new work: David Versluis's powder-coated steel sculpture “Rungs to Rings” for Public Art Edina 2017-18

Rungs to Rings, 2017
David Versluis sculptor (Versluis is dusting and polishing the piece)
Powder-coated, welded steel, laser-cut circles
8'H x 27"W x 27"D

Artist Statement: Rungs and Rings 

This sculpture suggests a pillar or column that combines bi-dimensional planes, ornamented with a repeating circle motif. Of interest are the circular cut-outs that let observers see through the piece and frame background views, allowing the piece to interact with the location and activating a multi-dimensional experience for the viewer. 

Two thick steel plates, with laser cut-out circles, stand upright at a 90-degree angle. All the parts are welded together perpendicular to a circular base—the weld is a seamless bond that’s solid and weather tight. The sculpture produces a shadow, casting a delightful pattern within the piece and on the ground. Depending on the intensity of sunshine, the shadows can be diffused or hard-edged. 

The proposed color is a powder-coated bright red which is meant to accent the area in which the piece is displayed.

On May 11, 2017 we installed the powder-coated steel sculpture “Rungs to Rings” at 50th and France in Edina, Minnesota. The piece was selected by Public Art Edina and the City of Edina for 2017-18. I’m grateful to Michael Frey, Edina Art Center and assistance from Cory Shubert. The piece stands 10 ft. high including the pedestal and 350 lbs.


Versluis is checking the installation and touching-up the painted anchor bolts.

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David Versluis | new work: Public Art Edina, Minnesota—Sculpture Exhibit 2017–18

This piece, titled “Rungs to Rings” was selected by the Edina Art Center, city of Edina (Minneapolis metro) for the 2017–18 outdoor public sculpture exhibition. The eight foot high (325 lbs), welded, all-steel and powder-coated sculpture will be rented for a year starting in May. The piece will be placed on a twenty-inches high pedestal and elevated to a total height of almost ten feet.

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Abstract Experiments: Latin American Art on Paper after 1950—Art Institute of Chicago

Hélio Oiticica. GFR 022, 1955. Collection of Donna and Howard Stone.
All images courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

The following is from the AIC gallery didactics:
“The Neoconcrete movement emerged in Rio de Janeiro as a reaction to the perceived rigidity of the Brazilian Concrete art movement as it was practiced in São Paulo. The Neoconcretists, among them Lygia Clark, Lygia Pape, and Hélio Oiticica rejected the commodification of the art object and embraced a poetic, participatory and multi-sensory experience. In their two-dimensional work the artists of the Neoconcrete movement replaced the strict geometry of concrete art with softened more organic forms. Moving into the three-dimensional realm, they turned spectators into participants in order to challenge to traditional relationship of the viewer to the work of art.” 


Hélio Oiticica. Metaesquema, 1958–59. Collection of Diane and Bruce Halle. In 1959 the two-dimensional geometric forms of Oiticica’s early paintings on cardboard began to transition into his Bilateral and Spatial Reliefs, which were suspended from the ceiling.


Manuel Espinoza. Celestial Theme, from 21 Estampadores de Colombia, Mexico y Venuzuela, 1972. Gift of the Container Corporation of America. This piece exemplifies the genre of Venezuelan kineticism.

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Hélio Oiticica: a retrospective exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago—

Hélio Oiticica, (Brazilian, 1937–1980)
NC1 Small Nucleus (foreground), (NC1 Núcleo pequeno 1)
1960
Oil on wood, mirror
photograph by versluis 2017

Hélio Oiticica: To Organize Delirium is on display at the AIC, Regenstein Hall, through May 7, 2017. In the late 1950s, Oiticica’s painterly and suspended constructions that are pulled from the gallery wall to interact/engage with the space of the viewer. The gallery label for the piece pictured above states:

Like the Bilaterals and Spatial Reliefs, Oiticica’s Nuclei are made up of forms suspended from the ceiling. Clustered together, so that viewers have to walk around to pieces to fully experience them—they represent an early exploration of architectural space for the artist. Oiticica’s aspiration to integrate the viewer into the work itself is made literal here through he reflection provided by the mirror. Oiticica’s goal was to give color an independent physical presence apart form the form on which it appeared.

