Eclectic

Milton Glaser. Illustrator. New York, 1929

 

The word “eclectic” has a slightly pejorative suggestion but in my mind it is usually the mark of an inquiring intelligence. After all, there is so much inspiration in the visual world that one would be undernourished by only responding to part of it. It is both the breadth and diversity of Oscar’s work that impresses us. He is a gifted and adventurous architect-planner, as well as a brilliant industrial designer, whose objects convince us of their inevitability: more like things that have grown naturally out of some organic process rather than any stylistic ideology. His work as a designer of interiors ranges from the intimately comforting to the monumental. One must also mention his skill at drawing and naturalistic painting, gifts that are now rarely found in the world of design. In short, a man who seems to have observed everything and is capable of doing anything within the field of design, with rigor and elegance.

With Milton Glaser in New York. Summer 2001