Making the modern interior : Marion Hall Best and Australian interior design 1945 - 1965

Abstract

This thesis is a study of postwar interior design in Australia. The first half of the thesis seeks to establish a general history of interior decoration principles and practice at the close of the Second World War and charts changes occurring during the 1950s and 1960s. Chapters 1-3 describe the rise of modern design, the austere postwar furnishings of the small planned home, the decorative and technological exhuberance of the fifties and the sophisticated internationalism and diversity of sixties style. These chapters also trace the rise of an industry, a profession, the growth of enterprise and literature in a burgeoning market; linking all of these changes with those occurring at a broader level in Australia's economic and social structure, specifically the modernisation of a culture and a society. The second half of the thesis seeks to test this general model of postwar interior design by focussing on the life and work of one of its protagonists, Marion Best. Chapter 4 describes her artistic and professional development, carefully considering the influences which shaped her distinctive aesthetic and style and compares them with her immediate peers and her society. Chapter 5 examines the establishment and growth of Marion Best's business, from 1938 to 197 4. It describes her shops, staff, clients and substantial importation network; again comparing these with the general model established in the first part of the thesis. This study of Marion Best's career complements the general model of Australian postwar design history constructed in the first part of the thesis. It offers confirmation of many of its broad conclusions, particularly the triumph of modern design, the growth of an industry and a profession, and internationalisation of the Australian market; in short-modernisation. However, it notes a number of significant departures from this model in the life of Marion Best. Her example does not merely confirm the general history, but qualifies and refines understanding of its complexities. In doing so it offers a more sophisticated model of Australia's design history and enhances understanding of national changes with which it was linked-the modernisation of Australia. Show more