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WHAT IS MODERNISM? Mid-century modernism: an artistic movement spanning the middle of the 21st century. No really. It is. But we know you want to know more. On a broad scale Modernism is all about defying convention—rejecting what was traditionally held to be artistic genius in favor of something more simplified but with the same, if not greater, impact. The result was generally a work of art that was more geometric and streamlined. Modernists fought for the application of design to every aspect of one’s life and desired to see their designs act as reflectors of nature. So here are five key Modern themes to keep in mind as you peruse YAAM: Chicago. Whenever you see the respective icons throughout this piece, simply refer back to the list to see which principles were key to the referenced work. LESS IS MORE Literally. Ornamentation and decoration are frowned upon. Modernists do not include anything that isn’t necessary. If it is not advantageous to their goals or concepts, it’s excluded. FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION When the Modern designer analyzes his or her purpose for creating a piece of art (whether architecture, a painting, etc.), the way it looks is secondary. It’s purpose is primary. Once its function is determined, the style emerges. GRID STRUCTURE/GEOMETRY Modern architects and graphic designers stick to a grid. Period. A grid helps with hierarchy and organization. Artists use geometric shapes to dissect and/or break down their subjects. EXPERIMENTATION Modern art and design is a result of trying new things in order to rebel against Victorian ideals. Try new things! INDUSTRIAL MATERIALS Modern architects primarily used steel, concrete, and glass.
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Content Northbound To Modernism
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THE ARTS ARCHITECTURE INTERIOR DESIGN & FURNITURE FASHION MUSIC INNOVATION
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01 PICASSO CALDER BERTOIA MOORE CALLAHAN DAWSON ANGAROLA ALBRIGHT HEMINGWAY DISNEY GOLDSHOLL COOPER MILTON SHEPHERD
THE ARTS Hey, you. Yeah, you. You’re probably thinking, “You don’t know me; I can’t even make a DIY craft to save my life—I didn’t create anything.” While Pinterest is a topic for a different magazine, Chicago (the place you call home) is actually where some of the most creative minds in art history lived and worked. So yes, you qualify! Modernist painters, photographers, sculptors, and authors walked your streets and even left some of their work. Literally, some left their art in the streets. Classified by the desire for structure and simplicity in form, modernism started off in the arts and springboarded into nearly every other aspect of life. Don’t believe us? Go ahead, take a closer look.
THE PICASSO SCULPTURE Standing fifty feet tall and weighing over 160 tons, the Chicago Picasso in Daley Plaza is more than just artwork to Chicagoans. The untitled Picasso sculpture that originally sparked controversy in the city has become one of Chicago’s most famous sculptures and beloved icons. Commissioned in 1963 by the architects of the Richard J. Daley Center, the sculpture anchored the plaza on the east side of the building. Most public art in large cities at this time was calm and stoic, mainly depicting historical figures, but in the 1960s architecture in American cities began to reflect the many modern changes taking place throughout the country.
PABLO PICASSO Picasso (1881–1973) was a famous Spanish artist whose primary medium was painting but was also known for his contribution to sculpture. His biggest accomplishment to the modern art world is the creation of cubism, a painting technique that embodied using abstract geometric shapes and collage methods.
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THE FLAMINGO This iconic sculpture, installed in 1973, anchors the large rectangular plaza bordered by three Modernist-style federal buildings designed by Mies van der Rohe. The sculpture’s vivid color (dubbed “Calder Red”) and curvilinear form contrast dramatically with the angular steel and glass of van der Rohe’s buildings. However, The Flamingo is constructed from similar materials and shares certain design principles with the architecture, thereby achieving successful integration within the plaza. This sculpture was revolutionary because it was one of the first public works of art that did not display a historical figure and instead utilized the modernist movement of abstract art. Despite its monumental proportions, the open design allows the viewer to walk under and through the sculpture, leading one to perceive it in relation to human scale. It stands fifty-three feet tall and is made of painted steel.
ALEXANDER CALDER Calder (1848–1976) was a Connecticut artist involved in many artistic mediums. He is best known for his monumnetal abstract sculptures. Today very few Western cities are without one of them.
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SOUNDING SCULPTURE This sculpture, installed in 1975, is located in front of the AON center and is made of fifteen feet copper beryllium alloy rods and mounted onto granite pedestals around a large reflecting pool. The artist Harry Bertoia designed the sculpture to make melodical noises when the breeze causes the rods to collide. The sculpture utilizes Modernist elements, such as steel, and integrates nature into the industrial world. There are trees and various plants surrounding the sculpture, creating serenity and a break from the busy city.
