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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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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Corita Kent exhibit on display at Dordt College

Corita Kent
Love, 1979
Screen Print, 20 x 20 inches
“…the ability to feel is very beautiful.” —Corita Kent

Dordt College will display 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.

The exhibition has been curated by Dordt College Professor of Art David Versluis. “I attempted to select work that represents the range of Corita Kent’s typographic style and expressiveness,” says Versluis. “As a graphic design instructor for many years I’ve thought about the qualities of Corita Kent and her activist screen prints of the ’60s and ’70s. This exhibition suggests that her message and image prints are as important and relevant for us today as they were nearly 50 years ago.”

Corita Kent (Sister Mary Corita) (1918–1986), born in Fort Dodge, Iowa, was an artist, educator, and advocate for social justice. At age 18 she entered the religious order Immaculate Heart of Mary, eventually teaching in and then heading up the art department at Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles. Her work evolved from figurative and religious to incorporating advertising images and slogans, popular song lyrics, biblical verses, and literature. Throughout the ’60s, her work became increasingly political, urging viewers to consider poverty, racism, and injustice.

In 1968 she left the order and moved to Boston. Her work evolved into a sparser, introspective style, influenced by living in a new environment, a secular life, and her battles with cancer. She remained active in social causes until her death in 1986. At the time of her death, she had created almost 800 screen print editions, thousands of watercolors, and innumerable public and private commissions.

Roy R. Behrens sent me this review of the Corita Kent catalog from the College Art Association.

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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.
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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. 
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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.
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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.
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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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Lyonel Feininger’s “Barfüsserkirche II”: a quintessential and beautiful example of crystalline Cubism

Lyonel Feininger (American, 1871-1956)
Barfüsserkirche II (Church of the [Franciscans] Minorites II) 1926
oil on canvas
Collection of the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Gift of the T. B. Walker Foundation, Gilbert M. Walker Fund
Acquired in 1943
Photograph by versluis 2016

The following is from the Walker Art Center label:

In 1943, the Walker Art Center launched an ambitious exhibition plan with the dual goals of highlighting contemporary American art while also promoting its purchase within the museum and the local community. The first project to embody this new mission was 92 Artists, a survey of national trends in landscape, portraiture, figuration, and abstraction. Its curator, T. B. Walker’s grandson Hudson Walker, framed the exhibition in terms that reflected the patriotic pride of the World War II era and recognized New York as the “creative artistic capital of the world” that supplanted Europe. Among the artists Walker chose to carry the nationalist flag is one that strikes an odd note: Lyonel Feininger. His painting Barfüsserkirche II (Church of the Minorites II), with its German title and European Cubist-Expressionist style, along with the artist’s surname, might have given viewers the impression that he was not American, but German.

In a sense, Feininger was both. He was born in New York City but moved to Berlin in 1887, at age 16, to study art. He remained in Germany for 50 years, becoming a celebrated avant-garde painter who was associated with Expressionism and on the faculty of the Bauhaus. He returned to the United States in 1936 because the Nazis declared his work “degenerate.” Once at home, he encountered intense anti-German sentiment that made life difficult for his family and threatened his livelihood. He began emphasizing his roots and seized every opportunity to be seen as an American artist.

Church of the Minorites II was among the dozen works purchased from 92 Artists for the Walker's collection. Today, it is considered a superb and important example of Feininger’s mature style and reflects the Walker’s embrace of artists and histories that do not fit monolithic definitions or categories.

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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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Chicago Design Archive aficionados: Susan Jackson Keig

To Chicago Design Archive aficionados:
This is a photo of Susan Jackson Keig talking with reference librarian, Janis Versluis at the Society of Typographic Arts 85th Anniversary Celebration held at Wright in Chicago on 26 October 2012. This was the event that also featured: “Carl Regher: The Lost Journals.”

Keig is a Fellow and past-president of the STA. R. Roger Remington’s Graphic Design History Resource lists Susan Jackson Keig as a woman pioneer in design and a key individual in the development of American design.

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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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Anne and Paul Rand's: “Listen! Listen!”

Listen! Listen! An inside spread.
A children’s book by Ann Rand and illustrated by Paul Rand
Copyright ©1970 Harcourt, Brace & World Book. Photograph of the spread is from the book collection of Dordt College Library’s Learning Resource Center.

