Meadmore’s Leather Sling chair Model 248 (1963), part of the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, has been reissued by Grazia & Co in polished stainless steel and hand-stitched saddle leather in natural, black and olive.
Clement Meadmore’s early furniture and lighting designs are about to become well-known again, thanks to a collaboration between Grazia & Co and the Meadmore family.
One of Australia’s most significant sculptors of the late 20th-century, Clement Meadmore, has massive public sculptures around the globe, including North America, Canada, Japan, Mexico and Taiwan. Yet, despite his success as a sculptor, Meadmore was not an art school graduate. Instead, after a brief stint studying aeronautical engineering, he completed a degree in industrial design at Melbourne Technical College (now RMIT University). His understanding of proportion and balance in complex three-dimensional forms is underpinned by a deep interest in design’s intangible and aesthetic aspects— particularly the flow and tension in geometric forms.
While simultaneously creating sculptures—first in wood, later in welded steel—Meadmore quickly demonstrated an ability to design affordable furniture that captured the global zeitgeist. In 1952 and in his early twenties, he released the Corded chair, a fine steel rod frame woven with humble cotton sash cord to form a flexible seat and back, finished with turned wooden balls that terminated the metal structure in a tactile, pleasing way. The chair won a Good Design Award from the Society of Interior Designers (SIDA) in Sydney in 1953, and Meadmore soon expanded the collection to include an armchair, stool, recliner, and a series of dining, coffee, and side tables under the brand Meadmore Originals.
These early, visually light furniture pieces are the mainstay of the designs being reissued by Melbourne furniture company Grazia & Co in a desire to bring Meadmore’s work in furniture and lighting to an entirely new audience. In addition to the skeletal forms of the early 1950s, Grazia & Co have relaunched the Sling chair Model 248—an exceptional chrome and leather design from 1963 that shows Meadmore’s move toward bolder and more solid geometric shapes around the time he moved to the US to pursue a career as a sculptor. The chair is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art New York.
Pictured: Clement Meadmore, one of Australia’s most significant sculptors and industrial designers of the late 20th-century.
Australian designer Clement Meadmore launched the Corded furniture range in 1951, with the Corded chair winning the Good Design Award in 1953.
Also launched as part of Grazia & Co’s Meadmore collection are the Calyx table and floor lamps from 1954 and 1955, respectively. These simply constructed lights use a swivelling aluminium shade on a slender supporting stem in conjunction with a heavy bent steel base. The clever two-position base allows the lamp to be positioned vertically or lean forward to focus on a task or particular area of a room. Resembling a long-necked bird like a Crane or Flamingo, the strong anthropomorphic nature of the design adds charm to the otherwise industrial form and won Meadmore his second Good Design Award with the Society of Interior Designers (SIDA).
Era-appropriate colours—lemon yellow, rust red and pale blue—have been maintained to ensure a genuine 50s feel to the new production pieces. Other interesting designs, like the Meadmore side table, are included in the new collection and show the designer’s ability to create clever contemporary objects using the smallest amount of material possible.
Meadmore’s designs embrace the optimism in post-war era events like the 1951 Festival of Britain while exhibiting a revolutionary approach to materials, much like the welded wire designs of Charles and Ray Eames for Herman Miller and Harry Bertoia for Knoll. Meadmore, like Bertoia, had a deep fascination with contemporary art and sculpture, and he referenced these ideas in his industrial designs. The Dutch De Stijl painter Piet Mondrian and his Composition paintings particularly influenced Meadmore’s early work. The delicate interplay of lines in his Corded seating designs removes the need for conventional upholstery. It predates Verner Panton’s celebrated Panton One and Wire Cone chair designs released in Denmark in the late 50s and early 60s.
The Calyx lighting range earned Clement Meadmore his second Good Design Award from the Society of Interior Designers of Australia (SIDA) in 1954. The floor and table lamps now feature updated scales to meet Australian safety standards and incorporate energy-efficient low-voltage LEDs.
The Meadmore Corded recliner reimagined with a solid stainless steel frame and Australian-made marine-grade cord.
While European art and design were Meadmore’s constant inspiration through books and periodicals, Australia’s post-war material shortages meant that enormous ingenuity was required to create a viable furniture collection, and it is these austerity-driven solutions combined with his uncompromising artistic vision that make Meadmore’s industrial design so remarkable.
The involvement of Meadmore’s son, Quentin Meadmore and granddaughter, Jade, along with Meadmore collectors Jeromie Maver and Dean Keep, was essential to faithfully reproducing these iconic designs. Subtle updates to materials have delivered a higher quality product and allowed much of the seating to be used outdoors. “Grazia & Co have faithfully honoured Clem’s vision, adapting it for modern living,” Quentin Meadmore says about the new collection.
The Corded furniture range includes the Corded chair, armchair, stool, and recliner, each reflecting Meadmore’s approach to form and function.
