EXHIBITION DISPLAY

EXHIBITION DISPLAYAuthor(s): James GardnerSource: Journal of the Royal Society of Arts, Vol. 96, No. 4761 (JANUARY 30th, 1948), pp.158-165Published by: Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and CommerceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41363544 .

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1 58 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS Jan. 30, 1 948

EXHIBITION DISPLAY

By James Gardner, o.b.e., r.d.i., m.s.i.a.

Delivered on 24 th November , 1947

Exhibition display covers a wide field of activity having no clearly defined boundaries. It would be simple to limit observations to the more important international exhibitions, trace lines of development in display technique and compare some contemporary examples. While fruitful in illustration and argument, conclusions drawn from this material would be a matter of personal judg- ment, and, I am sure, would not reveal the basic element behind all successful exhibition display.

Display and Mass Emotion. - The word " Exhibition' ' immediately conjures up pictures and emotions in my mind - not pictures of individual exhibits or isolated features, but something much wider. With the Paris 1937 Exposition, I recall a sense of excitement, a large emotional experience associated with the show as a whole. The effect of the whole is much greater than and different from the sum of the parts. How is this achieved? Is it designed or accidental? I think we shall find that the answer is in the people who visit the show, something within them, which is excited and reacts to the successful presentation of an idea, and this I call mass emotion. It is difficult to analyse and still more difficult to express the effect of visual display on a community of people, but I will attempt to pick out that thread, which I think important, through the varied patterns of public displays.

We have, in common with members of all communities, a number of different loyalties and impulses, each of which must find satisfaction or, in the long run, the organized community breaks down. One loyalty is to our family and the home, one is to our associates in work or leisure, and one is associated with the community group as a whole. The latter is the emotion which is stirred by a successful public exhibition. As small personal individuals, each a part of the large community, we need that whole to be defined, and here visual display can take the stage by representing our group feeling visually. I suggest that people as a whole feel such a real need for the satisfaction of this emotion, that they will accept a display that is a distorted or fairy-talt representation of the group idea for want of a better.

If we examine dispassionately the tie which the Royalty idea, with its display of pageantry, has in linking together the peoples of the Commonwealth and other peoples who are not subjects, we will find it difficult to explain in everyday terms. I suggest that this pageantry, related to a world of the past, survives because it satisfies the need for a visual display of the community idea, and that if it did not take this form, it would find some other outlet of expression.

Display associated with Leadership . - Display has taken varied forms to satisfy this mass emotional requirement, but I suppose the basic public reaction to popular display has been much the same at all times. In tracing the thread of display back, we find it at first interwoven with the development of leadership and kingship. Early communities, even when they were little more than family groups, had developed exhibition display as a part of their social equipment. The show would



Jan. 30, 1948 EXHIBITION DISPLAY 159

be centred around the leader of the group, the king. The exhibition manager would be the witch doctor. The technique might include chalk, clay, blood, bone ornaments, and ceremonial display features such as the totem pole. These primitive shows were surely not just advertising stunts to bolster up the authority of the king idea; this was already established. I suggest that such displays became an integral part of early social development, because these small groups of rather frightened people felt more secure with this visual demonstration of their common identity and aim. Loyalty to home and immediate associates was not enough.

It is of interest that simple music also served to satisfy this mass emotion. A type of sound pattern which is now again popular with younger people lost in the complexities of contemporary society, tom-tom music has become swing. This example may be a long way from present day exhibition technique, but is interesting in that it shows the important part played by public display, when social equipment was rudimentary and men concentrated on the simple essentials.

As communities became more complicated in pattern, display centred around changing themes. In the Nile Valley the theme was the King - God and Immortality. Here a long tradition allowed the development of craftsmen and artists skilled in display technique. The chief features were processional ways, great tombs and monuments, a huge scale, mural decoration in paint and relief, drapes and decorative ceremonial dress, and symbols. These great centralized displays, sponsored by the hereditary kings and priests, and executed by trained organisers and craftsmen, at one time so engaged the available labour force that the building of the great pyramids nearly ruined Egypt - an interesting contrast with to-day, when display crops up at every street corner in the world, sponsored by tradesmen and trading groups, and the technique employed is international.

