Architect Lee F. Mindel has a shortlist of design talents he puts on a pedestal. Near the top of the list are two names that might be unfamiliar to most of us: Ellen Hertzmark and Roger McDonald. “I consider them the unsung heroes of contemporary architecture,” Mindel says of the pair, who are the vice presidents of V’Soske , the 88-year-old bespoke carpet house that collaborates with architects, designers, and artists on one-of-a-kind site-specific rugs. “They are the ultimate insiders, and their contributions have been swept under the rug.”
Eager to change that, Mindel is curating an eye-opening V’Soske retrospective, on view at Manhattan’s Center for Architecture. Featuring 30 handmade floor coverings the company commissioned between 1979 and 1993—many from influential architects, including Michael Graves, Charles Gwathmey, Steven Holl, Richard Meier, and Shelton, Mindel & Associates, the firm of Mindel and partner Peter Shelton—the show documents a rebellion in hand-tufted wool and silk against ’70s minimalism (exemplified by the hegemony of gray industrial wall-to-wall carpeting), and the transition to decidedly more exuberant postmodernism. “It was a time when everybody was stepping off the tried-and-true path,” observes Hertzmark. “We gave architects the opportunity to express their philosophies with color, pattern, and texture.”
And who better to do so? Founder Stanislav V’Soske introduced hand-tufted, hand-carved rugs to the U.S. in the mid-’20s, and his Michigan-based firm produced pieces with the integrity of fine art. In 1942 he worked with New York’s Museum of Modern Art on a landmark show of floor coverings by artists, among them Stuart Davis and Arshile Gorky. Upon V’Soske’s death in 1983, The New York Times referred to him as the “dean of American rug design.”
“This is a company that has been the voice of the architect on the floor in the 20th century, from Frank Lloyd Wright to Philip Johnson,” Mindel says. “Ellen and Roger helped architects find their identities and created a tapestry of our culture.” “V’Soske Rugs by Architects: Architecture in Transition, 1979–1993,” May 14–26; aianrg
