Finding Energy in Design — An Interview with George R. Kravis II
This article first appeared in the Spring 2016 Design Journal, published by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, in conjunction with the past exhibition, Energizing the Everyday: Gifts from the George R. Kravis II Collection.
George R. Kravis II has built an extraordinary collection of industrial and domestic design objects, with a focus on American design between 1930 and 1960. Kravis’s interest in collecting grew out of a childhood appreciation of items ranging from his family’s mid-century modern Russel Wright dinnerware to records, radios, signage, and advertising. His four- thousand-object collection — built over a fifty-year period — took flight when Kravis was able to connect online with collectors and dealers around the world. Kravis Design Center — in Kravis’s hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma — has been established as a collection facility and gallery for educational use, fulfilling his mission to share design with everyone of every age.
An exhibition featured treasures from Kravis’s many gifts to the museum. His generosity — along with his passion and keen eye for collecting — has bolstered Cooper Hewitt’s collection as one of the foremost in industrial design in the United States.
Sarah D. Coffin — Curator and Head of the Product Design and Decorative Arts Department at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum — talked with George about his collection.
Sarah Coffin: What sparked your interest in collecting industrial design objects, and how old were you when you made your first acquisition?
George Kravis: I liked anything that had a motor, a plug, a cord, a battery — that moved and made noise. I was maybe ten or twelve years old when RCA Victor came out with the 45-rpm record along with the changer that you could then hook up to a jack on the back of your television or another amplifier. I bought the changer only because I thought it looked better, and I have kept it through the years. I had it in my office in radio stations, and it’s just one of those things that was very appealing to me and cute because of the size of it.
SC: Did you have a fair number of records?
GK: I had some 45-rpm records, and I had an enormous collection of LPs. I have always liked music, but it was the cover art that made a real impression. Later on, the record collection grew very large after I started my FM radio station in 1962 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which was called KRAV.
SC: How did you get into broadcasting?
GK: Interesting story. One of my fraternity brothers at the University of Oklahoma was into broadcasting sports, and he said, “Why don’t you come to the radio station with me?” I was interested in the music and all of the aspects of the broadcasting systems and equipment. The next thing I knew, I had a jazz program three nights a week using my own record collection.
SC: What was it that spoke to you about broadcasting that led you to building your business, later acquiring several radio stations? Is there any connection to your collection?
GK: The way the stations functioned and communicated. The utility, efficiency, and effectiveness are like the building blocks of a well-designed object, like a radio or an iron.
SC: At what point did you move from buying things you liked to considering your holdings as a collection?
GK: I bought a shortwave radio when I was thirteen or fourteen. Well, as I kept adding to it — my radio collection — I began looking for other models, most recently, for instance, the radio designed by Wells Coates, Ekco radio AD65 in green — from 1932. There are only four that are known to exist. And I’ve seen pictures of some of the others. But this is the best example.
I liked it because it was well designed. Beautiful. Functional.
SC: So you didn’t go out to buy every radio, but you bought the ones that you found beautiful?
GK: Yes. It’s mine, and it’s going to be at Cooper Hewitt.
SC: When you travel, go online, or to a fair, do you set out to look for specific objects? Do you have a wish list of sorts?
GK: I do have a wish list, but I see things, you know, going many places. One of the things that’s so overlooked by many people is what’s in museum shops. Very often there is a really great product, and it doesn’t cost a lot of money. At some point you won’t be able to find it so easily anymore. That’s when it becomes valuable.
SC: Has traveling helped you make connections to objects or types of design?
GK: Yes, travel is extremely important. It’s good for the soul. We all learn by looking and seeing. I went on a trip to China with a group of American broadcasters. Afterward, we had a reunion and shared what we had recorded. I brought two carousels of slides, others brought photo albums, and there was even a tape from a very early Betamax recorder. When people looked at my images, they said, “Were we on the same trip? We didn’t see any of that.” The point being that everyone sees his or her surroundings differently.
SC: That’s great.
GK: So, it’s all about looking and seeing, observing. I think I have always been observant. I notice little things when I walk down the street. It might be the graphics of a sign, or, in someone’s house, I look at the art, but I also look at the design of the burglar alarm.
SC: How did your connection to Cooper Hewitt begin?
GK: My aunt and uncle lived at 46 East 91st Street, and my aunt had a key to the garden at the building. They sold keys to the people in the neighborhood. In the fifties and sixties, I think it cost twenty-five dollars a year. And you could just come and sit in the garden.
SC: Did you grow up in a home surrounded by collections and interesting design?
GK: We had art and nice furniture. It wasn’t precious, but it was good. We had a glassed-in porch that had a lot of midcentury modern furniture, and I kept all of that — Tommi Parzinger, T. H. Robsjohn-Gibbings. Our everyday china was Russel Wright’s American Modern in chartreuse.
SC: What’s your hope for your collection coming to Cooper Hewitt?
GK: I hope it starts a discussion and gets people thinking about good design. I have a friend — an architect — who came to my house and was looking at some of my electric irons. I pointed out how each of the cords were textiles of all different colors. She thought that was an interesting design detail and told her sons about it. One of them responded, “You mean somebody designed that?” and she said, “Well, it didn’t fall out of the sky.”
SC: Can you tell us about your poster collection?
GK: I have a large poster collection, which originally started when I was buying decoration for the walls of my radio station. I purchased them at Posters Original. They had this wonderful shop that was on Madison Avenue. These are posters by well-known artists that I either had in my collection or would like to have in my collection. I continued to buy from museum shops as well, but wouldn’t store them flat. I framed them and hung them.
I’ve also been collecting magazines from the forties and fifties that show homes, how people lived, a whole history of advertising that marketed new products from that era.
SC: What is on your wish list?
GK: Everything! But at this point, I am also very interested in leading people through Cooper Hewitt’s galleries to talk about the objects. I’ve done that before when some of my pieces were in an exhibition. It wasn’t something that was announced. A woman came up to me and asked me a question so I began explaining an object, how it worked, details, and she said, “Oh, are you here every day?” I said, “No, I’m just the collector. I just happen to be here today.”
Energizing the Everyday: Gifts from the George R. Kravis II Collection was on display at Cooper Hewitt April 28, 2016, through March 12, 2017.