From the collection of César and Claudio Oiticica, Rio de Janeiro

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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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A signature piece: Rick Valicenti’s “A Wheel of Fortune—Round and Round”

From the exhibition: (maybe) THIS TIME
Rick Valicenti
Loyola University Artist-in-Residence, 2016–17
Ralph Arnold Gallery
11 October – 26 November 2016

Chicago based artist/designer Rick Valicenti’s Wheel of Fortune—Round and Round installation artwork seems to be a hybrid and hyperbolic time piece with a subtle note of George Nelson’s modern clock designs. The light rays emanating from the center hint at Bernini’s Ecstasy, while the centralized casting of a “death mask” accents the vanitas genre without the moralizing. The piece is a roulette and metaphor for all the small deeds of civility. Photograph above used with permission.

Wheel of Fortune 2016
Industrial Felt
60 x 60"
Fabricated by West Supply
Unique

Round and Round 2016
Polished Aluminum
72 x 72"
In collaboration with Taek Kim
Fabricated by West Supply
Unique

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Collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Art: Twentieth Century Modern Design

Pictured L-R (following information taken from the museum display labels) Photograph by © versluis 2016:

Marcel Lajos Breuer, American (born Hungary), 1902-1981
“Wassily” armchair, model B3 c. 1926
Chrome-plated steel, canvas
Standard Möbel, Manufacturer, Berlin, 1927-1928

This armchair helped change the course of the furniture industry in the early 1900s. Marcel Lajos Breuer used tubular steel and canvas in the design, instead of wood and other conventional materials. Breuer was reportedly inspired by the lightness of his bicycle frame, made of strong tubular steel, and wanted to use the material in his furniture design. The chair is nicknamed “Wassily” because of painter Wassily Kandinsky’s appreciation of the chair.
_________________________________________________________________________

Eero Saarinen, Designer, American (born Finland) 1910-1961
Studio Loja Saarinen, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Maker
American, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

Loja Saarinen, Maker, Finnish 1879-1968
Wall hanging, c. 1934
linen, silk; discontinuous supplementary weft patterning

This object can be seen as the product of an extremely talented family. The angular leaping fish and muted colors are hallmarks of the American Art Deco style, and are attributed to Eero Saarinen. The piece was created in the studio of his mother, Loja at the Cranbrook Academy of Art, a leader in the development of modernism in the United States. Cranbrook was itself a family affair, guided by Loja and her husband, architect Eliel Saarinen. In the late 1930s, Loja and Eliel's daughter Pipsan and her husband, J. Robert F. Swanson, placed the hanging in the Charles J. Koebel residence in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Swanson designed the house and Pipsan designed the interiors. 
_________________________________________________________________________

Marcel Lajos Breuer, American (born Hungary), 1902-1981
Nest of table (model B9-9c), 1926-30s, 1926-30
Gebrüder Thonet, Manufacturer, Frankenberg, Germany, est. 1849
Chromium-plated steel, ebonized wood

Smaller tables are concealed within larger ones in this nest of tables, and can be pulled out at a moment’s notice. The tables are primarily made of tubular steel, a highly innovative material at the time and easier to bend than wood. Originally intended as stools, these tables were a favorite design of Breuer’s simple, functional, space-saving, and inexpensive.
_________________________________________________________________________

Attributed to Fritz August Breuhaus de Groot, German, 1883-1960
Table lamp, c. 1928
Chromium-plated metal, glass
Metallwaren Fabrik (a.k.a. WMF)
Manufacturer: Württembergische

Breuhaus de Groot designed interiors for large modes of transportation, such as trains, ocean liners, and, most famously, the doomed Hindenburg airship that met its fiery demise on May 6, 1937. This lamp would have fit perfectly in the compact travel spaces he typically designed.
_________________________________________________________________________

Alvar Aalto, Finnish 1898-1976
“Paimio” chair, c 1932
Laminated birch, bent plywood

Alvar Aalto, an architect and designer, is perhaps best known today for has furniture. He designed this relaxing armchair for the Paimio Tuberculosis Sanatorium in southwest Finland One of h1s earliest designs, it uses laminated birch, an uncommon material for furniture at the t1me. The chair was extremely strong, comfortable, and attractive, and could be inexpensively and easily manufactured. It is still produced by Artek, the company founded by Aalto and three partners.

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Donald Drumm: designer and sculptor and master craftsman

Donald Drumm (American, b.1935), designer and sculptor
The 10 story concrete mural at Bowling Green State University’s Jerome Library building. Concrete, carved/chiseled relief panels with paint for contrast, c.1966. Drumm was artist-in-residence at BGSU in the mid-1960s. In 1996 the mural was refurbished to it’s original state.

