Feminist Design Methodology: Considering the Case of Maria Kipp Page: 2
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writing design history in a series of biographies of individuals, as if biography
were the best approach to understanding design history. 2
According to Thomson, Scotford isolates Pineles' participation in group work, thus
removing her working context. More seriously, Thomson observed that Scotford
conflates Pineles' personal and professional accomplishments; for example, Scotford
references Pineles' marriages to top designers as design accomplishments, credits her
for being an accomplished hostess at dinner parties, and does not treat her designs in a
serious and scholarly manner. Proceeding this way, Scotford limits her own possible
contributions to the budding field of graphic design history and leaves Pineles' story
incomplete. Like Buckley, Thomson asks fundamental questions about how to approach
the writing of design history by putting into question the effects of a biographical
approach.
This thesis uses the arguments of Buckley and her colleagues as a point of
departure from which to examine the methodological treatment of the work and career
of Maria Kipp (1900-1977), a handweaving designer active in the United States during
the twentieth century. It poses a number of important questions concerning design
history. How might a design historian reconstitute the life and work of a Western
twentieth-century woman designer such as Kipp, in whom curators, dealers, and design
scholars have become interested during the past five years? Should design historians
proceed cautiously before addressing Kipp biographically, being wary of the ways
biography might distort design history, as Thomson suggests? What alternatives have
been suggested of late by feminist design historians on which this thesis might draw?
2 Ellen Mazur Thomson, "Review of Cipe Pineles: A Life of Design, by Martha Scotford," Studies in the
Decorative Arts 8:1 (Fall/Winter 2000-2001): 180.2
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Lawrence, Anne. Feminist Design Methodology: Considering the Case of Maria Kipp, thesis, December 2003; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc5538/m1/6/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .