In the Curator’s Words: How postwar modernism sprouted in San Diego, thanks to husband-and-wife design team

In the Curator’s Words is an occasional series that takes a critical look at current exhibitions through the eyes of curators.

“Inside the Design Center,” the Mingei International Museum’s newest exhibition, is a snapshot of the postwar modernism movement in 1950s San Diego through the eyes and design sensibilities of Ilse Ruocco. She, with her husband, Lloyd, launched the Design Center — dubbed by the museum as the “foundation for the modern design community” of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s.

This exhibition — which includes works by Ray Eames, Charles Eames, Greta Magnusson Grossman, Dorothy Schindele, Milo Baughman and Edith Heath — “offers an immersive, revelatory window into San Diego’s culture of modernism through the lens of architecture, design, interior decorating, home goods retailing, landscape architecture, graphic design and photography,” the museum says.

Dave Hampton, the exhibition’s lead curator, talks about the show and why the Ruoccos’ Design Center in Hillcrest was so important to San Diego and beyond.

Q: Many people may not know that San Diego, specifically the Ilse and Lloyd Ruocco’s Design Center, played a significant role in the modern design movement in the mid-20th century. Tell us more about the Design Center and just how important it was back then.

A: We should clarify right away that the “Design Center” refers to two distinct entities and both were/are super important. The building itself embodied the Ruoccos’s shared design philosophy as a physical hub for interdisciplinary postwar modernism. When it opened in about 1949, there was nothing else like it. The designers working there, the community gathering there, and the public experiencing their first real glimpse of a progressive, modern approach to living were profoundly shaped by the place.

Located within the building, Ilse’s retail furniture showroom and interior design studio was also called the Design Center and is equally important. While mid-20th century modern furniture designers and manufacturers have long been documented, exhibited and celebrated the critical role of modern retailers in disseminating “good design” principles, educating consumers has been recognized only more recently with examples like Baldwin-Kingrey in Chicago, Frank Brothers in Long Beach and Design Research in Cambridge. San Diego’s Design Center had a similar impact in the spread of modernism in this region.

Q: While walking through the exhibition, are there specific pieces or parts of the exhibition that visitors should be paying close attention to? If so, why?

A: It’s important for people to note that we have assembled examples of the same furniture, lamps and accessories that Ilse Ruocco sold and arranged them (mostly) based on a 1950 photograph of her retail space. These were among the first pieces she stocked when her store opened — the first Design Center “collection” — and feature the spare, lightweight, informal aesthetic of “California Design” as it looked in the late 1940s.

The furniture — co-curator Steve Aldana helped track down the hard-to-find examples — is arranged so that people can walk around it similar to the 1950 photo. It is surrounded by the story of the Design Center building in texts and images on the gallery walls. Co-curator and Ruocco archivist Todd Pitman provided us with truly remarkable color film footage — now digitized — of the Design Center site and building under construction in 1949. It will be projected at large scale.

Q: As the curator, what surprised you the most about San Diego’s rich design history as you were doing the work to put this exhibition together?

A: First of all, it is remarkable that the building still exists, basically just as it was built, especially given its Fifth Avenue location, where so many old city blocks are being transformed into high rise developments.

The Ruoccos’s seemingly endless capacity for advocacy in a place that didn’t really understand modernism in the arts and architecture and the dedicated community that they helped to forge in little old San Diego really ought to be part of the general history of this place. Kids should learn about the Ruoccos in schools, if you ask me!

Q: Does the Design Center’s influence on San Diego live or exist now outside the walls of this exhibition? If so, can you share a couple of examples?

A: For sure!

The Design Center building itself, now a historically designated landmark, stands and functions today and the owner still prefers to work with creative tenants when possible.

Architects, such as Homer Delawie, who worked with Lloyd Ruocco in the Design Center, went on to shape our built environment in significant ways. The Delawie firm is going strong today.

Landscape architects Harriett Wimmer and Joe Yamada were based for many years in the Design Center and probably the most prominent local landscape design practice, which is another extant legacy firm.

Many of the California Design furniture examples that Ilse Ruocco offered for sale in 1950, now roughly 75 years old and showing plenty of vintage wear and tear, continue to enjoy extended lives in the hands of collectors, dealers and museums who value their significance and scarcity.

One of the furniture designers featured in Ilse Ruocco’s 1950 showroom (and the exhibition) is Luther Conover of Sausalito. He operated a floating retail market called “Trade Fair” from 1960-73 on board a former steam ferry he owned. According to co-curator Steve Aldana, Conover sold the vessel to the San Diego Maritime Museum in 1973, and it’s been a local waterfront attraction/exhibit ever since (the Berkeley).

And the Ruoccos, of course:

In 1946-47, the Ruoccos played a pivotal role in founding a multidisciplinary artists’ organization called the Allied Artists Council, a subgroup of which, the Allied Craftsmen, has a vibrant membership and active presence in the community after nearly 80 years.

Another active group, called Citizen’s Coordinate for Century 3, focuses on land use, planning and community development and was founded by Lloyd Ruocco in 1961.

In 2012, thanks to a fund established by the Ruoccos in 1977, the 3.3-acre Ruocco Park was completed along the San Diego waterfront between Seaport Village and Tuna Harbor.

Mingei International Museum presents “Inside the Design Center”

When: Through April 12

Where: 1439 El Prado, Balboa Park, San Diego

Tickets: Free to $15

Phone: 619-239-0003

Online: mingei.org