The scale of this work is fantastically impressive and the syncopation of the visual elements are delightful.

Drumm is based in Akron, Ohio. He was born in Warren, Ohio and received art degrees from Kent State University.

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Taliesin West: Garden Room Folding Divider (Eugene Masselink— “…There was no conflict between his faith and his work.”)

The Garden Room folding divider with Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Taliesin West Planview Motif.” The folding divider has the look and feel of a piece designed and painted by Wright’s executive secretary, Eugene Masselink. Olgivanna Lloyd Wright dedicated her book The Roots of Life (published in 1963) to the memory of Eugene Masselink (1911-1962, originally from Grand Rapids, Michigan with Dutch Calvinist roots). She wrote an affectionate epitaph honoring Masselink: “…There was no conflict between his faith and his work.”
 
Taliesin West, The Garden Room, Scottsdale, Arizona. May 2016.
A harrow disk golden bowl sits on a side table and flanked by Taliesin origami chairs. The folding divider stands in the corner.

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Jim Dine at the Poetry Foundation in Chicago

Jim Dine (b. 1935) after the poetry reading conversing with New York poet Vincent Katz far left. Visual artist, Jim Dine has always had an affinity for poets and poetry. The following is from an artnet interview with Dine by New York poet, Ilka Scobie. Dine says, “You know I was a bad boy in school primarily because I couldn’t read well, because I’m dyslexic. And the only thing I could read was poetry till I was 22 and I started to read novels. But you know, poetry kept me in the world of language.”


An exterior view of a “roomful of words”—photo taken from the entryway to the Poetry Foundation. The Foundation building is brilliantly designed by architect John Ronan of Chicago. Photography by versluis

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MCA Chicago / Pop Art Design: Alexander Girard’s Letter Patterns

Alexander Girard (American, 1907-1993)
Alphabet, 1952
Wallpaper pattern
Printed paper
Herman Miller, Inc.
Zeeland, Michigan
Collection of the Vitra Design Museum

The fabric piece (wall hanging) partially shown above Girard’s letter patterns is titled “Letters” was designed in 1955 by Gunnar Aagaard Andersen (Danish 1919-1982). 

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William Le Baron Jenney: First Congregational Church, Manistee, Michigan

William Le Baron Jenney, Principal Architect
First Congregational Church, 1892 
Manistee, Michigan 

A Michigan Historic Site, copy taken for the commemorative plaque presented outside the building. William Le Baron Jenney, eminent Chicago architect known as the “father of the skyscraper,” designed this beautiful Romanesque church. Completed in 1892, it features vibrant stained glass windows, two of which are of Tiffany design. The soaring rafters form a canopy over the curved hand-carved pews in the luminescent and graceful interior. Lumber, salt, and shipping industrialists of the late nineteenth century attended and supported this distinctive house of worship.

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David Versluis’s new work: “a little bit of cathedral in it”

David Versluis and Nelson Wynia
“a little bit of cathedral in it”
2015
15'H x 10'W x 1'D
Welded aluminum, powder coated chrome
Aluminum skeletons from Kooima Laser Cutting

Dordt College Commission and Permanent Collection—Science Building Addition. Photographs by Carl Fictorie ©2015

The design and title of this piece is inspired and responds to this quote by engineer and writer Samuel Florman:

“Not only cathedrals, but every great engineering work is an expression of motivation and of purpose which cannot be divorced from religious implications. This truth provides the engineer with what many would assert to be the ultimate existential pleasure.

I do not want to get carried away with this point. The age of cathedral building is long past. And, as I have already said, less than one quarter of today’s engineers are engaged in construction activities of any sort. But every man-made structure, no matter how mundane has a little bit of cathedral in it, since man [humankind] cannot help but transcend himself as soon as he begins to design and construct.”(1)

1. Florman, Samuel C. The Existential Pleasures of Engineering. 2nd ed. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1996. 125. Print.

L: David Versluis (designer) and Nelson Wynia (welder) installing hanging brackets and five foot x ten foot aluminum panels.

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“Architectural Record” cover design from September 1965: a modern combination of symmetry and asymmetry

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David Versluis’s new work: Tectonic Tower Maquette

David M. Versluis ©2015
Tectonic Tower Maquette
Welded aluminum, powder coated chrome
2015
14.5"H x 9"W x 5"D
Photography by Doug Burg

This piece is a response to the transitional tectonics and nature of the cultural landscape. Contour lines angle and change directions to form an architecture of triangular shapes or plates. These plates stack, layer, and off-set to suggest a balanced or unbalanced structure depending on your perspective—the whole piece becomes richer than the sum of individual parts. The imperfection of the welds and reflective surface help viewers to focus on their experience.

