spine 19mm (c) ‘This is what we’ve been waiting for: finally, an unprecedented D DUTCH DESIGN critical analysis of the history of Dutch design. Mienke Simon U Thomas’s Dutch Designis a book to have andto read: an important T and richly detailed study of the cultural, economical and social- A History C political context of twentieth-century design in the Netherlands.’ H —Wim Crouwel D E From the colourful abstraction of the Rietveld chair to the dry wit of the ‘milkbottle S lamp’ produced by Droog, modern design in the Netherlands has always been a hotbed of experimentation. Dutch designers have consistently pushed the limits in I G everything from posters to postage stamps, home furnishings to street signage, N ceramics to city airports. Indeed, in the last decade or so, Dutch design has become a worldwide phenomenon, almost a brand in itself, with regular publications in magazines and books promoting the remarkable creative output of this small country. A This book takes an in-depth look not just at Dutch designs themselves but also H the history and culture behind the works created throughout the twentieth century I and beyond. Mienke Simon Thomas provides a compelling thematic account, S guiding the reader through the beginnings of crafts education, the debates of design T as art, the moral and social ideals of modernism, the new profession of industrial O designer, state-sponsored initiatives, and conceptual design objects and ‘anti-design’. R She argues that Dutch design seems to have been inspired by the wish to be functional,simple and affordable, but she also reveals how it has simultaneously Y embraced luxury, decoration and even exclusivity. A much-needed introduction to Dutch designs and their creators – as well as the M clients who commissioned them and the state initiatives that supported them – this i e book will be essential reading for designers, historians and the general public with an n interest in design. k e S with 171illustrations, 83in colour im o n mienke simon thomasis Senior Curator in the Department of Decorative Arts T h and Design at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam and the author o of Dutch Ceramics, 1890–1940(2002). m a s Cover: Tejo Remy (Droog Design), ‘You Can’t Lay Down Your Memory’, design chest of drawers, 1991. Photo: Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam reaktion books ltd www.reaktionbooks.co.uk uk£17.95rrp/us$35.00 Mienke Simon Thomas 001_005_Dutch Des_prelims:001_005_Des.Mod_prelims 20/8/08 12:43 Page 1 Dutch Design 001_005_Dutch Des_prelims:001_005_Des.Mod_prelims 20/8/08 12:43 Page 2 001_005_Dutch Des_prelims:001_005_Des.Mod_prelims 20/8/08 12:43 Page 3 Dutch Design A History Mienke Simon Thomas reaktion books 001_005_Dutch Des_prelims:001_005_Des.Mod_prelims 20/8/08 12:43 Page 4 Published by Reaktion Books Ltd 33Great Sutton Street London ec1v 0dx, uk www.reaktionbooks.co.uk First published 2008 Copyright © Mienke Simon Thomas2008 This translation was supported by grants from The Prince Bernard Fund and The Mondriaan Foundation. All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers. Printed in China British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Simon Thomas, Mienke Dutch design: a history 1. Design, Industrial – Netherlands I. Title 745.2’09492 isbn–13: 978 1 86189 380 2 001_005_Dutch Des_prelims:001_005_Des.Mod_prelims 20/8/08 12:43 Page 5 Contents Introduction 7 1 New Art, Old Craft, 1875–1915 13 2 Design as Art, 1915–40 49 3 Good Design, 1925–65 89 4 Design as Profession, 1945–80 133 5 Design for Debate, 1960s to the Present 183 Conclusion 237 References 241 Bibliography 256 Acknowledgements 261 Photo Acknowledgements 262 Index 263 006_011_Dutch Des_Intro:006_013_Des.Mod_Intro 19/8/08 16:59 Page 6 Studio Mijksenaar, visual statistics in the TNOReport Design in the Creative Economy (Vormgeving in de Creatieve Economie),for Premsela and the Ministry of Economic Affairs, 2005. 006_011_Dutch Des_Intro:006_013_Des.Mod_Intro 19/8/08 16:59 Page 7 Introduction In 2001the Dutch government set up an Interim Advisory Committee on Dutch design to map out the infrastructure of design culture. The aim was to use this information as a basis from which it would be possible to make more specific recommendations on design policy in the future. The com- mittee advocated more ‘synergy’ between the social, cultural and economic sectors involved in design, and the establishment of a new design institute that could offer guidance. It reasoned that the Netherlands has always enjoyed a design tradition in which great attention has been paid to social ideals and cultural values, but less to economic concerns. Four years later, in 2005, the last hypothesis was put to the test by the information research group tno, which needed to know the precise importance of design as part of the creative economy. This exhaustive study produced remarkable results: the astonishing conclusion was that, when grouped together, Dutch designers were as important to the national economy as the profits accrued from air transport or the petroleum industry.1This made a very surprising outcome indeed if we consider the prevailing image of the ‘thrifty’ Dutch – with their supposed lack of ostentation and small-scale production system. The way these two reports came about invited criticism. First, the Advisory Committee set up in 2001was composed entirely of people from the cultural scene, who had a limited knowledge of economic affairs. In 2005, on the other hand, professional flower arrangers were assessed in the tnostudy alongside industrial designers – a mismatch that many saw as detracting from the validity of the conclusions. In short, a scholarly, value- free analysis of design culture is an extremely difficult task, even using the most modern research methods. These reports proved that an assessment of the design sector depends to a large degree on the perspective, aims and 7 006_011_Dutch Des_Intro:006_013_Des.Mod_Intro 19/8/08 16:59 Page 8 sources at the researcher’s disposal. This was no different in the past. There was, for example, a hidden agenda in 1878when the senior official of the Ministry for Home Affairs, Jonkheer Victor de Stuers, and the State Commis- sion he installed were asked to judge the state of the Dutch art industry.2 The same held true in 1945for the designers Piet Zwart and Paul Schuitema, who had just as many predetermined motives when they drew up their report on the future of industrial design in the Netherlands.3 These examples show that writing a historical survey of Dutch design culture can be a hazardous undertaking. The primary sources at our dis - posal usually throw light on just one side of the story. Even the secondary literature still in existence has its limitations, since until now design histo- ry in the Netherlands has mainly been the province of art and architectural historians. It is only natural that they have mainly described the history of design from an art–stylistic perspective. Only a small number of studies has approached design from a different angle, by, for instance, taking an inter- est in economic, sociological and political-philosophical views.4 In this book the central focus is on Dutch design culture in the twenti- eth century. This means that our attention will be fixed primarily on the cultural, economic and political-social context of design, and only in the second instance on the products and designers that figure within these realms. The main theme is the development of design in modern Dutch society. We shall look at the relationship between designers and manufac- turers, at the artistic and moral mission designers thought they had to proselytize in the discussions they held on the subject in their specialist journals. The content and organization of the design academy courses will also come up for discussion, as well as the role of the Dutch government in providing subsidies and commissioning work from designers. Finally, we shall examine design criticism and – to a certain extent – the Dutch con- sumer’s opinion about design. The subject will be divided up into five themes that cover the subjects or issues that were foremost in people’s minds when thinking about design, and as such provided the ideological framework within which designers carried out their work. The main thrust of these themes occurs in different eras and by dealing with them in chronological order we shall cover the entire century. The first chapter addresses the theme of artisanal design, an issue that was of central importance at the beginning of the twentieth century, but crops up again regularly afterwards. In this chapter we shall discuss the strange paradox that during this period, despite increased industrializa- tion, the interest of Dutch designers (then still called decorative artists) was 8 Dutch Design