Jane Pavitt was the University of Brighton Principal Research Fellow in Design at the Victoria & Albert Museum from 1997 until 2009. Her work focused on later 20th century and contemporary design, and particularly on strategies for presenting design through museum exhibitions and collections. She was the curator of Cold War Modern: Design 1945-70 staged at the V&A in 2008.
Jane Pavitt was the University of Brighton Principal Research Fellow in Design at the Victoria & Albert Museum from 1997 until 2009; a member of both the Research Centre at the University and the Research Department at the Museum. Her work focused on later 20th century and contemporary design, and particularly on strategies for presenting design through museum exhibitions and collections. To this end, during her time at Brighton she curated 6 design exhibitions for the V&A. She was the curator of Cold War Modern: Design 1945-70 staged at the V&A in 2008. In 2009, this exhibition toured to the Museum of Modern Art in Rovereto, Italy and the National Gallery of Art, Vilnius, Lithuania (closing 6 December 2009). She is currently working on an exhibition entitled Postmodernism: Design 1970-1990, for the V&A in 2011.
Her work on design collections and their uses began at Camberwell College of Arts, London, where she was Subject Leader in the history of decorative arts (1992-7). During this time, she was also appointed as Research Fellow to the Camberwell Collection, a post-war collection of craft and design which had been assembled as a teaching collection by the London County Council beginning in 1951. Pavitt was responsible for initiating a research project into the collection, the result of which was an exhibition, publication and conference on its pedagogical origins in 1996 (Pavitt, Object Lesson: The Camberwell Collection, London Institute, 1996).
In 1997 she was appointed first as Senior Research Fellow at the University of Brighton and the Victoria & Albert Museum. This initial 6-year fellowship was later extended by three years, funded jointly by the University and the British Academy (latterly AHRB) and titled 'Product Design and Museology: A Framework for the Millenium'.
The fellowship was directed at the development of research, exhibition, interpretation and collecting strategies for product design in the museum. Since then Pavitt has worked in a cross-departmental manner, developing exhibition projects which have led to collecting, and museological research resulting in a number of published papers. In 2003 Pavitt delivered a report to the museum outlining this research, and on issues relating to the future of both contemporary and 20th century design in the museum. She has been an active member of the Contemporary Steering Group and the Spiral Project (1997-2004), as well as various 20th century research initiatives.
Jane Pavitt's areas of expertise include museum history, theory and practice, design and curatorship, and critical contexts for contemporary design in a museum context. Also, subjects specific to branding, both in terms of design practice and consumer culture. Additionally, research into design culture in a cold war context (in a British or English-language context), and postmodernism and design. Her work while with the University of Brighton presented postmodern design as a set of liberating strategies used to express identity in an age of rapid commodification, during the 1970s and 1980s. An exhibition, the first of its kind to survey the international arts situation, covering architecture, design, fashion, graphics, performance, film and video, tours internationally in 2012, accompanied by a major book, edited by Pavitt and Adamson, and conference in 2011.
Jane Pavitt curated the exhibition Cold War Modern: Design 1945-70, staged in 2008 at the V&A and in 2009 at the Museum of Modern Art, Rovereto (Italy) and the National Gallery of Art, Vilnius (Lithuania). She worked with the show’s consultant, David Crowley from the Royal College of Art on the exhibition and its accompanying book. The exhibition explored the extraordinary international developments in modern art and design, from both sides of the Iron Curtain, in the period. At its core is the thesis that the Cold War can be understood as a 'competition to be modern' and that this was made manifest in art, architecture, design and film.
Selected publications
Chaired debate, 'ThinkTank: The Future Designer'. Royal College of Art, 2008. Available through The Victoria and Albert Museum http://www.vam.ac.uk/thinktank1/future_designer.
Czech Design, Culture and Society: Changing Climates, University of Brighton, 2005
Annual Association of Art Historians Conference, Birkbeck, 2003;
Museums 2000 Colloquiuim, Helsingborg, Sweden, 2001;
'L'Avenir des Musées' Colloquium, Musée du Louvre, 2000;
What's The Object: Museums of Applied Arts Reappraised, ICOM Conference, V&A , 1999;
‘Design Museums Come of Age’ Symposium, Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, New York, 1997).
2011
Postmodernism: Design 1970-90 (with Glenn Adamson of the V&A) for Autumn 2011. The exhibition will be the first to explore the international situation in design, architecture, art, fashion,performance, film and video during the 1970s and 1980s, and will be accompanied by a major publication.
