Penny Sparke

Penny Sparke (born 1948, London) is a British writer and academic specialising in the history of design.

She studied French Literature at Sussex University between 1967 and 1971 and completed her PhD in Design History in 1975. She taught Design History at Brighton Polytechnic (now The University of Brighton) until 1982 and at the Royal College of Art in London between 1982 and 1999.^[1]

Sparke has written 15 books about Twentieth-Century Design. She has also curated a number of exhibitions, including The Plastics Age at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in 1990. Since 1999 she has also been a Professor of Design History at Kingston University, London. In 2007 Penny Sparke worked as a consultant for Pyrex helping with the communication project for their new cookware range designed by George Sowden.

Career

Penny Sparke is a Dean of the Faculty of Art, Design & Music and a Design History Professor at Kingston University in London. She was previously the Course Director of the V&A Museum/Royal Collee of Art Postgraduate History of Design Programme.^[2]

Bibliography

• 1982 Ettore Sottsass Jnr. Design Council ISBN 0-85072-126-1
• 1983 Consultant Design: The History and Practice of the Designer in Industry, Pembridge Press ISBN 0-8620-6007-9
• 1986 An Introduction to Design and Culture in the 20th Century, Allen and Unwin, ISBN 0-04-701014-2
• 1986 Modern Furniture, Bell and Hyman ISBN 0-7135-2630-0
• 1986 Japanese Design, Michael Joseph ISBN 0-7181-2875-3
• 1987 Electrical Appliances, Bell and Hyman, ISBN 0-7135-2738-2
• 1987 Design in Context, Bloomsbury, ISBN 0 7475 0072 x
• 1988 Italian Design, from 1870 to the present, Thames and Hudson ISBN 0-500-23531-7
• 1995 As Long As It’s Pink: The Sexual Politics of Taste, Pandora ISBN 0-04-440923-0
• 1998 A Century of Design: Design Pioneers of the Twentieth-Century, Mitchell Beazley, ISBN 1-84000-403-7
• 2001 Design Directory: Great Britain, Howard ISBN 1-86205-330-8
• 2002 A Century of Car Design, Mitchell Beazley, ISBN 1-84000-403-7
• 2004 An Introduction to Design and Culture: 1900 to the present, Routledge, ISBN 978-0-415-26336-8
• 2005 Elsie de Wolfe: The Birth of Modern Interior Decoration, Acanthus Press, ISBN 0-926494-27-9
• 2008 The Modern Interior, Reaktion Books, ISBN 978-1-86189-372-7
• 2010 The Genius of Design, Quadrille Publishing Ltd, ISBN 978-1-84400-753-0
• 2010 As Long As It’s Pink: The Sexual Politics of Taste, NSCAD Press ISBN 0-919616-51-8

References

1. Kingston University: Biography
2. Martin, Brenda (2003). Women's Places: Architecture and Design 1860-1960. New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-28448-1.