Creative Arts Book of the Week 12/11/14

Its great to have the new book display up and running again, a good excuse to have a nice coffee in the library cafe and peruse the shelves of glossy new books. Today I chose to look at British Design from 1948: Innovation in the Modern Age a rather large compendium celebrating the best in British Design from the Olympic Games in 1948 to those in 2012. Rather coincidentally, I’ve had several enquiries from students this week looking at the Olympic Games.  The book brings together architecture, photography, fashion, furniture, product design, music and video games and its interesting to see how they relate to each other.  We tend to focus on our own subject and miss some of the interesting connections.

Drawn to a page showing the curtains I remember so distinctly from my old college exam hall (pp.179-180) I discovered they were designed by Eduardo Paolozzi and Nigel Henderson for Penzance School of Art which, I guess became my old Sixth From College.  The pattern is called Barkcloth. I wonder if they are still helping students to think or distract them from their exam paper!  Although the exhibition has now closed, you can still find information on the V&A Museum’s website.  There is an essay about the exhibition and some videos of artists talking about their involvement in the exhibition.  Enjoy!

Assistant Librarian (Promotions) at the University Library. An enthusiastic advocate of libraries, diversity, inclusion, equity, and social justice for all, inside and outside the workplace.

Leave a Comment (note: all comments are moderated)

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

(you can use <b>bold</b> or <i>italic</i> markers)

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.