis Group offered bright, colourful, shocking pieces. The colours they used contrasted the dark blacks and browns of European furniture. It may look dated today but at the time it looked remarkable. The word tasteful is not normally associated with products generated by the Memphis Group but they were certainly ground breaking at the time.

All this would seem to suggest that the Memphis Group was very superficial but that was far from the truth. Their main aim was to reinvigorate the Radical Design movement. The group intended to develop a new creative approach to design.

On the 11th of December 1980 Scottsass organised a meeting with other such famous designers. They decided to form a design collaborative. It would be named Memphis after the Bob Dylan song ''Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again''. Coincidentally the song had been played repeatedly throughout the evening.

Memphis was historically the ancient Egyptian capital of culture and the birthplace of 'Elvis Presley'. This was quite ironic but so were most of the pieces created by the group.

The 'Super lamp' created by Martine Bedine. It is made of metal, which has been painted and lacquered.

The group decided that they would meet again in February 1981. By that time each member would have had time to generate design proposals. When they did meet themembers of the group had produced over a hundred drawings, each bold, colourful.

They drew inspiration from such movements as Art Deco and Pop Art, styles such as the 1950's Kitsch and futuristic themes. Their concepts were in stark contrast to so called 'Good Design'.

The group approached furniture and ceramic companies commissioning them to batch produce their design concepts. On the 18th of September 1981 the group showed its work for the first time at the Arc '74 showroom in Milan. The show exhibited clocks, lighting, furniture and ceramics created by internationally famous architects and designers.

In the same year the group published the book 'Memphis, The New International Style. The book served to advertise the groups work.

Many of the pieces featured in the exhibition were coated in brightly, colourful laminates. Laminates are most commonly used to protect kitchen furniture and surfaces from staining as a result of spillage. The group specifically chose this material because of its obvious ''lack of culture''.

The work of the Memphis Group has been described as vibrant, eccentric and ornamental. It was conceived by the group to be a 'fad', which like all fashions would very quickly come to an end. In 1988 Sottsass dismantled the group.

The group may no longer exist but it has certainly influenced graphic design, restaurant design, fabrics and furnishing.

Mod to Memphis - design in colour 1960s-80s

From the swinging '60s to the post modernism of Italian design group Memphis in the early 80s, colour was used as a vehicle for self-expression, rebellion and for its sheer exuberance.

Mod to Memphis featured a range of objects drawn from the Museum's outstanding 20th century design collection. It explored the imaginative and often daring use of colour in furnishings and fabrics and traced its influence on designers both internationally and in Australia.

From the 1960s, the exhibition showcased the colourful and inventive use of plastics with such iconic designs as Eero Aarnio's yellow, space age Globe chair (1965), Gaetano Pesce's red compressible polyurethane foam Up chair (1969), and the unforgettable lipstick red lip sofa, known as Marilyn, by Studio 65 (1970).

Mod to Memphis also highlighted the arrival of post-modernism in design in the 1980s, pioneered by Italian design collaborative Memphis. Led by Ettore Sottsass, Memphis challenged accepted notions of 'good taste' and provocatively embraced ornament and decoration. Their colourful and innovative furniture, lighting and textiles contributed dramatically to the exhibition.