Play Sculpture Design for Museum of Modern Art Competition, Design Sketch

Chicagoan Arthur Carrara was a gifted architect and designer who worked in a variety of fields, including industrial design, urban planning, and architecture. Carrara is credited with designing the first inflatable object for the home, his 1953 Inflata-Lamp, and he also was well known for his creative designs for children, including the popular building toy Magnet Masters, from 1947. This sketch is a study for Carrara’s entry to the national Play Sculpture Competition and exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art in 1954. Although Carrara’s design was not among the prizewinners, it shows an impressive fusion of ideas from contemporary kinetic art with an architect’s eye for creating spaces of exploration. The postwar era witnessed many architects around the world—from Charles and Ray Eames to Aldo van Eyck—trying their hand at designing for children, with playgrounds serving communities as another kind of public art.