Moses centred the common loyalty of the wandering Israelites round a Sacred Tabernacle, and we have detailed descriptions of its construction, though I cannot recall having seen a reconstruction of this. And in the democracies of ancient Greece

public display centred on abstract figures representing virtues and hopes, the Pagan Gods, and around the public sports areas and theatres, the first Civic Centres, I suppose. Here we see brilliant colours and ingenious architectural lay-outs.

During the period of Roman expansion, exhibition display took many forms -

vast architectural themes, elaborate applied decoration, the great textile drapes we now term velariums, processions with symbols of authority and trophies somewhat reminiscent of the totem pole. These would be carved aloft along the



l6o JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS Jan. 30, 1948

roads throughout the empire as a trade mark to indicate that "This is a repre- sentative of the genuine Roman organisation" . As war became an increasing burden on the people, exhibitionism increased. Trophies were paraded, and more and more monumental structures were erected, and garnished with yet more trophies. Here, perhaps, display had gone a bit to seed, and had become at times rather gross, a method of exciting loyalty rather than a fulfilment of public demand.

Later the pattern of the display thread became interwoven with the powers of the Church and the King. The elaborate display of artistry around the throne developed in the old tradition, but in the growing influence of the Church new themes were developed. We see Gothic spires, serving no architectural purpose other than as display features, and processional pageantry with new symbols and new forms of ceremonial dress. Then there were elaborate tombs and biers, three dimensional set pieces which we now call dioramas, mural decorations, the use of colour in marble, enamel, stained glass and reflecting surfaces of metal, and the use of perfumes. Here the continuous development of a technique resulted in a perfect harmony of space, lighting, sound and visual effect.

And so we pass through the period of prolific Rennaisance display, when the designers achieved personal reputations, to the heraldic devices and marks of the civic authorities and Guilds. Here we have a new theme, display sponsored by principalities and merchants. A picture of Venice in the hey-day of her maritime success is worth recalling. There have been periodic revivals of community display centred around Kings and Leaders, culminating in the brilliant displays around the Louis in France, and after an interval of social disturbance, this type of display is revived by Napoleon, bringing with it echoes of the older displays of Rome and Egypt.

Display of and for the People . - From this period display is more diffused, but it is used in a no less important way to advertise, and build up the theme of "aristocracy": palatial houses, elaborate furniture, paintings and statues of personalities, posed in such a manner and with such associated features as to add dignity and stature, and, of course, the coach with footmen and outriders. Painters dealt with these themes so effectively that I think their portraits and conversation pieces set an ideal which the "aristocracy" found it necessary, in public, to follow. The public accepted these displays because they filled the need for a visual show of the leadership and aim of the group.

Apart from the general use of display by the aristocracy, we have some




outstanding " shows". The Prince Regent had his Pavilion at Brighton, prominent

leaders in society organized individual displays, often around a public charity theme - they organized masques and Fêtes. These were a success with the tradesmen and public, and displays of a similar nature appeared at Ranelagh, Vauxhall Gardens and Earl's Court. We have regattas and firework displays, and permanent halls were erected such as the Egyptian Hall and the Pantheon. Designers, in search of ideas with public appeal, revived techniques from the past, and so we see a faint echo of the Nile Valley on the stucco facing of Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly, and at Brighton the Pavilion had for its exterior theme an Indian Palace and a Chinoiserie interior !

Display of Goods. - Now as wealth spread more widely and commodities were available to an ever increasing number of people, community display took the form which we recognize to-day. Houses were fitted with large glass windows, with elaborate surrounds and with illumination, designed for the presentation of merchandise. Symbols and signs, the marks of trade, were displayed first in three dimensional form, then in relief, then as painting and, finally, in print. Meanwhile, the merchants were holding public markets and fairs in the open, and individual displays under awnings, the whole usually dominated by the Town Hall of some provincial centre. Agricultural fairs developed and some trade fairs gained an international reputation.

