Ohio Tour
The Toledo Museum of Art
2445
Monroe Street
Toledo, Ohio 43620
419-255-8000
In 1925 Oscar Bach was commissioned to create a pair of doors for the Toledo Museum of Art. After a series of delays, the final product was delivered and installed in the Museum’s Monroe Street Lobby called Libbey Court at the entrance to the stairs that led from the gallery floor to the ground floor. The doors are now installed in the Terrace Room opening to the Museum café. Fabricated in steel, bronze and silver and depicting symbols of art and industry, the magnificent Toledo doors won Bach the Architectural League of New York’s Gold Medal of Honor in Design and Craftsmanship in 1926. Proud of his award winning design, Oscar Bach used the Toledo doors in a number of advertisements and promotional publications and ultimately gained a second commission to create a variation on the doors for George & Annette Cross Murphy. The second set of doors were sold from the Murphy Estate by Christie’s in 1990 and now reside in Florida International University’s Wolfsonian Collection.
August 1925 Arts & Decoration shows one of Bach’s early versions of the Toledo Doors. Many changes were made subsequent to this design.
May 1926 Country Life article shows the Toledo doors at center.
The lion mask motifs on the lower panels are no longer in place but can be seen here in the June 1926 International Studio photograph.
Oscar Bach’s steel, silver and bronze doors as they appeared in 1926 in the New Wing’s Monroe Street Lobby.
Oscar
Bach’s steel, silver and bronze doors as they appear today.
The Friends of Oscar Bach wish to thank Patricia J. Whitesides, Registrar, Kathleen Gee, Photographer/Assistant Curator, Heidi Yeager, Reference Librarian and Julie McMaster, Archivist of the Toledo Museum of Art for their excellent assistance in providing the above information.
Please
visit the Toledo Museum of Art website at www.toledomuseum.org,
or contact them at:
The
Toledo Museum of Art
2445 Monroe Street
Toledo, Ohio 43620
419-255-8000