From the student parquet deformation assignments, William Huff then selected what he chose as the best and compiled an archive at each of his three universities in turn, at Ulm, Carnegie-Mellon and Buffalo. However, these are not readily accessible; viewing, as yet, is not available online, but only by appointment, with a personal visit required. However, various publications do show the occasional example, but these are few and far between. Recently, another parquet deformation enthusiast, Werner Van Hoeydonck, has visited the HfG Archive at Ulm (between Stuttgart and Munich) and has kindly made the 60 works, from a variety of students, available to me (December 2020). The archive is a veritable treasure trove! Each work is catalogued by title, designer, dimensions (in inches) medium (Indian ink), the university, the season and year (combined), and archive number. Note that the cataloging is not always consistent; although it is largely chronological, it is not strictly so. Whether by design or not, each student is represented only once. It is unclear if this is because the student did only one design, at least as a standalone finished work, as against numerous sketches of a variety of ideas. For my inventory, I retain most of these elements (five) as well as adding my own. I will later discuss the works in individual detail, or at least of my favored instances.
The inventory below includes the ‘unofficial’ page number of the document, the archive number, the designer, title, year, size, format, core polygon, and deform device. Note that this listing is very much an initial effort. This being so, the presentation at least will likely change in the future. In particular, this concerns the ‘core polygon’ and ‘deform’ device; it is not always a straightforward matter to determine. As with most of my studies in general, all are very much a work in progress. However, if I waited until the writing was of an article-quality standard, this may never appear (or at least appearing many years later!), and so as is my wont, I thus put out an initial piece. Over time, this will become ever more stable, with less change.
Although unlikely, given the passage of time, I would be more than delighted to hear from any of Huff’s students here. Very few are contactable. Time constraints forbid me attempting to reach out to all or even most here.
Page created 22 January 2021