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11 November 2011

Dundee to host only Scottish showing of pioneering design exhibition

Photo opportunities:

* 5.30pm on Friday, 18th November. Curator Michelle Cotton will discuss the exhibition at a Preview Evening.

* 5.30pm on Thursday, 1st December. Turner Prize nominee Martin Boyce will discuss the work and influence of the Design Research Unit.

Turner Prize 2011 nominee Martin Boyce will be among the visitors to a new exhibition at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, which showcases work carried out by a pioneering industrial design group.

The exhibition, 'Design Research Unit: 1942-7' opens at DJCAD's Cooper Gallery on Saturday, 19th November. It explores how industrial design developed in the UK, based on new research into the eponymous unit, who were responsible for some of the most important design produced in post-war Britain.

The DRU was one of the first generation of British design consultancies, and brought together expertise in architecture, graphics and industrial design. Formed in London in 1942, the DRU pioneered a model for group practice. By the 1970s it was one of the largest and most established design offices in Europe.

This exhibition is the first to map the history of the group and the currency of their designs. It identifies key examples of their work and documents an approach that was shaped by inter-war developments in artistic discourse and post war trends in industry and communication; in particular the accelerated demand for corporate design.

'Design Research Unit: 1942-72' is a Cubitt Gallery touring exhibition, and Dundee is the only location in Scotland chosen to present it. Curator Michelle Cotton will discuss the significance of the exhibition at a Preview Night on 19th November, while Scottish Turner nominee Martin Boyce, whose atmospheric, sculptural art is inspired by modernist design history, will talk about the DRU’s influence on 1st December.

Sophia Hao, Curator of Exhibitions at DJCAD, part of the University of Dundee, said she was delighted that a presentation of the prestigious exhibition would be taking place at Dundee.

'We are all excited to be presenting this exhibition here in Dundee, especially as the Cooper Gallery is the only venue in Scotland for this major and timely show,' she said.

'This exhibition is significant for many reasons. Alongside this opportunity to discover and celebrate the profound contributions that the Design Research Unit made to post-war design, we are also fortunate to be presenting an artist's talk by Turner Prize nominee Martin Boyce, whose practice draws upon Modernist design history.'

Initially under the charge of the poet and art critic Herbert Read and operating from offices shared with Mass Observation, the Design Research Unit was founded by advertising entrepreneur Marcus Brumwell with designers Misha Black and Milner Gray.

Following Read’s essay, Art and Industry (1934), and the literature of International Constructivism, the group outlined intent to combine creative intelligence with technical research into materials and markets, and sought to bring artists and designers into productive relation with scientists and technologists.

This exhibition spans more than four decades of their work, focusing on some of their most significant projects and charting their ambition to bring elegant and functional design to all sections of society. It will cover three phases of activity - the group’s early origins and founder members, initial work in exhibition design and the Unit’s role in devising some of the first and most comprehensive corporate design schemes commissioned for British industry.

Highlights of the exhibition include:

  • Documentation of an initiative to commission the sculptor Naum Gabo to design the body and interior of a car for Bradford-based company, Jowett (1943).
  • Photographs relating to exhibitions for the wartime Ministry of Information, the Council of Industrial Design’s Britain Can Make It (1946) and their major contribution to the Festival of Britain (1951).
  • Substantial material relating to experimental work for the Watney Mann brewery that resulted in a total scheme to ‘update’ the traditional English public houses (from beer bottles to interior furnishings).
  • Iconic corporate identities including work for British Rail (1965), the London Transport network, photographic company Ilford and Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI).
  • Architectural content featuring the Piano and Rogers extension for the company’s Aybrook Street offices, that Richard and Su Rogers began working on whilst they were associates of the Design Research Unit (1967-71).

The Design Research Unit became part of the architectural practice Scott Brownrigg in 2004, and the exhibition has been made possible by their support.

The exhibition is based on original research to be published within a new book designed by A Practice For Everyday Life (APFEL) and published by Koenig Books later this year.

'Design Research Unit: 1942 - 72' takes place at the Cooper Gallery from 19th November-16th December. The Curator's Talk by Michelle Cotton takes place at the Preview Evening on 18th November at 5.30pm. The Artist's Talk by Turner Prize 2011 Nominee Martin Boyce takes place at 5.30pm on 1st December.

Notes to Editors:

This exhibition at Cooper Gallery, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, part of University of Dundee, is the only presentation of this exhibition in Scotland.

The opening hours for the exhibition are: Monday-Friday, 9.30am-5pm, Saturday 10.30am-4.30pm.

For further information and images please contact Laura Simpson l.z.simpson@dundee.ac.uk.


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