Modernism and Me

Modernism Me GERRY M C GOVERN DESIGN DIRECTOR AND CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER LAND ROVER

Design is a very important aspect of my life.

Clearly, automotive design is my principle discipline; however, it is design in all its manifestations that drives me. My work includes visioning our future product range, while giving creative direction to every touch point between one of the world’s greatest brands and its customers.

Modernism touched every aspect of art and design, so I’m mindful of its influence in all the disciplines in which I now work. When I think back to what first made me fall in love with good design, and understand its ability to improve lives, it was always Modernism.

From the brave Modern architecture of my home town, rising from the rubble left by war, to the first furniture I bought, the first car I loved, and the homes I have created, Modernism is the constant theme. Assembling this collection of my influences has allowed me to focus again on the principles of this movement. I hope they inspire you, as they have always inspired me.

GERRY M CGOVERN DESIGN DIRECTOR AND CHIEF CREATIVE OFFICER, LAND ROVER

“The first time I saw Coventry Cathedral, I was awestruck by its conviction and scale.”

Coventry

LEFT Sir Basil Spence’s design for Coventry Cathedral became a hugely popular symbol of reconciliation in post-war Britain.

Gerry McGovern grew up in Coventry, in the heart of England’s industrial West Midlands.

Heavily bombed during the Second World War, its city centre was rebuilt in the 1950s in the international Modernist style. Gerry found inspiration in the urban architecture that his contemporaries took for granted. And his parents were an important early influence too.

“My mother, although she had no formal training, was intuitively highly design literate,” says Gerry. “She had an excellent eye for colour and texture and always created a modern look in the homes I grew up in. My father was the opposite. He wasn’t creative but he was tenacious and diligent, and he instilled in me a strong work ethic.”

TOP Broadgate and the Owen Owen building were the centrepiece of Coventry’s resurrection.

ABOVE Gerry’s parents, Patrick and Phyllis, were an important early influence.

The ruins of Coventry’s medieval city centre were replaced after the war with a bold, modern urban plan, which included Europe’s first pedestrian precincts.

“What was created in Coventry’s architecture was a language that had its roots in international Modernism,” says Gerry. “As a young child, going to Coventry city centre was always an exciting occasion. I’m sure this influenced my love of Modernism.

“The Round Café in the city’s lower precinct was a symbol of Coventry’s post-war optimism.

My mother worked as a waitress there for a while and as a child I loved to go there and sit next to the large expanses of glass. It was so cool.”

LEFT Coventry has at last realised the architectural value of its Lower Precinct ‘Round Café’, now a listed building.

BELOW McGovern’s appreciation of the arts developed in Coventry’s Herbert Gallery, which opened in 1960.

“At that time the Royal College of Art was a melting pot of British creativity.”

Royal College of Art

LEFT The Royal College of Art has long been the destination for creative talent.

London’s Royal College of Art hardly needs an introduction, with alumni from Lutyens to Hockney. Pioneers of British Modernism such as Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth also studied here. One of the few art schools in the world then offering an automotive design course, it was the natural destination for the ambitious McGovern.

“Having studied industrial design at Coventry University I moved to London to do a Master’s degree in automotive design,” he says. “At that time the Royal College of Art was a melting pot of British creativity. My time there gave me the opportunity to develop my own design sensibilities. But the real journey started when I began working in a professional design environment.”

For his first Modernist acquisition, McGovern gravitated towards the Bauhaus, that great incubator for Modernism in the designed environment, and to a work by one of its earliest students.

Appropriately for a man who would design luxury cars, this first purchase was a sculpture in metal and leather. And like all great Modernist

design, his choice looks as good today as it did in 1925. “Marcel Breuer’s Wassily Chair was the first example of modern design that I bought,” Gerry explains. “My father remarked when he first saw it that it looked like something out of an asylum. It is a significant early example of Modernism, but my personal preferences have moved on considerably.”

“My father remarked when he saw it for the first time that it looked like something out of an asylum.”

Wassily Wassily Chair Chair 1925-26 Marcel Breuer

Duffield’s Lincoln-Mercury showroom, Long Beach, 1963.

Photographed by Julius Shulman. © J. Paul Getty Trust.

Lincoln Continental SERIES 4, 1961

ABOVE Cadillac’s Eldorado of the same period couldn’t match the Continental for its modernity.