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

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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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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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“Streamline Moderne” — Kem Weber’s style

Kem (Karl Emmanuel Martin) Weber American (born Germany), 1889–1963
“Skyscraper” night table, 1928–1929
Mirror, burl walnut, glass, painted and silvered wood, chrome-plated metal, cedar
The Modernism Collection, Minneapolis Institute of Art
photograph by ©versluis 2015
Modes and Manners

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Carl Milles: “The Vision of Peace” at the Saint Paul City Hall – Ramsey County Courthouse

The Vision of Peace (God of Peace)
Memorial Hall, Saint Paul City Hall / Ramsey County Courthouse
View from the third floor. All photographs ©versluis 2015

Sculptor: Carl Milles
Material: Mexican Onyx
Height: 36 feet, Weight: 60 tons

For Native Americans the ascending smoke from a ceremonial fire or the peace pipe signify prayers being lifted up. The following is from the label/didactics that identifies the monument:

This statue depicts five Native Americans [at the base] in a spiritual ceremony with their sacred pipes. From the smoke arises a Vision of Peace. One hand of the statue holds the sacred pipe, the other extends in a gesture of friendship—symbolic of the idea that with meeting and understanding comes the hope for world peace.

The figure [unnoticeably] rotates 132 degrees on its base (66 degrees in each direction).

Building dedicated in 1932
Building Architects: Holabird and Root
Construction: Ellerbe & Company

The left-handed God of Peace (right-handed in final version)
Plaster maquette made to scale by Carl Milles, 1930
The first three designs were not accepted. The image above is the fourth maquette submitted, which was finally approved by the commission.
From the collection of the Minnesota Museum of Art

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Henry Dreyfuss: design based on human factors

Design by Henry Dreyfuss (American, 1904–1972)
Drawing by Alvin R. Tilley (American, 1914–1993)

Designer Henry Dreyfuss’s suggestions for functional industrial design were based on human factors and ergonomics. As the graphic above indicates Dreyfuss carefully studied the proportions found in the human body when correlating product design and the user experience. The image above is taken from the exhibition Revealing the Body: The Art of Anatomy currently at the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

The label for this piece states:

Three Basic Human Body Types—Profile, 1966
Black marker over graphite on gray linen

Anthropometry: in Greek, the word means the measure of man, but not only—it is the foundation of an entire philosophy that connects the human body, its proportions and movements, with the social and natural environment, and ultimately with the Universe. Henry Dreyfuss, the prominent American industrial designer, used the proportions of the body as a point off departure for his creations—for instance, he created the “Princess” telephone to fit the hands of teenage girls. His principles are deeply rooted in the core of 15th-century Renaissance thought—man is the measure of all things. 

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Dürer’s systems

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528)

Dürer’s suggestions for classical proportions in visual design were based on the ratios he found in the human body. The image above is taken from the exhibition Revealing the Body: The Art of Anatomy currently at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. The label for this piece states:

Hjerin sind begriffen vier Bücher von menschlichen Proportion 
(Four books on human proportion)
Nürenberg: Hieronymus Formschneyder, 1528

Dürer’s systems were mathematical: Single parts of the body were measured and a ratio obtained, relating each of them to the total height. Another method was to divide the figure’s height into six parts, which could be used as modules for the construction of the whole being. Dürer’s manuscripts, published only after his death, set a trend and were imitated throughout the 16th century.

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Speed and motion: a Piet Zwart photograph

Piet (Pieter) Zwart (Dutch, 1885-1977)
Locomotie, 1928
Gelatin silver print

This is just one of the wonderful photographic prints in the 100+ photography exhibition at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. The show is one of the events which commemorates the 100th anniversary of the MIA this year.

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Alvar Aalto’s “Paimio” chair: a chair with just the essential parts

Alvar Aalto (Finnish, 1898-1976)
“Paimio” chair, c. 1932
Laminated birch, bent plywood
Collection of the Minneapolis Art Institute

The following information is taken from the MIA exhibition label:

“A Finnish architect and designer, Alvar Aalto is best known today for his furniture design. This chair, one of his earliest designs, was made for the Paimio Tuberculosis Sanatorium in southwest Finland, constructed between 1929 and 1937. Using laminated birch, a material previously used only in the construction of skis, Aalto produced a chair that was extremely strong, comfortable and attractive, and could be cheaply and easily manufactured.”

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