Bonwit-Teller window display, 1947. Hilla Rebay records, A0010, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives, New York
Finding 35: Bonwit-Teller Window Displays, 1947
October 6, 2010
Seeking to promote nonobjectivity and draw visitors to the nearby Museum of Non-Objective Painting, collection works were used in a 1947 Bonwit-Teller window display. Karole Vail, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Assistant Curator, explains in her essay "A Museum in the Making" that the Museum of Non-Objective Painting "was often the focus of fashion shoots, thereby implying that non-objective art was fashionable and of the moment. Moreover, the fashions of the day blended perfectly with the geometric abstractions…" Captioned “Imaginative Specialties of the House,” the window displays a work by Rolph Scarlett as well as B.H. Wragge exclusive dresses.
—Francine Snyder, Manager of Library and Archives