Lygia Clark: “Bicho—monumento a todas as situações”—the inherent creatureliness of all things

Lygia Clark (Brazilian, 1920-1988)
Bicho—Monument to All Situations (Bicho—monumento a todas as situações), 1960
Aluminum
65.4 x 53.5 x 40.6 cm (25 3/4 x 21 x 16 in.)
From the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago
photographs by versluis 2017

The following information is from the AIC label:

Clark began producing bichos, Portuguese for “critters,” in 1959. The articulated aluminum sculptures are small enough to be held. Clark designed each piece to be manipulated by the viewer. The artist understood the bichos as living creatures able to move and occupy space. The variability inherent in the works in this series creates a unique experience by stimulating both physical and visual sensations, activating the object and the viewer in the process. Through their titles and shapes, certain of the bichos suggest a wider, even utopian context (as well as content), and this work bears a strongly architectural sensibility appearing in a number of its configurations like a dynamic skyscraper or winged creature.

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Silke Otto-Knapp: painting the illusion of space, but draws you back to the flatness of the canvas

Silke Otto-Knapp
Stage (after Kurt Schwitters), 2017
Watercolor on canvas
Five free standing panels, 68 x 47 inches each
Front and back photographs by versluis 2017

The Graham Foundation (Chicago) is currently showing Spaces without drama or surface is an illusion, but so is depth, which examines, as the curators state: “... the recent proliferation of collage in architectural representation in relationship to scenography and theatrical set design.”

The exhibition curated by Wonne Ickx and Ruth Estévez: LIGA, Space for Architecture, “Spaces without drama or surface is an illusion, but so is depth”. The exhibition runs to  July 01, 2017.

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John Massey, graphic designer (b. 1931): Carton de Venezuela, 1964 Calendar Posters— On display at the Art Institute of Chicago

John Massey Carton de Venezuela
photographs by versluis 2017
The following text is taken form the Art Institute of Chicago gallery didactics:

One of Chicago’s great design stories emerged from the Container Corporation of America (CCA) in the middle of the 20th century. The CCA’s founder, Walter Paepcke, was an influential patron of the arts and was integral in bringing the New Bauhaus, later folded into the Illinois Institute of Technology, to the city. At CCA he enlisted exceptionally talented graphic designers such as the Austrian Herbert Bayer and the Chicagoan John Massey, whose work for CCA is featured here.

Massey began working at CCA in 1957, and upon his appointment as head of design in 1964 he formed a research arm, the Center for Advanced Research in Design(CARD). The work of CARD extended beyond the traditional work of CCA to projects such as the Chicago Civic Poster campaign. Supported fully by Paepcke, this unusual arrangement enabled great creativity and innovation within a corporate structure. The portfolio of Massey’s work recently acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago demonstrates the designer’s ingenuity across a range of projects.

John Massey (American, born 1931)
John Massey designed this set of posters for the CCA’s subsidiary Carton de Venezuela. The set was intended as a calendar for clients, with each poster representing a different month of the year. The strong, clean lines and bold colors reflect one of Massey’s primary influences, the Swiss school of design. Each poster advertises a line of paper products sold by the company. The poster Febrero, for example, is_an abstracted view of the ends of paper set up 1in an S curve. Throughout the series, Massey favored design over corporate promotion, including only a small logo for Carton de Venezuela in the bottom left corner. These posters represent an overall approach to design by Massey and illustrate the important body of work he deve1oped while the director of CARD.

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Press Release: David Versluis (click image for larger view)

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The Dordt College Art Collection was recently featured in SEEN Journal

The Dordt College Art Collection was recently featured in SEEN Journal, the large format, color magazine published by CIVA (Christians in the Visual Arts). The theme of the issue is “Collect” and focuses on Christian individuals and institutions that collect works of art. In one article, “Bringing Out Treasures Old and New,” the first page of text overlays a full-page photo of Professor David Versluis’s 18 foot high sculpture, “Enlaced: A Burning Bush, Psalm 19.” The article, written by John Kohan, a former associate editor and correspondent for Time magazine who now curates church art exhibitions, briefly highlights the Dordt College Art Collection and the fact that nearly all of the art in its permanent collection is on display for students, campus community, and visitors to see daily.

In 2014, Kohan came to Dordt’s campus to talk about the Sadao Watanabe Collection show he had curated and that was on display in Dordt’s gallery.

“He was impressed with our collection,” says Versluis, who is the campus art curator. When Kohan was later asked to write a piece focusing on institutional art collections for this issue of SEEN, he contacted Versluis for an interview and for photos of some of Dordt’s major works. Versluis sent them. He was pleased and surprised to see the “Enlaced” photo featured prominently. He is also pleased that others are able to see a bit of the collection that he has helped build and care for and that includes a range of significant art works by respected Christian artists.

For more about the Dordt College art collection here’s a link.

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BRIGHT & BEAUTIFUL—Corita Kent exhibition at Dordt College

BRIGHT & BEAUTIFUL: Dordt College is currently displaying a selection of original screen prints by Corita Kent from the collection of the Corita Art Center, Los Angeles. The exhibition of 26 prints will be on display from January 6 to February 12.  In 2016 Corita Kent received the AIGA Medalist Award.

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Layered: curated by Sergio Gomez (33 Contemporay Gallery, Chicago)—David Versluis is one of the featured artists

David Versluis is recognized with this piece in the Layered international group exhibition at the 33 Contemporary Gallery, Chicago. “about to break apart”—title is from a line from a poem (see below), These Photos Now by Cynthia Nibbelink Worley. Medium: Digital Montage—Archival Pigment Print; Size: 18 x 27 inches. 2015. (gif animation indicates the Photoshop® layers used to comprise the image)
__________   

These Photos Now by Cynthia Nibbelink Worley

Looking at the photos now
They tell a different story –
The small frame house stands cold, alone
Its sagging porch, two elms I thought of once
as wondrous arms
seem weak – wasted limbs
about to break apart
My father’s work shed too, lonely – a patch
of winter’s snow
frozen on the roof
The barn, fat and warm inside I’m sure –
In these old sepia tones Phil sent upon Aunt Effie’s death, I
feel the great sadness, emptiness –
everything simple, flat, so plain
Without these pictures I idealize –
Fresh bread baking in my mother’s heavenly kitchen
The homemade Christmas tree glowing through a tiny window
Heat from a wood—burning stove –
The photos quiver with a certain reality
Wind howling through a hollow core
the heartache, precious pain
of that barren landscape
How hard we worked to make it seem more
than what it was

Cynthia (Cindy) Nibbelink Worley was born in northwestern, Iowa and is a graduate of Dordt College and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Nibbelink Worley has authored two collections, Gypsies, Animals, and Wild Wild Roses. She has made New York City home for over thirty years.

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