As I sense a strong interest in the work of women designers of the 20th century, I would like to bring your attention to Pat Kirkham, the design scholar, the one and only one who curated the groundbreaking show ‘Women Designers in the USA, 1900-2000: Diversity and Difference,’ celebrating the contribution of women designers to the story of modern design at the turn of the millennium. The two events that focus on the work of women designers are an upcoming MoMA show ‘How Should We Live? Propositions for the Modern Interior,’ presenting the modernist interior by such seminal women designers as Eileen Gray, Charlotte Perriand, Lilly Reich, Grete Lihotzky, Aino Aalto, Ray Eames, and Florence Knoll; and a show ‘SEATS: Studies of Furniture Designed by Women,’ at SoHo boutique in Los Angeles, featuring sketches of furniture by such star designers as Lina Bo Bardi, Anna Castelli Ferrieri, and Greta Magnusson Grossman. Kirkham’s exhibition and catalogue which is out of print came to counter the marginality of women within design history. With some excellent essays that survey the some of American women designers that came to shape the century in fields such as textiles, quilts, jewelry, ceramics, graphics, furniture, fashion, interiors, industry, landscape, and film, Kirkham sought to recount the stories of women whose histories had been lost and/or to explore the gendered nature of women designers’ training, experience, and practice. And she was the first to look closely at women designers, at the same time she was teaching me and other doctoral candidates at the BGC
Mary McFadden
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Ray Eames
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Maria Matinez