HARRY BERTOIA Bertoia (1915–1978) was an Italian artist who is best known for his sound sculptures and was one of the first artists to meld the two. He even created a compliation of the sounds his pieces made and entitled it Sombient.
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NUCLEAR ENERGY In 1963 Moore was invited by the University of Chicago to make a sculpture commemorating the first controlled nuclear chain reaction which had been conducted at the university in 1942. Moore intended it to suggest a contained power and force appropriate to the subject. Its shape suggests a human skull and mushroom cloud. In 1987, the city of Hiroshima, which had been destroyed by a nuclear bomb in 1945, purchased one of the seven casts. The bronze form is roughly fourteen feet high.
HENRY MOORE Henry Moore (1915–1978) was the most important British sculptors of the twentieth century and the most popular and internationally celebrated scuptor of the post-war period. Later, leading European modernists such as Picasso, Arp, Brancusi, and Giacometti became some of his influences. Today, few major cities are found without one of his pieces.
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ELEANOR Callahan’s favorite subject, other than life itself, was his wife, Elanor, whose face and figure, clothed or often nude, appears in scores of his best photographs. He also photographed city streets and pedestrians in Chicago, where he lived from 1946 to 1961, as well as weeds, telephone wires, beaches, and the skyscrapers of New York—all with the aim of revealing the graphic beauty residing in ordinary, often overlooked objects or passages of daily life.
HARRY CALLAHAN Harry Callahan (1912–1999), Chicagoan photographer, was one of the most influential photographic artists of his time. A master of modernist experimentation, Callahan explored a range of subjects—from landscapes to city streets to portraits of his wife—and techniques throughout his career.
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WOMEN LOST IN THOUGHT Recalling this series in 1962, Callahan wrote: “I had an urge to photograph people on the streets, and to do it freely. First I shot recognizable action, people talking to each other, laughing together, etc. This had a literal value which has never been satisfying to me. While shooting this way I found that people were lost in thought, and this is what I wanted.�
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CHICAGO Callahan did some of his most ingenious experimentation with images of Eleanor. Proof sheets have been found of nudes with geometric patterns or landscapes exposed upon them. In another nude Eleanor’s body is seen at a distance and is double exposed with a negative of field brush.
DIFFERENTIAL COMPLEX Differential Complex is one of seven pure abstractions Dawson created in 1910. It represents a major breakthrough in Western art and is one of the first occasions in which an artist rejected representation and created a purely abstract composition.
MANIERRE DAWSON American Modernist painter Manierre Dawson (1887–1969) is seen as the first American artist to work in an abstract manner. Drawing off of his background in engineering, he started to create geometric paintings from 1912 onwards.
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PROFILE AT WINDOW As he began his “museum paintings” series, Dawson wrestled with finding a balance between capturing the gesture of a particular composition and the level of abstraction he wished to impose upon it. Profile at Window (1911) reflects some of Dawson’s struggle: the space surrounding the figure, which may be drawn from an as yet unidentified earlier source, is not collapsed or even shifted, but is simply activated by flattened brushwork.
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THE STRUGGLE This piece was created in 1912 when Dawson was twentyfive. It is a key example in showing the use of geometric forms instead of using direct representation techniques.
KINGDOM OF EVIL Angarola was primarily a painter during the Modernist movement but was also an illustrator (as seen Ben Hecht’s screen play, The Kingdom of Evil). He produced paintings, prints, and newspaper and book illustrations during his short career. Despite his traditional education at the School of the Art Institute, he was working in a variety of avant garde styles by his late teens. Like other progressives, such as William S. Schwartz and Raymond Jonson, he incorporated Modernist innovations which he applied to subjects ranging from landscape and figure studies to highly imaginative and almost wholly abstract images such as In a Dentist’s Chair (1923).
ANTHONY ANGAROLA Angarola (1893–1929) was an American painter and instructor. He graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Since he was an Italian immigrant himself, his work focused on people who struggled to adapt to a foreign culture.
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BENCH LIZZARDS He produced paintings, prints, and newspaper and book illustrations during his short career. Despite his traditional education at the School of the Art Institute, by the late teens he was working in a variety of modes related to Modernist movements such as Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, and Cubism as we see in the monumental Bench Lizards, 1922.
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OLD SOUTH WATER STREET MARKET, CHICAGO Along with other progressives such as William S. Schwartz and Raymond Jonson, Angarola incorporated Modernist innovations which he applied to subjects ranging from landscape and figure studies to highly imaginative and almost wholly abstract images.
PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY Albright achieved a great amount of fame when he was commissioned to paint for the Oscar-winning movie adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s 1891 novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. Albright’s renown as a painter of the macabre made him the ideal choice of Albert Lewin, the director of the movie, to paint the horrific image of Gray.
IVAN ALBRIGHT Albright was an American Modernist painter noted for his meticulously detailed, exaggeratedly realistic depictions of decay and corruption. His style evolved from his background as a medical artist during World War I, during which he recorded wounds and surgical procedures.
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SELF PORTRAIT Albright focused on a few themes through most of his works: death, life, the material and the spirit, and the effects of time. He painted very complex works, and their titles matched their intricacy. He would not name a painting until it was complete, at which time he would come up with several possibilities, more poetic than descriptive, before deciding.
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NUDE Albright came to enjoy, and eventually nurture, the shocking reactions to his paintings, claiming, “I hope to control the observer, to make him move and think the way I want him to... I want to jar the observer into thinking—I want to make him uncomfortable.”
THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA The Old Man and the Sea (1951) is one of Hemingway’s most famous novels and was the last major work of fiction to be produced in his lifetime. It centers upon Santiago, an aging fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. The Old Man and the Sea was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953 and was cited by the Nobel Committee as contributing to his receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. Hemingway was one of the few writers in American history who was acknowledged as having changed writing styes. He came from a dysfunctional family and fought in The Great War, the result being a loss of faith in the central institutions of Western civilization. He reacted to the style of the nineteenth century by using a clean style of ryhthmic sentences that focus on action rather than reflection.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY Born in 1899 in Illinois, Chicago, Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American novelist, short story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style had a strong influence on twentieth century fiction, while his life of adventure and public image influenced later generations.
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DISNEY Disney, an enormously gifted entertainer in search of laughs, innovation, and sales stumbled into the arena of modern art and became an experimenter with his form and techniques. His true aesthetic heart, however, continued to beat to an internal rhythm of nineteenth century sentimental realism. His Victorian sensibility grappled with his attraction to Modernism, but neither impulse completely triumphed. Resulting internal conflict produced a hybrid “sentimental modernist� who helped mediate a key cultural transition in twentieth century America.
WALTER ELIAS DISNEY Walt Disney was born in 1901 in Chicago and attended the Chicago Institute of Art hoping to become a cartoonist. Along with his brother Roy, he co-founded Walt Disney Productions which has become one of the best known motion-picture production companies in the world.
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GOLDSHOLL DESIGN Designers experimented with form, collage, and abstraction which reflected their training at the Bauhaus-inspired School of Design in Chicago—one of the first educational institutions in the United States to teach film within the context of art and design. From the time the Goldsholls began making films in the late 1950s through the 1980s, their work reached millions of viewers in conference rooms, living rooms, and film festivals across the country.
MORTON AND MILLIE GOLDSHOLL Morton & Millie Goldsholl ran Goldsholl Design & Film Associates, one of Chicago’s leading graphic design studios in the 1950s. The studio became most recognized for their animations, progressive hiring practices and development of corporate branding packages for various companies.
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COOPER BLACK Modernist typography strived to stray away from the more decorative typefaces of the era and move to a more simplistic, clean design that would make it easier for the viewer to read. Cooper achieved this through blunt and rounded forms, blurred serifs, and very small counters that made this typeface readable, warm, and friendly. Its most distinctive features are elliptical tittles in the ‘i’ and ‘j’. More than anything else, its darkness draws attention. The lack of contrast in the design calls for using this face on a clearly contrasting background.
OSWALD COOPER Born in 1879 Oswald moved with his family from Ohio to Kansas where he became an apprentice in a printing shop. Later he would own his own design firm located in Chicago called Bertsch & Cooper, Inc. Typographers and spent his remaining days in Chicago until his death in 1940.
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UMBRA Like all Modernist typographers, Middleton strived to create a more simplistic, yet dynamic typeface that was simple and clean enough to read. Umbra was designed for the Ludlow Type Company in 1932. The basic form is essentially a shadow version of another one of his typefaces called Tempo Light, in which the basic letter is “invisible” but there is a strong shadow to the lower right of each stroke.
ROBERT MIDDLETON Middleton (1898–1985) came to the U.S from Scotland at the age of ten and lived in Alabama where his father managed a coal mine. He studied painting at the Art Institute of Chicago and, upon graduation in 1923, began designing new typefaces for the Ludlow Typography Company. Ten years later he became art director for the firm.
