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1932

  • Work on this object began.

1975

  • We acquired this object.

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Drawing, Design for Carpet: Still Life with Musical Instruments, Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY

This is a Drawing. It was designed by Ruth Reeves and from the office of Donald Deskey and made for (as the client) Radio City Music Hall. We acquired it in 1975. Its medium is brush and gouache, graphite on cream wove paper, lined. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

In 1932, Deskey received his best-known commission, that of designing the interiors of Radio City Music Hall in New York City. An enormous undertaking, Deskey brought in many artists and designers to assist with the project. Ruth Reeves, whose wall-hangings Deskey had frequently used in furnishing his interiors, created textiles for the music hall’s interior. This carpet design adapts the cubist style of Deskey’s decorative screens and incorporates abstracted instruments—guitar, accordion, and saxophone—that suit the purpose of the hall as well as the spirit of the American jazz age.

This object was donated by Donald Deskey.

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Cite this object as

Drawing, Design for Carpet: Still Life with Musical Instruments, Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY; Designed by Ruth Reeves (American, 1892–1966); USA; brush and gouache, graphite on cream wove paper, lined; 1975-11-73

We have 1 media file that features Drawing, Design for Carpet: Still Life with Musical Instruments, Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY.

"From Monday On," Bix Beiderbecke & Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra (1928)

Radio City Music Hall opened in 1932. Paul Whiteman’s Orchestra performed in a National Broadcasting Company (NBC) special program on November 11, 1933, celebrating the inaugural opening. Big...

http://www.folkways.si.edu/bix-beiderbecke-paul-whiteman-and-his-orchestra/from-monday-on/jazz-ragtime/music/track/smithsonian

This object was previously on display as a part of the exhibition The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s.

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<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-6.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18487391/ |title=Drawing, Design for Carpet: Still Life with Musical Instruments, Radio City Music Hall, New York, NY |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=28 February 2021 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>