This piece is to some extent inspired by Herbert Bayer’s Leaning Spiral Tower. However, ironically, this piece seems to suggests a kind of:

“transautomatism”, which was a term used by artist, Friedensreich Hundertwasser Regentag (1928–2000)(1).

1. Calvin Seerveld, Setting Things Right, CIVA Seen, 2013. 5.

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“Accentuating Architecture: A Dordt College Architectural Alumni Exhibition”

Photograph by versluis ©2015

Dordt College is hosting its first design show in the Campus Center Art Gallery. The exhibit, titled “Accentuating Architecture: A Dordt College Architectural Alumni Exhibition”, will be displayed October 9 – November 9. Exhibit curator John Den Boer will deliver a gallery talk at 4:00 during the show’s reception from 3:45 to 4:45 p.m. on October 24.

Art Professor David Versluis, advisor for the pre-architecture program and art gallery coordinator, will be arranging the gallery installation. The exhibit will feature the architectural designs of:

• John Den Boer (’00), Tower Pinkster AE, Grand Rapids, Michigan
• Jon Dykstra (’06), Alliiance, Minneapolis, Minnesota
• Kevin Zandberg (’92), MJSA Architects, Salt Lake City, Utah

Versluis says that the role of architects in the design of buildings is mainly “to study, research, imagine, solve problems, and give instructions.” This exhibition focuses on the finished work and shows the final built form with renderings, photographs, and floor plans. Included with each project are didactics describing the project program and design strategy.

The exhibition, celebrating 60 years of Dordt alumni during Dordt’s 60th anniversary year, also aims to help viewers consider why buildings are the way they are. The projects displayed in the exhibition demonstrate architectural design on various levels. Versluis and Den Boer hope the show fosters a deeper appreciation for the built environment and gives viewers a better idea of the role of the architect.

“Architecture means many things to many people,” says Den Boer. “Many see it as the intersection of art and science. It is a profession that concerns itself with community and inspiring people to be the best versions of themselves while simultaneously focusing on getting the smallest of details right. Architects have a duty to design functional, practical, but also beautiful buildings. Likewise, Christian architects have a duty to serve others and glorify God.”

Information taken from the Dordt College News Release.

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typographer and architect juxtaposed: a version of ‘typotekt’

Antonius Kurvers (Dutch, 1889-1940)
Poster
Tentoonstelling van Nederlandsche
Gemeentewerken (Exhibition of Dutch Municipal Works [Utrecht]), 1926
Color lithograph; Van Leer, Printer

Gerrit Rietveld (Dutch, 1888-1964)
Sideboard, 1959 (designed 1919)
Beechwood, pigment
Gerard A. van de Groenekan, Maker (Dutch, 1904-1994)
 
From the Modernism Collection, Minneapolis Institute of Art

‘Typotekt’ is a shortening of the words typographer and architect and was a name used by Piet Zwart to describe himself as a graphic designer. 

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Iterations (a design process): John Ronan’s the Poetry Foundation

Poetry Foundation Building, Chicago, Illinois. 2011
Photograph courtesy of the Poetry Foundation.
John Ronan Architects (American, founded 1997); John Ronan (born 1963)
The building comprises:
• a public garden
• a 30,000-volume library
• an exhibition gallery
• the Poetry Foundation’s programming offices


Presentation Model, 2008. The semi-transparent screen in front is featured.
Basswood, cardboard, and Plexiglas
Photographs taken from the exhibition Iterations: John Ronan’s Poetry Foundation.
December 14, 2013–May 4, 2014 at the Art Institute of Chicago, Gallery 24.
Architecture & Design Society, 2012
Photographs by versluis @ 2015 unless otherwise indicated.



