{{Short description|Iranian-born American industrial designer (1897-1954)}} {{Infobox person | name = Alexander Kostellow | native_name = الکساندر کوستلو | native_name_lang = fa | birth_name = Alexander Jusserand Kostellow | birth_date = {{Circa|1897}} | birth_place = Isfahan, Qajar Iran (now Iran) | death_date = {{Death date|1954|09|01}} (aged 56-57) | education = University of Berlin,<br /> Art Students League of New York,<br /> New York School of Fine and Applied Arts,<br /> National Academy of Design | occupation = Industrial designer, teacher, academic administrator, muralist, painter, advertising | employer = Carnegie Mellon University, Pratt Institute | spouse = Rowena Reed Kostellow (m. 1921–1954; his death) | children = 1 }}

'''Alexander Jusserand Kostellow''' ({{Langx|fa|الکساندر کوستلو}}; {{Circa|1897}} – September 1, 1954) was an Iranian-born American industrial designer and educator. He is best known for his work developing the industrial design academic programs of the Carnegie Institute of Technology and Pratt Institute. Kostellow also worked as a WPA-era muralist, painter, and in advertising.

== Early life and career == Alexander Jusserand Kostellow was born around 1897, in Isfahan, Qajar Iran (now Iran).<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Donnelly |first=Jim |date=September 23, 2018 |title=Car Culture: Alexander Kostellow |url=https://www.hemmings.com/stories/article/alexander-kostellow |access-date=2023-12-29 |website=Hemmings}}</ref><ref name=":7" /> He left Persia in the early 1900s, to study art in Paris and Germany.

He graduated from the University of Berlin with degrees in philosophy and psychology.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Hannah |first=Gail Greet |title=Elements of design: Rowena Reed Kostellow and the structure of visual relationships |date=2006 |publisher=Princeton Architectural Press |isbn=978-1-56898-329-5 |edition=3rd pr |series=Design briefs |location=New York, NY |pages=22–24}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Gantz |first=Carroll |title=Founders of American industrial design |date=2014 |publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers |isbn=978-0-7864-7686-2 |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |pages=70–72}}</ref> When World War II broke out, Kostellow refused to join the German Nazi army, and fled the country through Holland.<ref name=":3">{{Cite news |last=Ayers |first=Ruth |date=December 17, 1933 |title=Having Conquered Many of Life's Toughest Storms, Artist Paints the More Beautiful Side on Canvas |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-pittsburgh-press-having-conquered-ma/162686465/ |access-date=December 29, 2023 |work=The Pittsburgh Press |pages=37 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref><ref name=":2" /> He arrived in the United States in 1916, first landing in Boston, where he evaded immigration officials, before moving to New York City.<ref name=":2" /> Kostellow worked in construction upon arriving in New York, before taking a job as an inspector and chemist at a construction company in New Castle, Delaware.<ref name=":3" /> Although he attempted to join the U.S. Army, recruiters deemed his construction work too important for the war effort; in his spare time, he designed war posters. His colleagues noted his artistic talents and encouraged him to study art.<ref name=":3" /> Kostellow returned to New York, working for an advertising agency while he studied at the Art Students League of New York, the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts (now Parsons School of Design), and the National Academy of Design.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Pulos |first=Arthur J. |title=The American design adventure: 1940-1975 |date=1988 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-16106-0 |location=Cambridge, Mass. |pages=166–168}}</ref><ref name=":3" />

In the early 1920s, Kostellow studied at the Kansas City Art Institute, where he met Rowena Reed. They married on September 26, 1921.<ref>{{Cite news |last= |date=September 27, 1921 |title=Marriage of Reed / Kostellow |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-kansas-city-star-marriage-of-reed/162685247/ |access-date=2025-01-10 |work=The Kansas City Star |pages=3 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref>

== Painting and mural career == In 1922, Kostellow taught briefly at the Kansas City Art Institute, before the couple returned to New York City, where he continued to study, teach, and create art.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Rowena Reed Kostellow, FIDSA |url=https://www.idsa.org/profile/rowena-reed-kostellow/ |access-date=December 29, 2023 |website=Industrial Designers Society of America}}</ref><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" /> He became a noted painter and muralist, and in 1929 moved to Pittsburgh to teach painting at the Carnegie Technical Institute.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gómez |first=Jaime Francisco |date=2010 |title=An Approach to the Figure and Aesthetic Ideas of Alexander J. Kostellow: Plastic Artist and Industrial Design Education Pioneer |url=https://cgscholar.com/bookstore/works/an-approach-to-the-figure-and-aesthetic-ideas-of-alexander-j-kostellow |journal=Design Principles and Practices|volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=33–38 |doi=10.18848/1833-1874/CGP/v04i01/37810 |issn=1833-1874|url-access=subscription }}</ref> While teaching at Carnegie, he continued to paint, exhibiting his work in the Museum of Modern Art and the 1934 Whitney Biennial.<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Barbara |url=http://archive.org/details/pittsburghreader0000vari |title=The Pittsburgh Reader |date=2011 |others=Internet Archive |pages=196–199 |chapter=Samuel Rosenberg: Portrait of a Painter}}</ref> In 1933, his work was awarded a prize from the Associated Artists of Pittsburgh.<ref name=":3" />

He painted United States post office murals through the Treasury Section of Fine Arts (TSFA), including ''The Battle of Bushy Run'' (1938) with T. Frank Olson (1890–1935) and Robert Lepper, and ''Glass Industry'' (1938), both are oil on canvas in Jeannette, Pennsylvania;<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bulletin no.1-5,7-11,13-24. |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015031964953&view=1up&seq=266 |access-date=2025-01-10 |website= |page=266 |language=en |via=HathiTrust}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Battle of Bushy Run |url=https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibition/indians-at-the-post-office-murals-conflict/the-battle-of-bushy-run |access-date=2025-01-10 |website=Indians at the Post Office, Smithsonian National Postal Museum |language=en}}</ref> and the ''Somerset-Farm Scene'' (1941), oil on canvas in Somerset, Pennsylvania.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Post Office Mural – Somerset PA |url=https://livingnewdeal.org/sites/post-office-mural-somerset-pa/ |website=Living New Deal}}</ref>

== Industrial design career == Although Kostellow had been hired as a painting instructor at Carnegie, he had been heavily influenced by his time in construction and engineering, as well as Peter Behrens, whom he had studied under in Europe.<ref name=":0" /> These influences led him to focus his energies on the emerging academic field of industrial design.<ref name=":4" /> Various institutions had begun developing curricula for engineers and designers, with pioneers such as Donald Dohner, Kem Weber, and Viktor Schreckengost teaching courses at Pratt Institute, the Chicago Art Institute, the University of Cincinnati, and the Art Center School.<ref name=":1" /> Dohner, a graphic artist and Carnegie administrator, enlisted Kostellow and together they designed and implemented the first degree-granting program in industrial design in the United States in 1934.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jaffee |first=Barbara |date=2005 |title=Before the New Bauhaus: From Industrial Drawing to Art and Design Education in Chicago |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25223979 |journal=Design Issues |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=41–62 |doi=10.1162/0747936053103066 |jstor=25223979 |s2cid=57571973 |issn=0747-9360|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=Alexander Jusserand Kostellow, FIDSA |url=https://www.idsa.org/profile/alexander-jusserand-kostellow/ |access-date=December 29, 2023 |website=Industrial Designers Society of America}}</ref><ref name=":2" />