Display becomes "Exhibition" . - Paris became the centre for a five-yearly Industrial Exhibition which attracted many English visitors, and the word " Exhibition" became a name. Now in 1847 the Prince Consort became President of this Society and the Queen granted it a Royal Charter. The Society held the first of three annual Exhibitions of "Art Manufactures", intended in Princc Albert's words "to wed mechanical skill with high art", a reminder of this Society's interest in what we now term Industrial Design. At this time the Charity Fête developed into a great "Bazaar of British Manufactures" held at Covent Garden to augment the funds of the Anti-Corn-Law League. And while Paris held her eleventh Exposition, we come to the great 1851 Exhibition in Hyde Park, the greatest of all exhibitions, and remembered to-day in the Crystal Palace. This, the most revolutionary and

specialised structure ever built for an exhibition, was designed by Paxton, the Duke of Devonshire's landscape gardener. This exhibition, our first International

display, can be considered in terms of to-day, since it was carried out with

contemporary technique. It is interesting, in view of the great influence which this fantastic structure has



IÒ2 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS Jan. 30, 1948

had, to reflect that it began as a last minute sketch on a piece of blotting paper. As we all know, no design has never originated from a committee, and the committee deputed to select a design for this exhibition was no exception. After much discussion it could agree on none, and so proposed a design of its own to be executed by Brunei - a monstrosity of a low brick building with false arches, pressed down to earth by a vast sheet iron dome. This was already out to contract when Paxton, with his experience in enclosing large spaces economically when erecting greenhouses, had the "Crystal Palace" idea. This Crystal Palace so appealed to the public imagination that the Exhibition's success was assured. Inside there were gathered examples of fine handcraftsmanship, some ideas and inventions, and a few machine-made articles which were so devised and decorated as to have superficially the appearance of being hand-made. The layout of the displays was not as inspired as the building, being a mixture of "Bazaar" technique on a larger scale with the traditional "museum" type of display. The inclusion of living trees within the structure, due to their position on the site, resulted in an original display feature, a foil to the formal lines of the building.

International Exhibitions and Trade Fairs were now an accepted part of community life. An outstanding feature which comes to mind is the Eiffel Tower, surely the finest display structure produced by our western industrial communities. The first exhibition I visited was a complete city in plaster Rococo- "The White City" - which again, caught the public imagination. Here was an amusement park, a ridiculous "Flip Flap", a scenic railway, canals with Venetian Gondolas, and some elaborate lighting effects. In this we have all the elements of a pattern, which is repeated with variations in all the large scale exhibitions which follow. Wembley repeated the theme, but much of it in concrete - a sprawling layout, large in extent but small in concept.

Signs of Changing Technique . - So many exhibitions now are a fleeting panorama of plaster, steel and glass, of imitations and fantasies, such as a full-scale reproduction of Canada's Parliament House alongside copies of the Crystal Palace, Eastern temples, native villages, "half timbered" cottages and pompous monuments, some of which are permanently recorded in the industrial buildings, which appeared almost overnight, along the Great West Road. Alongside these gigantic hat boxes and elaborate plaster caskets, some smaller simpler structures appeared, erected economically from contemporary building materials, and honest, pleasant and human in scale. Notable examples of these were the Swedish, Finnish and Swiss Pavilions at the Paris 1937 Exposition; while interesting contrasts were the German and Russian Pavilions vieing with each other to be the highest and most imposing monument in the whole show.

The New York World Fair was, I suppose, a direct development of the "Wembley" tradition - but much more expensive and elaborate. The Italian International Exhibition, preparation of which was interrupted by the war, would have been of interest- a complete marble city on the outskirts of Rome, to remain as a permanent city, a monument to the Mussolini Era. As one would suppose, it was to have been a pompous formal scheme, a reminder in theme, if not in style, of the processional ways and temples of Ancient Egypt. When I saw it in 1945, it was already a ruin and occupied by our Royal Engineer Workshops.




The Publicity Technique. - So far, the examples have been of exhibition building design, for it is only recently that design has been based on the goods to be displayed or built around a story to be told. The advertising profession had not been very interested in exhibitions, leaving these to contractors and a few specialist architects. Advertising publicity was too closely linked to space selling and the two- dimensional layout. Nevertheless, a few of the larger commercial interests staged shows prior to the war. These were quite new in concept and designers, experienced in publicity technique, told a story in three -dimensions. The interest here was in the visitors' reaction to the exhibits, and an architectural façade was non-existent.