Diagrammatic Sketches, 2008
Computer print on paper exhibition copy
Architecture & Design Society, 2012


Iterative Models, 2008
Cardboard, paper, Plexiglas, and other materials
Collage and assemblage site-plans and floor-plans (projecting-up the plan views).
Architecture & Design Society, 2012


Precision drawing.
Architecture & Design Society, 2012

AIC exhibition didactics state:

For Ronan, the gestation of a design begins with analog processes. After a period of thinking the ideas are quickly sketched hand, or down-loaded, in a spontaneous and intuitive manner. This set of hand-drawn diagrams reflects Ronan’s initial thoughts about how best to integrate a garden—a requisite of the project—with the space’s other key elements: a public reading room and library a performance space, a gallery, and an office. Here Ronan explored different relationships—such as interlocking or overlapping—between the building and the garden, which he then translated onto the site plan. …

Founded in 1997 by John Ronan, the Chicago-based architecture firm John Ronan Architects has made its mark with a range of critically acclaimed buildings and a thoughtful approach to spatial relationships and materials. The firm uses a distinct, iterative methodology in order to explore a wide range of options at the outset of a project. While many architects have adopted a completely digital process, Ronan sees advantages in both handmade and digital design methods; the handmade process, seen here, allows for a more intuitive and less calculated approach that is valuable in the beginning stages, while digital tools allow for the precision necessary to finalize a design.

Operating on a shoestring budget since its 1912 founding by Harriet Monroe, Chicago-based Poetry magazine experienced a surprising windfall in 2003 with the bequest of approximately $200 million from the pharmaceutical heiress Ruth Lilly. The magazine reorganized as the Poetry Foundation and decided to build a permanent home to advance its mission of raising the public profile of poetry. After a thorough selection process, the organization selected John Ronan Architects to design the building.

For the Poetry Foundation, Ronan’s design process entailed thoughtful considerations about how to integrate the required elements of the building. As seen here, the iterative approach was used throughout the design’s development-from the initial diagrams and a set of site-specific models to the presentation model-with the goal of creating a compelling spatial narrative. Completed in 2011, the building was recognized with a national design award from the American Institute of Architects. 

This exhibition has been mode possible with support from the Architecture & Design Society. 

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Erich Mendelsohn: ascending the steps of Mount Zion—by design

Erich Mendelsohn, architect, (1887–1953)
Mount Zion Temple, Saint Paul, Minnesota, (1950–1954)
View from the northeast on Summit Avenue 
Photography by versluis ©2015

Erich Mendelsohn was one of the great twentieth century architects. His buildings are characterized by sensitivity to the site and very expressive of the buildings purpose. Renovational updates of various areas of the building were completed in 2001 by the architectural firm of Bentz, Thompson and Reitow of Minneapolis.


View from the courtyard with Sanctuary in the background


Sanctuary


Hans D. Rawinsky’s The Burning Bush (Holy Presence), 1960

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Erich Mendelsohn: synagogue architecture — an expression of purpose

Erich Mendelsohn, architect, (1887–1953).
Temple Emanuel, Grand Rapids, Michigan, (1948–1952).
View from the southeast. The automobile canopy was added sometime later. Photography by versluis unless otherwise indicated, ©2015.

Temple Emanuel in Grand Rapids, Michigan was one of the last buildings designed by one of the great twentieth century architects, Erich Mendelsohn. A distinguishing feature is how the architect situated the building to take advantage of a southern exposure so that generous light fills the interior space. Inundating the sanctuary with light becomes a celebration of life. As stated in Temple Emanuel’s website: “He [Mendelsohn] visualized a different approach when designing our synagogue. The tall clerestory windows high in the sanctuary allow natural light to flow in, and the movable walls permit us to divide the space as needed.”

The site rests on a gentle rise, which is elevated from the street level. The rhythms and proportions of architectural forms result in a building that harmonizes beautifully with the relative horizontal flatness of the site and verticality and energy of the trees.

Writer Arnold Whittick, in his piece about Mendelsohn for the Encyclopedia of Modern Architecture states that: “Mendelsohn’s work was characterized by a sympathetic and original use of materials, steel, concrete and glass, and by an expression of purpose through the forms of his building, .... His designs were always actuated by the principles of organic unity, so that each part by its character denotes it relation to the whole, and each building is closely wedded to its site.” (1)

1. Whittick, Arnold. “Mendelsohn.” Encyclopedia of Modern Architecture. Ed. Gerd Hatje. 1964. 183-86. Print.

The 1000 sq. ft. sanctuary wall mural that celebrates Light of Creation (recently restored) is the work of Lucienne Bloch Dimitroff (1909–1999), 1953. Casein paint on plywood panels. The mural creates a wonderful golden glow in both daylight and with artificial lighting. Photograph courtesy of The Conservation Center, Chicago. 


View from the southeast and taken through the garden courtyard.


Calvin Albert (1918–2007), “The Burning Bush,” Bronze, 1973.
The sculpture is located between the front entry doors.

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