“The 1961 Lincoln Continental was a revelation in automotive design,” says Gerry of the car that best links two of his great passions. “When you look at its elegant proportions and clean body sides, free from over-ornamentation, its aesthetic is absolutely Modernist; especially when you compare it to a Cadillac Eldorado of the same period, with its outrageous tail fins and bullet brake lights.

“Lincoln’s Modernist approach was also demonstrated in the design of its dealerships.

The importance of the relationship between the product and the environment in which you present it is central to my role as Land Rover’s Chief Creative Officer.”

RIGHT & BELOW London’s Trellick Tower and Barbican Centre are landmarks of British Modernist architecture.

Architecture

“ I refer to these particular buildings as beautiful brutalism.”

As an art and design student in London, Gerry was again drawn to the modern, just as he was in his early years in Coventry.

“Not all British Modernist architecture of the Sixties and Seventies was a success, but there are buildings that worked, such as the Barbican Centre, South Bank Centre and Trellick Tower.” Gerry describes these particular buildings as ‘beautiful brutalism’.

“ The use of concrete for modern buildings has received a bad rap over the years.�

“Trellick Tower (below) was Erno Goldfinger’s vision for social accommodation in the sky,” Gerry continues. He welcomes the fact that these buildings, long unloved, are now celebrated again, with listed-building status from the British Government, and well-heeled buyers appreciative of the Modernist aesthetic actively seeking to move in.

“Trellick has become a ‘des-res’ for the middle classes now,” he says, “and also an iconic landmark in London, although from a building materials perspective, it’s aged. The use of concrete for Modern buildings has received a bad rap over the years, and there have been many bad examples to fuel the debate. For me, the Barbican demonstrates how it can be used successfully. It’s an iconic building and I love it.”

McGovern House McGovern House is a collaboration between Gerry McGovern and British architect Adrian Baines. “I met Adrian many years ago. He always wanted to be a car designer and became an architect, and I always wanted to be an architect and became a car designer.

So we promised each other that one day we would design a house together, and McGovern House is the result.”

“Designing a Modernist house in the mid-Warwickshire countryside brings a different set of challenges from sunny California,” Gerry says. He was determined to introduce the Modern aesthetic to rural England.

“The site banks up on both sides of the building,” says Gerry of his home’s setting. “So the challenge was to create a structure that sits comfortably in its landscape.”

RIGHT McGovern House (detail) has been designed to sit perfectly in the natural contours of its plot.

“ A home is for living in – an environment that is as welcoming as it is inspiring.”

LEFT & ABOVE McGovern House showcases some of his favourite Modern art and design.

The interior space has been created to accommodate a comprehensive art collection, together with classic Modern, mid-century and contemporary furniture. Gerry is adamant that his home is a family space rather than a gallery. “A home is for living in – an environment that is as welcoming as it is inspiring.”

LEFT Unmistakably Range Rover, unmistakably British.

Design Philosophy

As Design Director, Gerry McGovern has used Modernist inspiration with a uniquely British twist to create vehicles with an unmistakable persona. Elegance and formality blend effortlessly with presence in models that

could only come from the Land Rover brand. That same philosophy guides his role as Chief Creative Officer, to help design showrooms and motor show stands that share the principles of volume, proportion and line.

ABOVE & RIGHT These design concepts for a Land Rover showroom and motor show stand were inspired

by McGovern’s love of a reductive, modern approach.

“ The relationship between the product and the environment in which you present it is central to my role as Chief Creative Officer.�

“Range Rover Sport is a cutting-edge vehicle design. Neutra’s house sits comfortably with it.”

“The Kaufmann Desert House in Palm Springs looks as relevant today as it did when it was originally built,” says McGovern of Richard Neutra’s iconic Mid-Century Modern setting for one of his great works, the Range Rover Sport. ”The car is a cutting-edge design, but the house, which was designed in 1946, sits comfortably with it. They look like they’re of the same period, which is a great tribute to Neutra. And the fact that we went to such lengths to photograph our car there speaks to the importance of design to Land Rover, and to the importance of the Modern to me.”

“ “The architects of my home town instilled a love of Modernism in me. I hope I can pass that love onto a new generation too.”

RIGHT Gerry’s daughter Vanessa, at home in a Modernist world...

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