2008
Cold War Modern: Art and Design in a Divided World 1945-75. At the core of this exhibition is the thesis that the Cold War can be understood asa 'competition to be modern' and that this was made manifest in art, architecture,design and film. (see below for details)
2004
Brilliant In 2004 Pavitt was the curator of the V&A's first exhibition on contemporary lighting, entitled Brilliant. This exhibition explored the ways in which designers work with light, and featured nine installations by leading international designers, including Ron Arad, Ingo Maurer and Tord Boontje. (see below for details)
Brand.New. This exhibition, which attracted around 80,000 visitors,explored the historical development and contemporary significance of branding, from the first logos to the current brand-oriented debates the surrounding production and consumption of mass-market goods. Pavitt worked with Thomas Heatherwick, the designer of the exhibition, and her co-curator Gareth Williams to create aground-breaking installation on the meaning, value and appropriation of brands in contemporary life. Pavitt was the editor and main contributor of the accompanying publication (Brand.New, V&A Publications, 2000). (see below for details)
1999
The Shape of Colour: Red, Glasgow 1999 Festival of Architecture and Design. The exhibition explored the cultural,political and psychological meanings of colour, combining objects of contemporary design with objects from the museum's historical collections.
Designing the Digital Age (1999), explored the changing nature of design process - from sketchpad, to model building, to CAD.
'BRILLIANT', CONTEMPORARY EXHIBITION GALLERIES, VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON, 11 FEBRUARY – 25 APRIL 2004. A SMALLER VERSION OF THE EXHIBITION TOURED TO THE NEC LIGHTING SHOW, BIRMINGHAM (JANUARY 2005) AND THE NATIONAL CENTRE FOR GLASS, SUNDERLAND (FEBRUARY-JUNE, 2005).
Pavitt’s Institutional Fellowship at the V&A (since 1997) has invigorated her research in the field of museum collection and display policies with particular reference to Britain’s pre-eminent repository of design and craft artefacts. Its provenance as a major international exhibition site, as well as its collecting policy, has been Pavitt’s research focus. It was in this context that 'Brilliant', subsequently cited as an example of good practice in the National Museum Directors Council/MLA Report, Museums and Galleries in Britain: economic, social and creative impacts (2006), was conceived and realised.
Pavitt’s research and curation of the V&A’s first international exhibition of lighting design, attracting a then unprecedented 80,000 visitors, challenged conceptions of the Museum’s exhibiting and pedagogic remit. This entailed sole responsibility for the exhibition’s concept development, selection and commissioning of artists, sourcing and selection of objects, development of display organisation, and saw Pavitt employing a method differing from the institution’s customary practice.
Pavitt’s thesis, that lighting is much under-represented in the systematic scholarship of design, and that as a discipline it must be understood as encompassing items from the singular and unique design-crafted icon to mass-produced functional objects, is amplified in her book accompanying the exhibition. Central to her examination was a concern with showcasing the range and diversity of materials employed in lighting design solutions offered by established designers and those emerging in the international field, including Boontje, Arad and Marston. The exhibition impacted not only on the museum’s profile but on its collections policy, with 20 objects and a selection of designs subsequently acquired for the permanent collection.
Exhibition and book were reviewed internationally in, for example, The Washington Post (06.04.04), Financial Times (07.02.04), Telegraph (07.02.04), Sunday Times (08.02.04) and Design Week (19.02.04), as well as ID, New Statesman, Maison, Elle Russia, Tasarim and BVD.
Cold War Modern: Design 1945-70, staged in 2008 at the V&A and in 2009 at the Museum of Modern Art, Rovereto (Italy) and the National Gallery of Art, Vilnius (Lithuania)
Pavitt curated the exhibition, working with the show’s consultant, David Crowley from the Royal College of Art on the exhibition and its accompanying book. The exhibition explored the extraordinary international developments in modern art and design, from both sides of the Iron Curtain, in the period. At its core is the thesis that the Cold War can be understood as a 'competition to be modern' and that this was made manifest in art, architecture, design and film. Both Postmodernism and Cold War Modern follow a series of major 20th century art and design shows staged by the V&A, which included Modernism: Designing a New World 1914-1939 in 2006 (curated by Christopher Wilk). The research programme for Cold War Modern also included a number of research-led events co-organised by the University and the Museum, such as the Symposium 'Cold War Expo' (V&A, January 2007) and the major international conference on ‘Cold War Culture’ (V&A, October 2008).
The exhibition grew in part from Pavitt's long-standing interest in the arts of Eastern Europe, particularly the Czech Republic. In 2000 she published a book on the architecture of Prague (The Buildings of Europe: Prague, Manchester University Press). She has also worked on aspects of 20th century architecture in the Czech Republic, publishing several articles, including two on the Bata firm and the Garden City Movement (in Gee & Kirk (eds), The City in Central Europe, Ashgate,1999,and Twentieth Century Architecture, Summer 1994).In 2005 she was a speaker at the University's 2005 conference Czech Design, Culture and Society: Changing Climates, giving a paper on the Czech contribution to World Expo's in the post-war period.