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TEMPO Continuing in the same Modernist style as in the previous typeface, Middleton’s design for Tempo became the answer to the sans serif typefaces which had gained popularity in the late 1920s. The Light, Medium, and Bold weights were introduced in the 1930s and several more variations were introduced over the next decade. They are generally a little different from other sans serifs and include some innovations not found elsewhere. The most distinctive characteristics are found in the Light Italic and Medium Italic which have a somewhat more calligraphic feeling and less stiff formality than other faces, offering alternate cursive capitals which are rare in sans serifs.
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RADIANT Radiant continued in the same Modernist manner when it was introduced in 1938, with additional members of the family being added over the following years. It is a thick-and-thin, sans serif style expressing the Modern spirit of the 1940s while breaking away from typical sans-serifs. Radiant Medium is about as light as possible to maintain stroke contrast, but bold and heavy weights offer substantial continuity.
CHICAGO CUBS Otis used Modernism in a new way when he took on the Chicago Cubs in 1936 and ’37. He used Modernism through the ”less is more” principle by turning this work of art, which was part of a larger series, into simple forms that created the overall shape. Additionally, he redesigned the field’s signage, scoreboards, tickets, concession stands, and bleachers, and his new baseball uniforms set the standard for the shape and tailoring of all modern baseball teams.
OTIS AND DOROTHY SHEPARD Both Dorothy (born in 1906) and Otis (born in 1894) began as commercial artists during San Francisco’s Billboard boom of the 1920s. Otis, a veteran of WWI, was a man of adventure with a strong and lasting interest in theater. Dorothy graduated from the California School of Arts and Crafts. They married in 1929 and began working together as designers.
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WRIGLEY’S GUM Carrying over the simplistic feel of his previous work, Otis and Dorothy practically took over Philip Knight Wrigley’s family chewing gum business in 1932. Wrigley hired Otis to run the art department, turning him loose on Juicy Fruit packaging, Wrigley Gum, countertop displays, billboards, and many other aspects of the business.
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CATALINA One of the first things Wrigley did after his father passed away was hire Otis, who took on the responsibilities of creating a vision to promote tourism on the family’s island. Dorothy and Otis lived on the island for four years and not only created promotional print materials, such as the brochure covers, luggage labels and matchbook covers, but also landscaping for resort properties, road signs, and uniforms for employees. One of Otis’ objectives was to unify design and create a graphic identity for the island, a style he called ”Early California Plan” a blend of the popular 1920s and 30s California Revival style which was heavily influenced by Spanish, Mexican, and Native American influences alongside his own Modernist ideals. His interpretation of this design style was dominated by a bright color palette of blues, reds, oranges, and yellows.
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KECK & KECK GOLDBERG SKIDMORE, OWINGS, & MERRILL EERO SAARINEN
YOU BUILD MODERNISM ARCHITECTURE Did you know that you, Chicagoan, live in a city filled with modern architecture? Many of the buildings you see on a regular basis are rooted in the Modern philosophy. Take a look at the commercial buildings, apartment complexes, schools, and residences on the following pages. The simple yet sophisticated geometry is a result of individualized mathematically proportioned grids—the frameworks for each building. Each interior segment is designed specifically for the space allotted it. Steel, concrete, and glass are the three primary materials used in Modern architecture and exude sophistication and monumentality. Next time you walk around your city, look up. Modernism is nearear than you think.
ONE IBM PLAZA With black anodized aluminum to gray-tinted glass, Mies and his colleagues crafted a uniform skin that lends the building (1966-1970) an air of a single imposing and impressive volume. It exerts its presence in Chicago’s distinguished skyline through strength and clarity of form—the culmination of a meticulous lifelong study in structural expression, material simplicity, proportion, constructive detail, and organizational scale. As one of Mies’ few projects consisting of only one building, IBM is positioned on the riverside to capture views of the lake (an attempt at unifying life with nature.) Set on an elevated plaza on the north bank of the Chicago River, its presence is striking particularly as one crosses the River on Michigan Avenue or Lake Shore Drive. It projects a contrasting personality—black monolith in day, luminous beacon at night.
LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969), a German-born architect and educator, is widely achnowledged as one of the 20th century’s greatest architects and designed many buildings for Chicago. By emphasizing open space and revealing the industrial materials used in construction, he helped define modern architecture.
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ILLINOIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY MASTER PLAN Mies arrived in Chicago in 1938 to become the Director of Architecture at the Armour Institute (now Illinois Institute of Technology) with the understanding that he would redevelop the curriculum. Soon after, he was commissioned to redesign the campus and its buildings, an unexpected opportunity to shape a university that no other modern architect was given. The campus excels in defining the relationships of campus to city, buildings to campus, and voids to buildings. Clusters of buildings placed on a grade create a series of informal open spaces through a playful shifting of solid (i.e. buildings) and void (i.e. green space). A 24-foot square grid invisibly overlays the campus to guide its order. Then, by sliding the building volumes beyond one another rather than aligning them, Mies created expanding and contracting views, which offer a variety of unexpected experiences.
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MINERALS AND METALS BUILDING Not only was the Minerals and Metals Building (1942–1943) the first building Mies designed for the Illinois Institute of Technology, but it was also his first construction in America. At its 15th Anniversary Exhibition in 1944, the Museum of Modern Art honored the Minerals and Metals Building as an outstanding example of modern functional architecture. More recently, Franz Schulze described its use of glass and steel as a “revolutionary structural effort.” It is in the Minerals and Metals Building that we first see Mies use the rolled-steel l-beam as part of his structural grammar. His avant-garde use of steel was a map to the inside of the building, inaugurating a technique he would use over and over again at IIT.
ALUMNI HALL Alumni Hall (1945–1946) framed the architectural that guided the majority of other academic buildings on IIT’s campus. To align with the campus grid, Mies established a modular bay 24’ long, 24’ wide, and 12’ tall, which proved ideal for flexibility and efficiency, allocating space for classrooms, labs, and offices. Mies didn’t want these buildings to be self-consciously architectural. Rather, he moved toward the absence of architecture—architecture as a function of life. These buildings may seem forcibly barren until seen as one unit within the campus context. Only then does the beauty of the full experience emerge.
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PERLSTEIN HALL Perlstein Hall (1946–1947), also on IIT’s campus, conforms to the structural bay of 24’ square and 12’ high, which provides an easy measure of comparison for building volumes. The modular grid continues s inside. Mies used the grid to organize the interior into three zones: outer, inner, and circulatory. Spaces requiring natural light, such as classrooms, are located within the bay along the outer periphery while auditoria, toilets, and other functions not needing natural light are located in the middle. An interior courtyard garden, another Mies trademark and the first of its kind in the United States, provdes natural light for offices and conference rooms within the interior zone. Circulation corridors, 12’ wide and 12’ high, wrap between these two zones.
WISHNICK HALL According to Franz Schulze, Mies’ biographer, Wishnick Hall (1945–1946) established the “stylistic consistency of Mies’ IIT classroom buildings.” Like Alumni and Perlstein Halls, Mies used repeated modular bays as the basic building blocks of his Chemistry Building. Each bay is divided by an exposed steel l-beam, meant to demonstrate the distinction between structure and enclosure. However, Wishnick differs from previous classroom buildings with its three-story rise, acknowledging a move toward the second phase of Mies’ master plan for the IIT campus.
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S.R. CROWN HALL Crown Hall (1950–1956) is the home of the College of Architecture at IIT. With low rise and columnar steel frame, Crown Hall looks like what the Greeks might have built for Zeus, had they known about l-beams. The translucent glass at floor-level speaks to contemplation and curiosity, while the clear glass higher up encourages any visitor to lift their gaze upward and outward. Describing the moment when the floor-level windows are opened and the space is cleared, for an exhibit Ben Nicholson says, “The effect is monumental, for it gives the appearance of the building having transubstantiated and elevated to a point where it seems as if the whole is rising from itself.”
FARNSWORTH HOUSE Constructed between 1946 and 1951, the Farnsworth House is located in Plano, Illinois. Two parallel planes held in suspension between the earth and sky by only eight steel columns seems simple, but Mies worked through 167 drawings to come to his final, fearless design. Like Einstein’s equation, its simplicity exudes an elegance through a thorough attention to detail. Upon visiting the 64-acre site, Mies was able to perceive the true power already present within the natural landscape. Thus began his quest for a transparent structure that would minimize the boundary between man and the natural world. However, Mies did not create the Farnsworth House to be an iconic glass box. Rather, he hoped to create a space through which life unfolds both independently and interdependently with nature.
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THE PROMONTORY APARTMENTS The Promontory Apartments (1947–1949) mark Mies’ foray into high-rise buildings. Notably, it was the first tall building to exhibit its construction materials. Concrete, beams, and columns were left in plain sight, gaining praise from critics. The design of the building gave the most units possible a view of Lake Michigan, and brought an aesthetic that was just as thoughtful. This project resulted from the relationship Mies struck up with Chicago developer Herbert Greenwald, a collaboration that yielded over a dozen major buildings and complexes, including the Commonwealth Promenade Apartments and 1300 Lake Shore Drive Apartments.
ESPLANADE APARTMENT BUILDINGS Following the success of the 860–880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments (exhibited on the following page), Mies and Greenwald conceived five major project proposals for Chicago’s North Side. Esplanade (1953–1956) was one of them. The first buildings ever built with an uninterrupted aluminum and glass curtain wall, the Esplanade also features colonnades and a private sun deck.
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860-880 LAKE SHORE APARTMENTS Built from 1948 to 1951, Lake Shore’s materials are common: steel, aluminum, glass. Yet these buildings are renowned for their structural clarity and composition. Using steel straight from the mill, Mies struck the perfect balance between rational structure and irrational spirit. The vertical windows and columns emphasize height. He relied not on applied ornamentation, but rather on clarity of form achieved through elegant proportions and exacting detail. While each building is symmetrical, comprised of 21’ square bays (5 across, 3 deep) with a total of 288 apartments, the buildings are related informally within the small site (.78 acres) to create a dynamism similar to that found on the IIT campus. For the living spaces above, the building’s slightly offset, perpendicular relationship creates an openness which seizes the breathtaking lake views. At the pedestrian level, the open plan creates a flow of natural greenspace amid the plaza, unprecedented at that time in a city.
SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SERVICE ADMINISTRATION This low-rise, wholly symmetrical building (1962–1965) sits on a raised plinth of travertine. “Symmetry was a big part of Mies’ work,” Gene Summers, the project architect, recalled in 1996, “and it was also something that I really caught onto fast, and I loved these symmetrical plans. Now, Mies would take exception and not really call them symmetrical. Because to him a symmetrical on both axes, because that’s a static type of composition. But symmetrical about one axis was important to him. It was important to me...This was a kind of twist on something not modern. I mean that is not a modern concept. That’s a classical concept. And, you know, I loved the fact that you could make a classical composition with a modern building.”
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CHICAGO FEDERAL CENTER This 42-story office building is located on Dearborn Street in the Chicago Loop. The project was commissioned by the General Services Administration of the US government as part of a plan initiated in the 1950s to update federal administrative and judiciary facilities nationwide. Begun in the year 1959, it was completed by 1964, with many changes made to the building in the process. Construction was not completed until 1973. Mies saw no reason to adhere to the traditional architectural symbolism of government. The dramatic yet streamlined use of glass contributes to the Federal Center’s striking presence.
CRYSTAL HOUSE The first full-scale modern house to gain national prominence was the “House of Tomorow,” a structure designed by George Fred Keck for the Chicago Century of Progress Fair in 1933. Some 750,000 people each paid a dime to visit it while millions of others read about “America’s First Glass House.” Keck built another model home for the second year of the fair that was less expensive. This was his Crystal House, which he claimed “lends itself to prefabrication.” It was essentially a pure glass cube suspended within an external, structural steel cage. Keck estimated that if ten thousand units were manufactured, the house would cost no more than $3,500, an affordable alternative for lower-class families.
KECK & KECK The architecture firm of Keck & Keck designed modern, affordable, award-winning, homes in the Chicagoland area and around the Midwest from 1935–1979. Some of their trademarks are a flat roof, passive solar, cedar siding, post and beam construction (most often wood, but sometimes steel), modular design, and fixed thermopane windows.
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PRENTICE WOMEN’S HOSPITAL The women’s hospital (1969–1975) featured a rectilinear building of column and beam construction that served as the base for a four-part, lobe-like bed tower of concrete shell construction. Unlike previous designs in which the exterior shell of the tower building was supported by columns, the shell at Prentice was completely cantilevered off the core, thus eliminating any supporting columns in the lower building and providing a column free space in the tower, allowing more planning flexibility. A promotional piece from the BGA office noted, “New in nursing care: patients are gathered in four small groups on each floor, each group with a nursing center, to provide better attention for the patient and fewer steps for the nurse and doctor.” In 1975, BGA received an award from Engineering News Record for distinguished architectural and engineering development for innovations in the Prentice Hospital structure.
BERTRAND GOLDBERG Goldberg (1913–1997) was a Chicago-born architect with strong interests in individual solutions of unique character and innovation. His early designs were highly personal and attentive to individual spatial needs, and he seriously and inventively investigated materials and construction issues.
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THE INFLUENCERS
ALVIN LUSTIG
LADISLAV SUTNAR
A student of Frank Lloyd Wright, among others, Alvin Lustig had a very successful career in graphic design and art direction. Revolutionizing the approach to book cover design in the 1940s, Lustig would attempt to get a sense of the writers direction from reading the book and then translate it into his own graphic style (the previous trend was to summarize the book with one image). The combination of technology and creativity in his designs was reminiscent of the Bauhaus, as did his intellectual approach to problem solving.
Sutnar, a Czech designer born in 1897, was one of the first designers to actively practice the field of information design. His work was rooted in rationality and the process of displaying massive amounts of information in a clear and organized manner for easy consumption by the general viewer. He placed a heavy emphasis on typography and primarily used a limited color palette. While he often used punctuation symbols to help organize information, one of his signature creations was the idea to place parentheses around the area codes in telephone books.
He designed books in LA for New Directions before moving to New York to become the Director of Visual Research for Look Magazine. He rose to success early in his career garnering work for all types of clients and working on a vast array of types of projects. He died much too early at the age of 40, in 1955. His simplified shapes and use of flat colors, all while creating elaborate and intensely interesting compositions, are still imitated today by many graphic designers.
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For nearly 20 years he served as the art director for Sweet’s catalog services where he created information graphics and catalog layouts for a wide range of manufactured items. Before working for Sweet’s, he taught at the State School of Graphic Arts in Prague. He was heavily influenced by the ideas of Modernism and his work was so well structured that he had no problems communicating information clearly to an American audience, even though English was not his primary language.
ADRIAN FRUTIGER
ROBERT BROWNJOHN
Adrian Frutiger has created some of the most used typefaces of the 20th and 21st century. Although interested in many fields including woodcut and paper silhouettes, Frutiger has been passionate about typography for his entire life. Spending most of his career working for Deberny & Peignot updating typefaces and preparing them for photo-typesetting, as well as designing typefaces of his own accord, he has created almost 30 typefaces.
Brownjohn was born to British parents in New Jersey and had a successful career in both America and Great Britain during the 1950s and 60s. He immediately showed promise as a young design student at the Institute of Design in Chicago, previously The New Bauhaus, where he studied closely with Laszlo Maholy-Nagy. His career ramped up to an early start when he formed the design firm BCG with Ivan Chermayeff and Thomas Geismar. However, that career came to an early end in 1959 with Brownjohn heading to London.The firm became Chermayeff & Geismar.
Some of his most famous typefaces include Univers, Frutiger (created for the Charles de Gaulle airport), Egyptienne, Serifa, and Avenir. Frutiger is one of only a few typographers whose career spans across hot metal, photographic, and digital typesetting. He has also been instrumental in refining his own typefaces to include more weights and true italics (some examples are Frutiger Next and Avenir Next).
His career in London proved as successful as his early career in the US with his most notable contributions coming in the film industry. He also worked within several other industries, creating moving graphics for Pirelli and Midland bank and created the cover for the Rolling Stones album Let It Bleed. A 240 page catalogue by Emily King that was produced for an exhibition detailing Brownjohn’s career entitled Robert Brownjohn: Sex and Typography held at the Design Museum in London was also published as a book of the same name. Sex and Typography details the adventures of Brownjohn through detailed information provided by friends and family as well as chronicling his career and the work that he produced.
BRADBURY THOMPSON
LESTER BEALL
Bradbury Thompson was truly a master of almost every aspect of the design profession. He studied printing production, was an art director for Mademoiselle magazine, designed books, pushed the boundaries of conventional typography and taught design at Yale University. He designed 60+ issues of Westvaco Inspirations for the Westvaco Paper Corporation. His designs reached thousands of designers, printers, and typographers.
A man with a very technology-oriented background, Beall grew up playing with Ham radios and creating his own wireless sets. He graduated with a Ph.D in the History of Fine Art and the years following his graduation found him expressing an interest in modern art movements such as Surrealism, Constructivism, and Dadaism. His work as an advertiser and graphic designer quickly gained international recognition and the most productive years of his career, during the 1930s and 40s, saw many successes in both fields.
Born in 1911 in Topeka, Kansas and educated at Washburn University, Thompson stayed in touch with the university throughout his career. From 1969-1979 Thompson worked together with Washburn to create the Washburn Bible. The book was the most significant development in Bible typography since Gutenberg first published his masterpiece in 1455. Another significant point in his career, in the field of typography, was his publication of Alphabet 26, which was labeled as a monoalphabet. It contained only 26 unique characters, and case was established by size only instead of entirely new characters (i.e. r/R, e/E, a/A). Thompson’s work garnered him the highest award of every major design organization including AIGA, the Art Directors Club, and the Type Directors Club. He died in 1995.
