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Janet Amendola fruit paintings for Parsons School of Design catalogs

 Record Group
Identifier: PC-05-07-02

Abstract

Collection consists of eight square paintings, measuring 6 inches by 6 inches, depicting apples, oranges, and other citrus fruits by Parsons School of Design alumna Janet Amendola. The illustrations appeared in Parsons School of Design course catalogs and publicity materials in the 1980s.

Dates

  • circa 1979-1980

Creator

Extent

.38 Cubic Feet (8 paintings)

Language of Materials

No linguistic content; Not applicable

Content Description

Collection consists of eight square paintings, measuring 6 inches by 6 inches, depicting apples, oranges, and other citrus fruits by Janet Amendola, executed when she was a Parsons School of Design student. The paintings do not have any inscriptions on the recto or verso, and have not been signed by the artist. There are no paintings of grapes in this collection, which was later used to represent Parsons Paris.

These paintings were created under the direction of Cipe Pineles, Parsons School of Design Director of Publications, for the 1979-80 Parsons catalogs. The paintings were used in variations on the school's fruit theme catalog covers and posters in subsequent years. Variations of Amendola’s illustrations served as the visual identity of the geographic locations for each of Parsons’s campuses: apples for its home campus in New York City, oranges for the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, and grapes for Parsons School of Design at the American College in Paris (Scotford, 1999).

Illustrations of fruits as the visual identity of the schools first appear on the cover of the Parsons School of Design/Otis Art Institute 1979-1980 Vol. 37 No. 2 course catalog. The illustrations used for that catalog are not in this collection. Instead, Amendola’s paintings from this collection are all used in the “Parsons: New York, Los Angeles, Paris” publicity posters dated circa 1979. The paintings from this collection are also on the cover of the 1983-1984 and 1986-1987 Vol. 4 No. 1 course catalog. Amendola is credited as the cover illustrator of the catalogs.

Sources: Scotford, Martha.

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research use. Please contact archivist@newschool.edu for appointment.

Conditions Governing Use

To publish images of material from this collection, permission must be obtained in writing from the New School Archives and Special Collections. Please contact: archivist@newschool.edu.

Historical note

Parsons School of Design was established in 1896 as the Chase School of Art. While founded as a school of fine arts instruction, it soon added courses in "applied arts," which became the primary focus under the direction of Frank Alvah Parsons. The name of the school changed several times, to the New York School of Art in 1902, then to the New York School of Fine and Applied Art in 1909. In 1940, the Board of Trustees voted to change the school's name to Parsons School of Design in recognition of Frank Alvah Parsons's leadership and to differentiate it from other, similarly named institutions.

The Publication Design Office produced promotional materials for Parsons School of Design. Poster designs were often the product of collaborative efforts between the Publication Design Office, students, and faculty. In 1979, the Otis Art Institute of Los Angeles became affiliated with Parsons School of Design. The organizational merger proved difficult to promote, as the two schools were across the country from each other. The then dean of Parsons, David Levy, proposed the idea to faculty member and Parsons art director Cipe Pineles of using an apple and an orange as the visual representation of the schools, the apple representing New York City (known as “the Big Apple”) and the orange representing Los Angeles. Pineles suggested Parsons student Janet Amendola, who was known for her illustrations of fruits and vegetables, to execute Levy’s vision (Scotford, 1999).

Source: Scotford, Martha. Cipe Pineles: A Life of Design. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1999.

Biographical note

Janet Amendola received a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in illustration from Parsons School of Design in 1979. While a student, Amendola created a series of paintings of fruits such as apples, oranges, and other citrus fruits, under the direction of Cipe Pineles. Pineles was the art director at Parsons who mentored a staff of students–including Amendola–in the creation of promotional materials to reshape the visual identity of the college (Scotford, 1999). Her art was utilized in Parsons's publicity materials for a decade after her graduation.

Amendola worked for many years as an illustrator and designer following her college education. She has various experience in art education and childcare and taught after school art programs in elementary schools while living in New York. Since 2016, Amendola has been a teacher at the Sharon Day Care in Connecticut.

Sources:

Parsonspaper Volume 3, no. 2, May 1979, Parsons School of Design academic departments, programs and schools, PC.02.01.02, New School Archives and Special Collections, The New School, New York, New York.

Scotford, Martha. Cipe Pineles: A Life of Design. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1999.

Sharon Day Care. “Our Team.” Accessed November 9, 2023. https://www.sharondaycare.org/our-team.

Biographical note

Janet Levy was the director of the Publication Design Office of Parson School of Design from approximately 1991 to 1999. Levy was responsible for designing announcements and publicity materials for Parsons.

Custodial History

Clinton Kuopus, director of the Parsons School of Design Exhibition Center, framed the paintings and presented them to the donor when she was director of the Publication Office for Parsons School of Design.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Donated to The New School Archives by Janet Levy, former director of the Publication Office for Parsons School of Design, 2022.

Related Materials

Published works featuring the artwork in this collection will be found in The New School Archives' Parsons School of Design course catalog collection (PC.05.01.01) and the Parsons School of Design poster collection (PC.05.07.01).

Title
Guide to the Janet Amendola fruit paintings for Parsons School of Design catalogs
Status
Completed
Author
New School Archives and Special Collections Staff
Date
November 27, 2023
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin