See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/283798531

History of Design: Decorative Arts and Material Culture, 1400–2000:

Article in Journal of Design History · October 2015

DOI: 10.1093/jdh/epv041

CITATIONS READS
0 1,789

1 author:

Carla Cesare
University of Cincinnati Blue Ash
4 PUBLICATIONS 4 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Book Review View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Carla Cesare on 09 December 2021.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Design History Society

Review
Reviewed Work(s): History of Design: Decorative Arts and Material Culture, 1400-2000 by
Pat Kirkham and Susan Weber
Review by: Carla Cesare
Source: Journal of Design History, Vol. 28, No. 4 (2015), pp. 427-428
Published by: Oxford University Press on behalf of Design History Society
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/43831919
Accessed: 09-12-2021 20:31 UTC

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

Oxford University Press, Design History Society are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize,
preserve and extend access to Journal of Design History

This content downloaded from 132.174.253.141 on Thu, 09 Dec 2021 20:31:25 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Journal of Design History Vol. 28 No. 4

Book Reviews

Jaffee, Sarah Lichtman and Jorge Rivas Pérez, and an array

of resources to create an incredibly well organized text
useful for undergraduates, graduate students and afficio-
nados of the history of design ( History of Modern Design ,
(2nd ed., 2010)).

Design history, a relatively new discipline, developed out of

the art history tradition of provenance and connoisseurship;
it benefitted from the influence of other disciplines includ-
ing sociology, anthropology, and cultural and literary theory,
creating a wealth of intellectual opportunity to interpret
design. History of Design: Decorative Arts and Material
Culture, 1400 -1600 allows the history of design to stand
on its own. Its relationship to art history is revealed through
the book's broader theoretical sources and methodologies.
The section on African-American lower case pottery (p. 475)
not only deftly analyses the forms, but considers the rel-
evance of the historical techniques, incisements, authorship
and similarities to other forms and the social significance of
the work of slaves. It considers the form and techniques of
work not historically considered to be Yefineď, and places
it alongside a study of the Century Vase, a more technically
advanced work within the same time period.

The book's title references its inquiry into design history

History of Design: Decorative Arts and through both the decorative arts and their relation to
Material Culture, 1400-2000 material culture. The editors note that the integration of
various histories, including those of art, architecture and
Pat Kirkham & Susan Weber (eds.), Yale University Press ,
anthropology, in the development of design history and
2013. 704 pp., 760 Mus, cloth, £50.00. ISBN: 9780300196146
material culture --both focused on the 'intersection of
objects and culture' (p.xii) --allowed for more forms to be
With few contemporary books to compete with, Historyconsidered as design, such as clothing, space, and media.
of Design: Decorative Arts and Material Culture, 1400 - While engaging the reader in a systemic understanding
1600 has certainly set the standard for any forthcoming of the influences, interpretations and history of design,
publications. In a world bereft of survey textbooks of thethey claim that they 'are not seeking to establish canons,
history of design, this one, edited by notable design schol-but rather to give frameworks' (p. xii) to fill the gap in
ars Pat Kirkham and Susan Weber, not only fills the gap, design history education. In doing so it positions itself on
but creates a flexible and accessible approach across both the bookshelves stylistically and content-wise next to the
the globe and time. The most recent comparable survey, likes of Gardner, Janson, etc.2
by David Raizman, while comprehensive, (and unique
for its time) 1 does not have the breadth of geographi- What makes the book stand out is not only the quality
cal focus, let alone timespan. Kirkham and Weber have of the content but its organization. Educators and stu-
undertaken an ambitious project utilizing the knowledge dents now have a near stand-alone guide to the history
of 27 scholars, curators and academics including Davidof design allowing them to select geographical areas of

©The Author [2015], .

. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Design History Society. All rights reserved. ||ļ
This content downloaded from 132.174.253.141 on Thu, 09 Dec 2021 20:31:25 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 study (with the pages for each area color-coded for easy of the Museum of Metropolitan Art and the V&A beyond
reference) to understand influences and development in the standards of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the
particular time periods. However, the inclusion of a clear V&A, including collections from Minneapolis to Puebla to
timeline referencing major movements would be benefi- Seoul. The images include both iconic designs and some
cial, especially for undergraduate readers, and it is not more unusual ones, such as the Height bracelets, created
clear why this is not included. Also unclear is why the by the Native American designer Charles Loloma in 1 975.
book bypasses the medieval period to begin with the
Renaissance; the editors do acknowledge that the discus- This thoroughness has some gaps however. This reviewer
sion of Australia/Oceania is for future editions - hope- must question the lack of reference to the Gutenberg
fully the Gothic will be included in those as well. press, one of the greatest technological advancements
in Western civilization. In regard to its own technological
The twenty-three chapters are divided into five chronolog- structure it is curious that there is no accompanying CD
ical time periods: 1400-1600, 1600-1750, 1750-1900, or website of interactive tools. This is particularly pertinent
1900-2000 and six color-coded, geographic regions: East for today's student who studies through and with technol-
Asia, India, The Islamic World, Africa, Europe, and the ogy. One of the greatest errors being made today in design
Americas (including indigenous populations). Included in history, in this reviewer's opinion, is the development of
its 704 pages is a resource section including some helpful design history resources solely for historians and not young
maps of the regions discussed and their changing bound- designers. Historians typically are not makers, whereas
aries over time, and an extensive reading list, which read- design students, who are, benefit from a more applied and
ers will find particularly useful. In the final chapter, the interactive approach toward history; certainly this genera-
editors combined Europe and the Americas, acknowledg- tion of student learns differently in terms of engagement.
ing the changing cultural boundaries of design in the 20th This does not mean that such textbooks are not useful or
century. This leads to one of the most appealing aspects pertinent, but we must ask: how do we address potential
of the text: its treatment of cultural boundaries, the influ- audiences effectively? Overall, this is an excellent resource
ence of trade and travel and how cultures interacted not only for its breadth of content and its structure, but the
because of these aspects. For example, the importance
opportunity it affords to approach and critically discuss the
development of designed objects in relationship to their
of clothing and textiles, particularly in their relationship
to technology, social hierarchy and trade, is evidenced own cultures within a globalized world.
by consistent coverage throughout the text. The overall
doi: 1 0. 1 093/jdh/epv041
structure does not create a hierarchical system of design
Advance Access publication 12 October 2015
history, indeed it creates an opportunity for greater cul-
tural dialogue. It also gives fair coverage to many ofCarlathe Cesare, PhD
Assistant
historically less-reviewed topics by design history, such as Professor of Design History
the aforementioned clothing and textiles, jewelry, interi-Syracuse University
ors, landscapes, theater and film, though printed mat- E-mail: cjcesare@syr.edu
ter is given less attention (it does not, however, reference
architecture or urban design). Each section provides a cul-
tural overview of the region at the time and what ledNotes up
to it, then delves into objects, materials, forms, cultural
1 K.Wilson, review of History of Modern Design in Journal of
groups, techniques and contexts. Yet, none of the chap-
Design History, vol. 26, no. 2, 2013, pp. 227-229.
ters read as formulaic; they are thorough and sensitive
to the conditions of each time period and geographical 2 Davies, Penelope J. E, Denny, Walter B., Hofrichter, Frima

region. Furthermore, visual analysis is fairly consistent andFox, Jacobs, Joseph, Roberts, Ann M., Simon, David
L. Janson's the History of Art, 8th ed. Upper Saddle River,
well-written throughout. The quality of images is high,
NJ: Pearson; 2011; Kleiner, Fred S. Gardner's Art Through
and there is no shortage of them. These were gathered
the Ages, 14th ed. Independence, KY: Cenage; 2013.
from a variety of collections, beyond the standard sources

This content downloaded from 132.174.253.141 on Thu, 09 Dec 2021 20:31:25 UTC
View publication stats
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms