Approximately 140 prints, drawings, collages, and watercolors from the permanent collection offer the opportunity to ruminate on what constituted “modern” at various moments during the first half of the 20th century.
Help be the eyes and ears of Dwell. Let us know about upcoming events in your modern world. Submit your event
Our editors select their favorite design and architecture-related events happening all over the globe.
Responding to both the perceived inferiority of machine-made objects and the ills created by industrialization, the Arts and Crafts movement sought to restore dignity to labor and integrate art into daily life. In pursuit of these goals, many designers and theorists advocated handcrafting, stressed the integrity of materials and straightforward construction, and, for aesthetic inspiration, frequently looked to the natural world and non-Western cultures, creating stunning works still admired and collected today.
Apostles of Beauty presents designs by the movement’s most notable practitioners, from William Morris and Charles Robert Ashbee to Gustav Stickley and Frank Lloyd Wright. Highlighting a wide range of objects, including ceramics, furniture, metalwork, paintings, photographs, and textiles, the exhibition offers the chance for a large audience to see some of Chicago’s world-class holdings with works from the Art Institute, the Smart Museum, the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, Crab Tree Farm, and other private and public collections.
Though Alexander Calder began his career as an artist focused on drawing and painting, he is best known for creating colorful, whimsical stabiles, mobiles, and large-scale sculptures of natural forms simplified into dynamic, often whimsical creatures. His explorations of both geometric and organic shapes have distinguished him as an innovator of art that responds to its physical environment. A collection of such works appear in a small exhibition presented annually at the MCA. Drawn primarily from the Leonard and Ruth Horwich Family Loan, the pieces date from 1927 to 1968, and demonstrate the artist’s development throughout his 50-year career.
The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, Department of Architecture, Interior Architecture and Designed Objects, is proud to host "reForm()" -- A conference that explores how architects, engineers, artists and designers are using new HARDWARE, SOFTWARE and MIDDLEWARE technologies to transform the ways in which buildings and spaces perform, act and operate.
Add comment