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Document Details : Title: Vrouwelijke ontwerpers en het Gentse Museum voor Sierkunst Subtitle: Een analyse van het beleid van conservator Adelbert Van de Walle( 1951-1974) Author(s): LUWAERT, Eva , BECUWE, Marie , VAN REGENMORTEL, Eva Journal: Tijdschrift voor Interieurgeschiedenis en Design Volume: 45 Date: 2023 Pages: 91-107 DOI: 10.2143/GBI.45.0.3292630 Abstract : In the run-up to Expo 58 Adelbert Van de Walle, then curator of the Museum for Decorative Art in Ghent, started the Nationaal Documentatiecentrum voor de Kunstambachten (National Documentation Centre for Arts and Crafts, NDK). The collected documentation contains files on mainly Belgian designers and organisations that were active in the ‘contemporary visual arts’, ranging from crafts, interior architecture and industrial design to painting and sculpture. In this article we examine how women designers are represented in the documentation collected by Van de Walle and – based on the NDK and the museum archive – in his exhibition policy. After a discussion of Van de Walle himself and the context in which he operated, we will address the representation of women designers in the NDK dossiers and the disciplines in which they were active. This is followed by an examination of the contributions by women to the three editions of the Nationale Salon voor Modern Sociaal Meubel (National Salon for Modern Social Furniture, 1955, 1956 and 1957), with which Van de Walle made a special impact. Then we turn to the national exhibition devoted to the applied arts and crafts in the Belgian Section of Expo 58, and a further focus on the solo and group exhibitions that Van de Walle organised as a curator in Ghent. Finally we look at the acquisitions policy of the Museum voor Sierkunst (Museum for Decorative Art). With this analysis we especially wish to underline the great potential of the NDK and Van de Walle’s museum archive as a starting point for furthering the study of women designers in the 1950s and 1960s. |
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