This article appeared in a special issue of Nordisk Museologi devoted to the V&A’s proposed Daniel Libeskind-designed wing, the ‘Spiral’. Pavitt’s research at the V&A, developed whilst a core member of the Spiral Project Team (1998-2004), resulted in a series of strategies for the presentation and interpretation of contemporary design culture in this extension. Her article explored ways in which contemporary design could be most effectively displayed in such a space, her underpinning research also informing the development of the V&A’s contemporary exhibition programme through curation of four exhibitions between 1999 and 2004 (including output 1), potential prototypes for the new galleries.
Her research methodology was developed while she was British Academy/University of Brighton Institutional Research Fellow at the V&A (1997-2003), investigating interpretation and collecting strategies for product design at the museum. Pavitt’s investigations into the function, standing and curatorial policy of design museums addressed key research questions, including how museums cultivate new audiences whilst still maintaining their established audiences, how museums should deal with new object types and creative practices, and what role museums should play in defining and shaping contemporary design culture.
The wider value of her research is reflected in contributions such as her keynote ‘From Object to Interpretation: the changing role of the museum of design’ at the Artefact, Memory and Narrative conference (2001), with 240 museum professionals from 38 countries at the Helsingborg Museum, Sweden (published in Museum 2000 - Confirmation or Challenge? Riksutställningar, 2002); and her paper on ‘Les Musées des Arts Décoratifs à la Recherche d'un Nouveau Discours?’ published in L'avenir des musées: actes du colloque organisé au Musée du Louvre par le Service Culturel (Paris, Editions de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 2001).
Published biannually, Nordiske Museologi is a forum for theoretical and scholarly museological discussion, acknowledged by the Scandinavian museums' associations.
'Identitá istituzionale e design: Il progetto d'imagine coordinata aziendale e sua applicazione nel corso del Ventesimo secolo' (Designed Identities: Corporate Style and Design Practice in the 20th Century). Editors: Lombardi, A in Legno, Industria, Design: dagli archivi Fantoni. Publisher: Silvana Editoriale, Milan, 2003. ISBN: 9788882155865.
Pavitt’s commissioned essay, a contribution to the exhibition/catalogue, resulted from her internationally recognised role as a leading researcher in the field of museological practices in general and the position of industrial design within museums in particular.
The research was produced for a volume of essays to accompany an exhibition of objects and designs from the Fantoni archive, and in association with a workshop in which Pavitt participated in 2003. Pavitt specifically addressed questions of the inter-relationships of corporate structures and design practices and the ways in which the designed identities of companies may be more fully understood in a historical context. The work further developed and refined the methodologies previously employed in her research into product identification and branding which had formed a basis for curatorial activity and publication as in, for example, Brand New at the V&A (2000-2001).
This methodology was particularly apposite for this text, one that relates to an exhibition exploring the historical significance of the Fantoni company – a world-leading manufacturer of office furnishings from the late 19th century to the present day – and reflected the ways in which this was mediated by changes of taste and technology. Curated by the Centro Richerche Fantoni - established to investigate the links between theory and practice, research and its application, as well as design and production - the exhibition was one of a series linked to conferences and workshops that connected design to the industrial product. Pavitt’s international reputation and experience as Institutional Research Fellow at the V&A, where she has advised the museum on the collecting and display of product design since 1997, made her an ideal authority to contribute to the catalogue.
English abstract:
This essay draws upon research undertaken for the major V&A exhibition of 2000, Brand.New, which explored the idea of branding, identity and consumer culture in the 20th century. In it, I elaborate on Wally Olin's idea of 'corporate personality' (1978) to look at the ways in which logos and branded identity are encoded with values attributed to a corporation or brand. The essay examines the development of the brand of the Italian design company Fantoni SpA, from the design of its first logotype in 1920, and drawing parallels with other early exemplars of corporate identity, such as the German company AEG, and later, the North American corporation IBM. In particular, I consider the changing company logo as evidence of the company's engagement with modernism, as it transformed itself from an artisanal workship to a modern corporation, engaging external architects and designers to forge a consciously modern image.
In 2000 Pavitt was co-curator of the major V&A exhibition Brand.New. This exhibition, which attracted around 80,000 visitors, explored the historical development and contemporary significance of branding, from the first logos to the current brand-oriented debates the surrounding production and consumption of mass-market goods. Brand.New, the first exhibition of its kind to deal with such a subject, took an innovative approach both to its subject matter and its presentation.
It explored the historical development and contemporary significance of branding, from the first logos to the current brand-oriented debates the surrounding production and consumption of mass-market goods. Brand.New, the first exhibition of its kind to deal with such a subject, took an innovative approach both to its subject matter and its presentation.
Pavitt worked with Thomas Heatherwick, the designer of the exhibition, and her co-curator Gareth Williams to create a ground-breaking installation on the meaning, value and appropriation of brands in contemporary life. Pavitt was the editor and main contributor of the accompanying publication (Brand.New, V&A Publications, 2000).