In 1938, both Kostellow and Reed followed Dohner to Pratt Institute, where he had been invited to organize a similar industrial design program.<ref name=":4" /> The trio developed a program that would be noted internationally for its influence and modernity;<ref name=":6">{{Cite news |last=Glueck |first=Grace |date=2004-07-09 |title=DESIGN REVIEW; The Art of Making Things That Look Good and Work |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/09/arts/design-review-the-art-of-making-things-that-look-good-and-work.html |access-date=2023-12-29 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> Arthur Pulos described their contributions as "Alexander Kostellow representing the philosophical, Rowena Reed Kostellow the aesthetic, and Dohner the practical–they laid the triangular foundation for Pratt's program in industrial design."<ref name=":4" /> The department, formally established in 1934, attracted designers such as Robert Kolli, Ivan Rigby, and Eva Zeisel.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":6" /> Kostellow also played an instrumental role in developing the Foundation Year curriculum at Pratt, which introduced first-year students to basic elements and principles of visual design.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Akner Koler |first=Cheryl |title=Form & formlessness: questioning aesthetic abstractions through art projects, cross-disciplinary studies and product design education |date=2007 |publisher=Chalmers Univ. of Technology [u.a.] |isbn=978-91-976644-6-2 |series=Doktorsavhandlingar vid Chalmers Tekniska Högskola |location=Göteborg |pages=157–159}}</ref><ref name=":4" /> In 1939, he helped organize the First American Congress for Aesthetics alongside Felix Gatz and Max Schoen, where the American Society for Aesthetics was founded.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Munro |first1=Thomas |last2=Balet |first2=Leo |date=1941 |title=Communications |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/426580 |journal=The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism |volume=1 |issue=4 |pages=73–81 |doi=10.2307/426580 |jstor=426580 |issn=0021-8529|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

Along with John Vassos, Kostellow worked to formalize the industrial design program at Pratt and beyond in the early 1940s; he served on the education committee of the American Designers' Institute, which produced a template for four-year industrial design degrees in 1944.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":5" /> Upon Dohner's departure from Pratt in 1944, Kostellow became a full professor as well as the head of the Industrial Design Program.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> He taught courses in auto design, which were influenced by shape and color abstraction theory and the modernist Bauhaus movement, but ultimately prepared students for practical design careers.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Krukowski |first=Lucian |date=1992 |title=Aufbau and Bauhaus: A Cross-Realm Comparison |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/431228 |journal=The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism |volume=50 |issue=3 |pages=197–209 |doi=10.2307/431228 |jstor=431228 |issn=0021-8529|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

In 1952, Kostellow established the Experimental Design Laboratory at Pratt,<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> creating opportunities for students to work with major companies and corporations on various projects, including Monsanto Chemicals, Reynolds Metals, Sears and Roebuck, and Shell Oil.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":5" /> The lab helped to establish Pratt as a leading design school, as students were prepared for practical production work.<ref name=":5" />

== Death == In the summer of 1954, Kostellow and Reed traveled to Detroit to work on a kitchen design project with General Motors, to be exhibited at the annual Motorama.<ref name=":1" /> While there, Kostellow suffered a heart attack and died on September 1, 1954.<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal |date=1954 |title=Alexander Jusserand Kostellow |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_i-d_1954-10_1_5/page/10/mode/2up?q=%22alexander+kostellow%22 |journal=Industrial Design |volume=1 |issue=5 |pages=10 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=1954-09-02 |title=Obituary for Alexander Kostellow |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/pittsburgh-sun-telegraph-obituary-for-al/162684432/ |access-date=2025-01-10 |work=Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph |pages=11 |via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> Following the death of her husband, Reed took over the position of chair of Pratt's Industrial Design department, where she would remain until 1966.<ref name=":0" />

== References ==

{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kostellow, Alexander}} Category:1897 births Category:1954 deaths Category:20th-century American educators Category:20th-century American male artists Category:20th-century American painters Category:20th-century Iranian painters Category:20th-century Iranian male artists Category:American industrial designers Category:Artists from Isfahan Category:Art Students League of New York alumni Category:Emigrants from Allied-occupied Germany to the United States Category:Iranian emigrants to the United States Category:Iranian industrial designers Category:Kansas City Art Institute alumni Category:National Academy of Design alumni Category:Pratt Institute faculty Category:Painters from Pittsburgh Category:Iranian male painters Category:20th-century American designers