During the last war, the M.O.I, exhibition department perfected and stabilized

pIG I: - << Shopwindow Street Britain Can Make It Exhibition {London, 194o)

this technique. The "layout" and typography of publicity pamphlets was trans- ferred to the wall in three-dimensional planes with novelty in materials, lighting and construction to give relief and interest. Here we have exhibition display appealing to the loyalty of the community in a new democratic guise. The old

symbols of pageantry became fresh and exciting in the hands of practised publicity designers. Many of these exhibitions were specially designed to travel from town to town, while in the Army the travelling display became a method of training, under the name of "a circus".

We might note at this stage that in Germany community display was used with a great efficiency to weld the people together into the Nazi idea, the people them- selves being used at times as mass display material. We saw here another revival -

the totem pole motif of the Roman Empire.



IÓ4 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF ARTS Jan. 30, 1948

Display To-day . - The design of 4 'Britain Can Make It" commenced immediately

after the recent hostilities ceased and was, I consider, an experiment. Here was no consecutive story, and no propaganda theme, which could be treated with the now accepted "publicity" technique. Some goods (at the time of planning no one knew

Fig. 2. - Commodity Display , Enterprise Scotland Exhibition (Edinburgh, 1947)

how many or how good) were to be presented in a background which would catch the popular imagination, and it was to be a design stimulant. The resultant technique was borrowed much from the theatre, the pantomime and the circus, the aim being to achieve an interesting atmosphere, and to give the visitor some




emotional experience, and some "fun". The breakaway from architectural treatment of hall, focal point, main axis, etc., on the one hand, and the publicity layout of a story sequence, on the other, still requires study and development before it can be more than a series of ideas and episodes.

The annual British Industries Fair is, and should be, a development from -the provincial Fair or market : a series of individual displays competing for the buyers' attention. Ideas here should generate from the exhibitors, and apart from some control of layout, scale and colour, the whole can only be given unity by the introduction of some dominating theme or feature, which could fill the place of the Town Hall which so happily used to complete the country market.

The Future of Display. - Remembering the examples of early communal display, it is to me clear that we could well use this technique more generally in our community. I would like to see the display technique, now confined to the "Exhibition" as such, used by local authorities and by leaders of working communities, at the country fair, at our sporting events > and at all times of a public celebration or gathering. At the same time we should remember the displays of pageantry and heraldry in, say, Italy during the Renaissance, when each district vied with another in popular public demonstrations of civic pride. I think that a sense of pageantry is still alive in the British and that our exhibition display technicians are, at the moment, in advance of any others in the world.

We, who produced the Great 1851 Exhibition, need not borrow ideas from abroad. Ahead is the 195 1 Exhibition, which should be as new in concept as was that of 1851 in its time. Finally, I hope I have been able to substantiate my belief that in exhibition display we have a means of uplifting and knitting together the people in a common purpose.

OBITUARY James Hogan. - We regret to announce the death in London on Monday,

January 12th, of Mr. James Hogan, r.d.i. James Humphries Hogan had been a Fellow of the Society since 1932. He was appointed a Royal Designer for Industry in 1936 in recognition of his outstanding 'york in the design of glass and was Master of the Faculty of Royal Designers for Industry from 1941-42. He read several papers to the Society - on "Design and Form in Glassware" (1933), for which he received a silver medal; on "English Design in Glassware" (1935); on "Stained Glass" (1940); and on "Pottery, Glass and Plastics" (1942). He was to have read a further paper to the Society this February, in the Craftsmanship Series, on "The Craft of the Glassblower".

Hogan, who was art director of James Powell & Sons (Whitefriars), was responsible for many stained glass windows in cathedrals and churches in this country, the Dominions and America, his most important work probably being the two 100-feet high windows in Liverpool Cathedral. Besides his stained glass designs he produced many for decorative and table glass-ware. Among his works in this field were the commemoration bowl presented to King George V on his jubilee by the Glass-sellers' Company, and seven pieces of table glass, executed at the Whitefriars Works and exhibited at the 1935 Exhibition of British Art in Industry at Burlington House.

Hogan said that he drew his chief inspirations from York Minster, and from the Cathedrals of Chartres and Leon. He had studied art at the Westminster School of Art, the Central School of Arts and Crafts and the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts, and was a member of the Art Workers' Guild and of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, a Fellow of the Society of Master Glass-Painters and a fairly frequent exhibitor at the Royal Academy.



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