Blog 2 The Continuing Curve

Made by Jack Olive in 1971

What is the “sensuous impulse” in design? Where do we see it manifest, today or historically?

Artworks that are created with the contrast of styles which are pleasing to the senses are known as the sensuous impulse. The sensuous impulses in designs are often exceptional works in a designer’s oeuvre that encompasses more traditional creations from nature, feminine and floral curves. Though widespread and vigorous at the turn of the last century, sensuous creativity was trumped by the intellectual asceticism of modernism during the 1920’s. The sensuous impulse in design has manifested historically as there was still a perceptible softening in aspects of modernist design in the 1930s and 1950s.

Reference: The Continuing Curve by Penelope Hunter-Stibel