Los Angeles Modern Auctions (LAMA)

Under the direction of Eliot Noyes (a designer who studied under Walter Gropius), MoMA's industrial design department was founded in 1934 with the expressed goal of establishing and transmitting the tenants of “good design” to the American people. Through competitions, exhibitions and savvy marketing and manufacturing, MoMA spread the ideology of good design, which was judged by an item's “eye appeal, function, construction, and price.” Works featured in these exhibitions ranged from the wonders of Tupperware and “household objects under $5,” to furniture by Charles and Ray Eames, Alvar Aalto and Edward Wormley and affordable lighting, textiles and home accessories.

The 1951 competition for low cost lighting was co-sponsored by MoMA and The Heifetz Company, which manufactured ten of the fifteen winning lighting designs, including Gilbert Watrous' floor lamp, which can be seen in the above photograph in the center foreground. Designs from these competitions are coveted, as they were often produced in limited quantities and endure as modest emblems of the century's emerging sensibilities toward design and consumerism that shaped our contemporary design landscape.

LAMA is proud to present a special selection of design curated by Esoteric Survey, featuring more than 100 works that represent platform founder Steve Aldana's guiding fascination with mid-century design and design history in California. Drawing from Aldana's personal collection as well as from his design-minded community, this collection includes iconic works as well as deeper cuts that represent lesser-known, but nonetheless integral, achievements of postwar artists and designers. 

An urban planner by vocation, Aldana has nurtured his fascination with modern design, particularly the strains that emerged in mid-century Southern California, through Esoteric Survey for nearly 15 years. With a desire to share fascinating obscure design figures and document visits to architecture and design sites, he created the blog he named Esoteric Survey in 2009. What first served primarily as a private log for personal reference eventually blossomed into a valuable resource for like-minded design aficionados, and has since taken the form of an immensely popular Instagram account.

Explore Steve Aldana's Blog Esoteric Survey