Stylized fronds with pointed ellipsoidal leaves in gray and black overlapping against triangular planes of white, gray and black.

See more objects with the tag perspective, trees, designers, sketch, black and white, leaves, triangles, correspondence, receding.

See more objects with the color gainsboro dimgrey or see all the colors for this object.

Object Timeline

1930	Work on this object began.
1939	Work on this object ended.
1975	We acquired this object.
2011	We photographed this object.
2014	We exhibited this object.
2021	You found it!

Drawing, Design for Greeting Card, "Vanishing", 1930–1939

This is a Drawing. It was designed by Donald Deskey and drafted by Donald Deskey. It is dated 1930–1939 and we acquired it in 1975. Its medium is brush and gray and black gouache, graphite on white wove paper . It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

Deskey was one of the leading American industrial designers of the 20th century. His work was strongly influenced by the European Art deco movement, especially after visiting the Paris World Fair of 1925. It was upon returning to America after this event that he became a designer, seeking to bring home some of the innovations he had observed. He is best known for his modernist and streamlined approach to the interiors of Radio City Hall, commissioned in 1930 by John D. Rockefeller, and for his packaging designs which shaped the appearance of American everyday objects from the 1940’s onwards. This greeting card illustrates his purist approach to Art deco, reducing a leaf motif to abstraction. Stylized ovals, straight lines and triangles soberly imitate vegetation in shades of black, grey and white. The diagonals produced by the design cut off the edges of the image, suggesting a larger, broader scale.

This object was donated by Donald Deskey. It is credited Gift of Donald Deskey.

Design for textile with all-over, repeat pattern of blue squares with white-stippled lower right corners, black-dotted upper left corners, and three undulating lines across lower halves—these mostly black with white segment at left.

Drawing, Textile Design: Wavy Lines, ca. 1932
brush and blue, black, and white gouache, graphite on gray illustration board.
Gift of Donald Deskey.
1975-11-29

Project files contain magazine and newspaper clippings, reviews, correspondence, renderings, floor plans, perspective drawings, site plans, sketches, preliminary drawings, patents, stationery, labels, and technical reports. There is an extensive collection of photographs and slides of many of Deskey's packaging designs, interiors, furnishings, and exhibition installations. The files of Donald Deskey Associates include organizational charts, client lists, proposals and financial records. Some of Deskey's personal correspondence, speeches, articles, and family photographs are included. Materials cover the period from 1927-1975.

Archives, Donald Deskey Archive, 1927–89
magazine and newspaper clippings, reviews, correspondence, renderings, floor....
Gift of Donald Deskey.
1975-11-77

Design for textile with all-over repeat triangle pattern. Brown ground over which a series of triangles comprised of gray stripes are positioned in hegagonal/snowflake configuration. Triangles delineated by negative space.

Drawing, Design for Textile: Striped Triangles, ca. 1933
brush and brown and grey gouache, white crayon, graphite on beige wove paper .
Gift of Donald Deskey.
1975-11-24

Our curators have highlighted 4 objects that are related to this one. Here are three of them, selected at random:

Interlaced pattern of lozenge-shapped leaves

Katagami, Kata-gami: Bamboo Leaves, late 19th–early 20th century
cut mulberry paper treated with persimmon tannin and silk thread.
Gift of Helen Snyder.
1976-103-62

Row of small black triangles within large gray triangles; at center triangle contains a white rhomboid with text and two facing lions: HIGGINS’ / VEGETABLE GLUE / VEGETABLE GLUE.

Drawing, Design for Product Label, Higgins' Vegetable Glue, 1930
brush and blue, white gouache, paper strips, graphite on paper.
Gift of University of California, Los Angeles.
1973-15-71

A variety of large-scale leaves extending from meandering vine. Printed in twenty two colors on five color ground of golden yellow.

Sidewall, Assorted Leaves, 1991
screen-printed on paper.
Purchase.
1991-46-1

Its dimensions are

(folded): 24.4 x 16.5 cm (9 5/8 x 6 1/2 in.) Mat: 45.7 x 35.6 cm (18 x 14 in.) Other (full sheet): 24.4 x 33 cm (9 5/8 x 13 in.)

It is signed

Signed in graphite, lower right: BW [?]

Cite this object as

Drawing, Design for Greeting Card, "Vanishing", 1930–1939; Designed by Donald Deskey (American, 1894–1989); USA; brush and gray and black gouache, graphite on white wove paper ; (folded): 24.4 x 16.5 cm (9 5/8 x 6 1/2 in.) Mat: 45.7 x 35.6 cm (18 x 14 in.) Other (full sheet): 24.4 x 33 cm (9 5/8 x 13 in.); Gift of Donald Deskey; 1975-11-57

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition Making Design.

Short URL http://cprhw.tt/o/2CKxZ/
Accession Number 1975-11-57
Object ID 18487035