hen you think of 1950s Atomic Age design, a handful of images probably pop into your mind: The Ball Clock. The Marshmallow Sofa. The Sunburst Clock. What you probably don’t realize is that the designer of these Mid-Century Modern icons spent decades living in obscurity, filling his upstate New York farmhouse with 300-some whimsical handmade paper sculptures of animals, Pre-Columbian and Southeast Asian figures, Cubist abstractions, and African masks.
But in a few weeks, Irving Harper and all of his delightful creations will come into the light, thanks to a new Skira Rizzoli book, Irving Harper Works in Paper, which hits stores February 12, 2013. This full-color tour of Harper’s personal sculpture collection is the result of an effort by Michael Maharam—who first visited Harper’s home in 2001—to preserve these unique works of art.
Top: A cat attacks a bird in Irving Harper’s paperboard sculpture. Photo by D. James Dee, from “Irving Harper Works in Paper.” Above: Harper’s 1949 Sunburst Clock is still credited to George Nelson on the site of Swiss furniture company, Vitra, which sells them now. Image via Vitra.
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