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From the history of decorative arts to the history of design: some problems of documentation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2016

Victor Margolin
Victor Margolin*
Affiliation:
University of Illinois at Chicago
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Abstract

This paper traces the development of the study of the history of design, from problems of definition to the organisations and publications which have appeared to support this area of study. This is a revised version of a paper delivered to the IFLA Section of Art Libraries Preconference in Chicago, August 1985.

Type
Research Article
Information
Art Libraries Journal , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , Winter 1985 , pp. 24 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 1985

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References

1 Coming of age: the first symposium on the history of graphic design. Rochester, NY: Rochester Institute of Technology, 1985.Google Scholar
2 These include papers from the conferences in 1978 (Design History: past, process, product), 1979 (Design and Industry: the effects of industrialisation and technical change on design), 1980 (Svensk Form: a conference about Swedish design), and 1984 (From Spitfire to Microchip).Google Scholar
3 See Hannah, Fran and Putnam, Tim, Taking stock in design history. Block 3, 1980 pp. 25–26, pp. 30–34; Fry, Tony, Design history: a debate? Block 5, 1981 pp. 14–18; Fry, Tony, Unpacking the typewriter. Block 7, 1982 pp. 36–47; Fry, Tony, Cultural politics, design and representation. Block 9, 1983 pp. 40–49; and Goodall, Phil, Design and gender. Block 9, 1983 pp. 50–61.Google Scholar
4 Papanek, Victor. Design for the real world. New York: Bantam Books, 1973, p.23. (A 2nd edition was published by Reinholdin, Van Nostrand 1984.)Google Scholar
5 World Design Directory, 1983. (IFI/ICSID/ICOGRADA), II–4.Google Scholar
6 Ibid., 11–1.Google Scholar
7 Hindle, Brooke. How much is a piece of the true cross worth? in Material culture and the study of American life, edited by Quimby, Ian. New York: W.W. Norton, 1978, p.15.Google Scholar
8 Heskett, John. Industrial design. New York and Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1980, pp. 10–11. See also Pulos, Arthur J., American design ethic: a history of industrial design. Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press, 1983, and Lucie-Smith, Edward, A history of industrial design. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1983.Google Scholar
9 Wood, Philip. Defining craft history. Design History Society Newsletter, 24, February 1985, p.29.Google Scholar
10 Fleming, John and Honour, Hugh, Dictionary of decorative arts. New York: Harper & Row, 1977. This book was published in England as The Penguin dictionary of decorative arts. For additional examples of how the decorative arts approach is used to interpret more recent objects and images, see Bevis Hillier, The decorative arts of the Forties and Fifties: austerity binge. New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1975, and Garner, Philippe, Contemporary decorative arts from 1940 to the present. New York: Facts on File, 1980. At the time of the latter book’s publication, Garner was Sotheby’s expert on modern applied arts, reinforcing the connection between the sale of objects as art pieces and their definition as decorative arts.Google Scholar
11 Pevsner, Nikolaus. Pioneers of the Modem Movement from William Morris to Walter Gropius. London: Faber & Faber, 1936. (The book has been reissued in several editions as Pioneers of modern design) Google Scholar
12 Jervis, Simon. The Penguin dictionary of design and designers. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1984. See the critical review of Jervis’s dictionary by Conway, Hazel in Design History Society Newsletter, 23, November 1984, pp. 13–15, and Jervis’s reply in Design History Society Newsletter, 24, February 1985, pp. 6–7.Google Scholar
13 Walker, John A. Glossary of art, architecture and design since 1945. 2nd ed. London: Clive Bingley, and Hamden, Conn.: Linnet Books, 1977.Google Scholar
14 Morgan, Ann Lee. (ed.), Contemporary designers. Detroit: Gale Research; London: Macmillan, 1984. The book is reviewed by Robin Kinross in Design History Society Newsletter, 26, August 1985, pp. 11–12. Kinross sees the wide range of entries as precluding a strict definition of ‘good design’ but, by virtue of the way the volume features the individual designer or design team, it perpetuates the myth of ‘the heroic designer, bringing forth objects with the wave of a felt-tip pen’.Google Scholar
15 Hiesinger, Kathryn B. and Marcus, George H., eds., Design since 1945. New York: Rizzoli, 1983.Google Scholar
16 Design History Society Newsletter, 21, April 1984, p.16.Google Scholar
17 Gans, Herbert J. Design and the consumer, in Design since 1945, p.32.Google Scholar
18 See the excellent catalog by the exhibit’s curator Sharon Darling, Chicago furniture: art, craft, & industry, 1883-1933. New York and London: W.W. Norton, 1984.Google Scholar
19 Coulson, Anthony J. A bibliography of design in Bridan, 1851-1970. London: Design Council, 1979. See also the thorough documentation in Meikle, Jeffrey L., American design history: a bibliography of sources and interpretations. American Studies International, vol. 23, no. 1, April 1985, pp. 3–40.Google Scholar
20 The American Institute of Graphic Arts in New York has published A list of graphic design resources that included 117 organisations worldwide with archival material on graphic communication. See AIGA Journal of Graphic Design, vol. 2, no. 4, 1984. An updated list is scheduled to appear in a forthcoming issue of the AIGA Journal.Google Scholar
21 For a useful account of ad hoc design see Jencks, Charles and Silver, Nathan, Adhocism: the case for improvisation. New York: Doubleday, 1972. Bricolage, a related French concept, is discussed in Jarreau, Philippe, Du bricolage: archéologie de la maison. Paris: Centre de Création Industrielle, 1985.Google Scholar
22 See McCoy, Katherine, ed., Design in Michigan, 1967-1977. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1978. Though essentially the documentation of a juried selection of outstanding design produced in Michigan, this volume contains a brief interesting history of design in Michigan prior to 1967. See also, STA Journal vol. 1, no. 2, Winter 1980, for a special issue on the history of graphic design in Chicago.Google Scholar
23 Dilnot, Clive. The state of design history, part II: problems and possibilities, Design Issues, vol. 1, no. 1, Spring 1984, p. 19.Google Scholar