Monthly Archives: June, 2009
A Design and Museums Reader #4
Meikle, 1998
«… there has also been a crucial shift in the way American art museums display and interpret designed objects. Back in 1983, when the Philadelphia Museum of Art opened a major exhibition on ‘Design Since 1945′, curators of the decorative arts concentrated on defining styles, canonizing works by ‘great’ designers, and highlighting the aesthetic quality [...]
Design Museums Statements #1
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
«The Stedelijk believes whole-heartedly in the power of the visual arts to speak directly and authentically about the human condition; it will therefore seek to exhibit art which has something to say about life, in whatever part of the world. In the design field, the museum will explore the way in which artistic and cultural [...]
A Design and Museums Reader #3
Dilnot, 1984
«Design activity since 1945 can be explained by paying attention to the main motors of economic-industrial motivation in this period. However, resistance to “theory” and to concepts brought in from other disciplines or areas is often rooted in the dislike of the idea that the imported concepts are merely background. However, factors such as [...]
A Design and Museums Reader #2
Whiteley, 1995
«Design doesn’t exist for its own sake – much to the disappointment of unreformed Modernists and some curators of white cubic museum. It exists, instead, in real lives, real situations, real places, and real time.»
Nigel Whiteley, Design History or Design Studies, in “Design Issues”, vol. 11, 1995, 1, Spring, pp. 38-42: 38.
photo: Alessandro Mendini’s Proust [...]
A Design and Museums Reader #1
Papanek, 1974
«It is most interesting to compare the many museum catalogues of “well-designed objects”. Whether printed in the twenties, thirties, fifties or seventies, the objects are usually the same: a few chairs, some automobiles, cutlery, lamps, ashtrays, and maybe a photograph of the ever-present DC-3 aeroplane. Innovation of new objects seems to go more and more [...]
Design and Museums Issues #1
What is a museum of design? What defines a museum of design, what distinguishes it from other kinds of museums? How do design museums mean “design”, which fields or objects are they concerned about with their policies and practices of acquisition, research and exhibition? Which cultural value do they attach to design? What approaches do [...]
