Dr. T.R.A de Rijk (Timo)

Associate Professor of Design History
Design Aesthetics

Biography

I was born in 1963 and trained as an art historian. I left the academic world for a position at the oldest art auction house of The Netherlands. This is almost 20 years from now and a phd track at Delft University took me back in the world of research where I kept a keen eye on everyday culture, to which I got accustomed during the preparation of auctions. Collecting some bygones now and then, remains a secret hobby of me, not always completely understood in the hi-tech environment where I work. Other hobbies??? Football, I mean soccer (playing and watching), F1-racing (only watching I’m afraid), angling cod (yes, the professional fishermen destroyed sea life!!!), politics (yes!) and visiting boring European cities. Although I question that design historians have to be aware of beauty in their professional life, I’m able to admire a thing of beauty myself. My wife, me and our three young children (our real gems of course) live in a listed Dutch-modern house of the early 1960’s, which is restored to our family wishes.

Education

• 1988   
  Studied art history at Leyden University (graduated 1988)
• 1998
  Received phd at the Faculty of Design Engineering of Delft University of Technology (1998)

Experience

T.R.A. de Rijk is a regular lecturer and curator of 12 exhibitions, i.a. Frank Lloyd Wright meets Berlage, (Beurs van Berlage Amsterdam, 1999, with Vitra Museum, Weil am Rhein), The Hague Style. Art Deco in The Netherlands (Municipal Museum, The Hague, 2004). He is or was member of various boards and committees in The Netherlands and abroad, i.a.Committee Arts and Design, Raad voor Cultuur (Art Council = advisory board on cultural affairs of the Minister of Education and Culture), Executive Committee Design History Society, London, Strategy Team Faculty Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Committee Life Time Achievement Awards Interior Architecture and Architecture. Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Amsterdam and Committee Design, Foundation Art, Design and Architecture, Amsterdam, member of the Advisory Board Museum of Popular Culture, Rotterdam and chairman of Vivid Design Foundation, Rotterdam. In 2006 he was convener of the Annual Conference of the Design History Society ‘Design and Evolution’, held at Delft University of Technology. From 2008 he is editor in chief of Morf, magazine for design of the Premsela Foundation in The Netherlands.

Specialisation / Field of research

Design history with a focus on the designhistory of The Netherlands, the innovation of interior design, the concept of evolution and commercial design.

Publications

Click here for an overview of my publications.