UC Clermont Exhibit Explores Historic Angles of Modern Architecture

Collecting Space and Form Exhibit

Collecting Space and Form Exhibit

Modernist architecture is on full display at UC Clermont College now through Dec. 13 as part of “Collecting Space and Form: Ideas of the Modern,” featuring exhibits from the Robert A. Deshon and Karl J. Schlachter Library for Design, Art, Architecture and Planning at the University of Cincinnati’s Uptown campus.

In the mid-20th-century, Cincinnati architects created buildings and planning of local, national and international importance. Cincinnati played a significant, but largely unrecognized, role in the introduction of International Style Modernist architecture to the United States.

The DAAP library has been collecting and archiving drawings, photographs and other materials related to Cincinnati Modernist architecture since 2008. This exhibit focuses specifically on Cincinnati Modernist architect Woodie Garber, who had an important though sometimes tense relationship with the University. In the late 1960s-70s, Garber created a master plan and designed several buildings for UC. Two of his buildings were built: the Sander Hall dormitory complex and Procter Hall for the College of Nursing and Health. Sander Hall dormitory was demolished (though its adjacent cafeteria building survives, repurposed for new uses) and Procter Hall has been re-clad and remodeled. Garber also interacted with UC by employing many DAAP architecture students as cooperative education interns in his office and hiring some after their graduation.

Further emphasizing the breadth of UC’s collection are artists’ books from the DAAP Library focusing on the link between art and language. This selection of modern works from UC’s vast collection links the ideas of space and form, from the archival aspects of architecture, to the collecting of the three-dimensional as it meets in the two-dimensional within artists’ books.

The show was curated by Patrick Snadon, UC professor emeritus, design and architectural historian; Elizabeth Meyer, DAAP librarian; and Carla Cesare, assistant professor of art history.

The Park National Bank Art Gallery is located in the Snyder Building on the UC Clermont College campus in Batavia at 4200 Clermont College Drive. Gallery summer hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.–5 p.m. For more than 20 years, the spacious 1,000-square-foot gallery has offered visual art exhibits open to UC Clermont students, faculty, staff and the general public.

200 Years of Curation Exhibit – DAAP Library Highlight

DAAP Library Portion of Two Hundred Years of Curation Exhibit

DAAP Library Portion of Two Hundred Years of Curation Exhibit

Women Directed, Women Curated

The Robert A. Deshon and Karl J. Schlachter Library for Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning has been collecting artists’ books since 1970, and a portion of these books are on display at the Two Hundred Years of Curation exhibit. Artists’ books come in many forms, among them: a traditional codex, a stack of playing cards, a flip book, a tunnel book, and a scroll. Some forms toy with the boundaries of how a book is read, inviting more active participation by the reader than reading alone and some forms cross the boundaries into a more sculptural realm. They are often published in small editions, though they are sometimes produced as one-of-a-kind objects.

The DAAP Library’s collection includes works by many famous artists: Sol LeWitt, Edward Ruscha, Dieter Roth, Jenny Holzer, Yoko Ono and others. The collection also comprises several hundred hand-crafted books, many of which serve as excellent examples of fine binding and book illustration and reflect a focus on the artistic movements of the 1970s and 1980s. Recent efforts in collecting reflect the collectors’ interests in sculptural form, identity politics in relation to race and gender, and other recent artworld trends.

In celebration of the centennial of woman’s suffrage, all of these selections on display were created by women artists, and selected by women librarians.

Another view of DAAP Library Portion of Two-Hundred Years of Curation

Another view of DAAP Library Portion of Two-Hundred Years of Curation

Shepard Fairey Showcase

Fairey Showcase outside the DAAP Library

Fairey Showcase outside the DAAP Library

The Robert A. Deshon and Karl J. Schlachter Library for Design, Architecture, Art and Planning presents an exhibit highlighting the works of Shepard Fairey.

Best known for his iconic “HOPE” portrait utilized in Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, and the equally striking “OBEY” poster inspired by 1988 classic, They Live, Shepard Fairey has established a sterling reputation as one of the most influential street artists of the century.  Debuting in 1984 detailing skateboards and creating t-shirt prints, Fairey graduated with a Bachelor in the Fine Arts in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1992 and founded his company, OBEY Clothing, in 2001.  Since 2002, Fairey has bent his talents toward a number of charitable and political causes, making substantial donations to organizations such as the ACLU and Feeding America in addition to creating the OBEY Awareness line of clothing, the proceeds of which are entirely donated to relevant causes.

Archaeological Discovery Yields Surprising Revelations about Europe’s Oldest City

Antonis Kotsonas, a University of Cincinnati assistant professor of classics, will highlight his field research with the Knossos Urban Landscape Project at the 117th annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America and Society for Classical Studies.

Click here for the full news release.

UC Team Discovers Rare Warrior Tomb

1445881308582An international team of archaeologists led by University of Cincinnati researchers recently discovered a Bronze Age warrior’s tomb in southwestern Greece filled with more than 1,400 objects: jewels, weapons and armor, as well as bronze, silver and gold vessels. The unusual find is celebrated in the New York Times.

Click here for UC Magazine’s full write up.