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I am sorry Norm
But I did not think you would expect any comments, especially not considering that this award to Lucia DeRespinis was long overdue.
Somehow we got used to the fact that there is a forgotten generation in design. They did not become the darlings of the mid-century-design revival, partly because we can only remember so many names, partly because they themselves were never interested in stardom. Lucia DeRespinis is one of them. I think of them in the words of Jan Morris:
There are people everywhere who form a fourth World, or a diaspora of their own.
They are the lordy ones!
They come in all colours. They can be Christians or Hindus or Muslims or Jews or pagans or pacifists, rich or poor. They may be patriots but they are never chauvinists. They share with each other, across all nations, common values of humour and understanding.
When you are amoung them you know you will not be mocked or resented, because they will not care about your race, your faith, your sex or nationality, and they suffer fools if not gladly, at least sympathetically. They laugh easily. They are easely grateful. They are never mean. They are not inhibited by fashion, public opinion or political correctness. They are exiles in thier own communities, because they are always in a minority, but they form a mighty nation, if they only knew it. It is the nation of nowhere.
I am sure that for some,Alexander Kostellow, his wife Rowenta Reed Kostellow and Lucia DeRespinis are names out of nowhere and yet. American design would not exist as we know it without them. There are many more in that generation, Arthur Pulos comes to mind. History's judgement is not always accurate but most of all it has limited memory. It's good to see the names back from time to time.
For those who, over and above historical data want to acquire some insight in the formal qualities of objects, please read:
Elements of Design: Rowena Reed Kostellow and the Structure of Visual Relationships
By Gail Greet Hannah (a friend of Rowena Reed Kostellow)
Designed by Tucker Viemeister and Seth Kornfeld
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