While many European architects and design theorists of the era, including the Swiss-French Le Corbusier and the Finnish Alvar Aalto, were driven by philosophy, religion or social constructs, Bennett’s pared-down, human-scale Modernism was shaped by his own peripatetic life. During a stint in Europe in his 20s, he sought out a meeting with the sculptor Constantin Brancusi, who became a lodestar. (Bennett’s jewelry was included in a 1946 group show at the Museum of Modern Art.) But it was in Bennett’s interiors that you saw the designer at his most innovative. BUT IT WASN’T UNTIL Marvin Sugarman, the producer of the landmark children’s show “Captain Kangaroo,” and his wife, Ronnie, commissioned a beach house, that Bennett was able to fully realize his extreme vision.

Source: International New York Times March 22, 2021 12:00 UTC