Box 2: David Hicks: correspondence and press clippings

Dossier

Box 2: David Hicks: correspondence and press clippings

"A collection of correspondence between British designer David Hicks and various editors from the Macmillan company, including Richard Oldenburg, James Wade, and Ray Roberts. From the collection of Ray Roberts. The correspondence, the majority of which is on Hicks' boldly designed red and gold letterhead, focuses on details of the designer's biography, which Macmillan publised in 1969, and which became the last authoritative book on his work. Several of the letters are annotated in Hicks' hand, and the first is held with an original pencil maquette designed by Hicks for the lettered cover of the book, which he instructs to be printed in high gloss 'shocking pink' on white. David Hicks is acknowledged as one of the most imporant interior designers of the late twetieth century, in the company of Albert Hadley and Billy Baldwin. Known for his bold use of graphic color, electicism, and geometric designs -as well as for a temperament that veered between disarming charm and apoplectic rage- Hicks turned English decorating on its head in the 1950s and '60s. His trademark use of electrifying color combinations, and mixing antiques, modern furniture, and abstract paintings became the 'in style' for the chic of the day, including Vidal Sassoon and Helena Rubinstein. By the '70s, David Hicks was a brand; his company was making wallpaper, fabrics, and linens and had outposts in eight countries, including the U.S. where he worked with the young Mark Hampton, and where his wallpaper was used in the White House. Late in life he became celebrated for designing the geometrically precise gardens at The Grove, which have been the subject of numerous articles in major design magazines over the last decade. He was indeed an anomoly: an English decorator who loathed the Masterpiece Theater school of English decoration." -John McWhinnie @ Glenn Horowitz Bookseller