Newsweek;
10/27/2003, Vol. 142 Issue 17, p64, 3/4p, 1c
Isn't It Post-Ironic?
Her criterion is simple: "I try to decide," says Paola Antonelli, curator of architecture and design at New York's Museum of Modern Art, "whether the space an object occupies on Earth is well used." If that sounds like a high bar to clear, just look at what Antonelli is holding. And wearing. "Post-it notes are smart, beautiful and cheap. That's the apotheosis of great design," says Antonelli. "Yellow is an attention-getting color. And square is a classically rational shape." And the Bic pen? "Its translucency is functional--you see how much ink is left. But it also looks good." Since joining MoMA in 1994, the Italian-born Antonelli has emerged as a star in the design world. She has a lively eye and, like Murray Moss, a gift for crystallizing ideas for those of us who don't know our Eames from our elbow. "Just like people can tell good steak from bad, I want it to be the same with design," she says. Someone ought to write that down. Got a pen?