Does thinking about design as art undermine its function?

No, but not every piece of design should be touched.

James Zemaitis: In my market, no, because people . . . When I . . . When I exhibit my works of contemporary design at Sotheby's on our kind of, you know, number one space -- our 10th floor Richard Gluckman design area where work is meant to appear in a contemporary museum setting, I don't want people necessarily to touch these works. Every . . . The last couple of seasons we've sold these tremendous Ron __________ sculptural masterworks that he produced in the early 1990s; you know where every fingerprint almost gets permanently recorded on that piece; and you know the new collector has to, you know, pay to have everything wiped off again. I mean that's the opposite of sitting in a chair and being comfortable, isn't it? I mean it really is . . . It's all about giving design this high art, you know, high aesthetic kind of aura to it that increases the value.
Recorded on: 1/30/08

James Zemaitis: In my market, no, because people . . . When I . . . When I exhibit my works of contemporary design at Sotheby's on our kind of, you know, number one space -- our 10th floor Richard Gluckman design area where work is meant to appear in a contemporary museum setting, I don't want people necessarily to touch these works. Every . . . The last couple of seasons we've sold these tremendous Ron __________ sculptural masterworks that he produced in the early 1990s; you know where every fingerprint almost gets permanently recorded on that piece; and you know the new collector has to, you know, pay to have everything wiped off again. I mean that's the opposite of sitting in a chair and being comfortable, isn't it? I mean it really is . . . It's all about giving design this high art, you know, high aesthetic kind of aura to it that increases the value.
Recorded on: 1/30/08