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His clear and concise use of typography was highly praised both in the United States and abroad. Throughout his career he used bold primary colors and illustrative arrows and lines in a graphic style that became easily recognizable as his own. He eventually moved to rural New York and set up an office, and home, at a premises that he and his family called “Dumbarton Farm.” He remained at the farm until his death in 1969.
ERIK NITSCHE
CHARLES & RAY EAMES
Erik Nitsche left an unmistakable mark on the world of design in his approximately 60 year career. Leaving almost no field untouched, he worked as an art director, book designer, illustrator, typographer, graphic designer, photographer, advertiser, and packaging designer. His graphic design work included magazine covers, signage, film, exhibitions, posters, and many other advertising mediums. Before emigrating to the United States in 1934, Nitsche studied at the Collège Classique in Switzerland and the Kunstgewerbeschule in Munich.
The Eameses are best known for their groundbreaking contributions to architecture, furniture design, industrial design and manufacturing, and the photographic arts.
His work has a distinctly modernist aesthetic and although he never had the opportunity to attend the Bauhaus, Laszlo Maholy-Nagy has been quoted as saying, “Who is this guy that is doing the Bauhaus in New York?” He designed promotional and advertising campaigns for a host of different clients including department stores, feature films, record companies, and the New York Transit Authority. Nitsche greatly influenced the young generation of designers in America in the mid-20th century including the legendary designers Walter Bernard and Seymour Chwast.
Ray Eames studied painting with Hans Hofmann in New York before moving on to Cranbrook where she met and assisted Charles and Eero Saarinen on a project.
After attending Washington University in St. Louis, Charles Eames began working in an architectural office, and in 1930, he started his own. He began extending his design ideas beyond architecture and received a fellowship to Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, where he eventually became head of the design department.
Charles and Ray married in 1941 and moved to California where they continued their furniture design work with molding plywood. During World War II they were commissioned by the United States Navy to produce molded plywood splints, stretchers, and experimental glider shells. The Eameses’ molded plywood chair was called “the chair of the century” by the influential architectural critic Esther McCoy.
ASTOR TOWER The plan for the Astor Tower (1958–1963) is organized around a central core, which housed the elevators, stairs and utilities, thus allowing use of the entire floor plate for living space. There were four units per floors, with 96 units in total. Goldberg exposed the core at both the base of the building and at the top, highlighting its important structural role by making it central in his design. Because the residential stories do no begin until the fifth story, the exposed core gives the impression of an architectural peep-show, the building lifting its exterior wall to expose its structure beneath. Poured in place over a three-week period, the core was slip formed, carried much of the weight of the building and resisted 90% of the wind stress this close to Lake Michigan. All twenty-four floors were cantilevered off the core, supported by perimeter columns as well. The detail of the corner columns, barely engaging the floor plan, is notable.
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MARINA CITY Goldberg believed in the economy and cultural life of cities. Because of that belief he wanted to create a design that would enable people to live and work downtown. Marina City (1959–1967), a multi-building complex built on the banks of the Chicago River in downtown Chicago, was the result. The residential towers included twenty floors of ramped parking and forty floors of apartments. The apartments were built for economy, with large windows and balconies to enhance the views. Based on a “pie-shaped” layout, there was a gentle flaring in the layouts directing the viewer to the outdoors views. The project featured numerous design and construction innovations. It was the first major use of slip-form construction, and the construction of Marina City was widely watched and admired. At the time of their completion, the Marina Towers were not only the tallest apartment buildings in the world but also the tallest reinforced concrete buildings.
DREXEL HOME AND GARDENS Many of Goldberg’s projects started with an ideal and the Drexel Home and Gardens (1954–1955) was no exception: provide low-cost housing that is not mean, austere, and ugly. Believing that most public housing punished the poor for being poor, he endeavored to design attractive and integrated low-cost housing. The project featured simple geometric exteriors and richly textured interiors. The project won awards from Progressive Architecture and Architectural Forum. However, Goldberg’s dream of creating affordable high-quality integrated housing was never realized. According to Goldberg, lenders would not lend to white couples that wanted to live in the predominately African-American area because they were “not considered a good mortgage risk.”
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RIVER CITY II River City II (1983–1986) was a mid-rise housing complex, containing 446 residences. Unlike Marina City, the units did not feature balconies, but did have clerestories on their “inner side” to gain light from the interior atrium. The curvilinear structure featured a private interior passageway called “the River Road,” a very special skylighted atrium modeled after European streetscapes. The project was cast in place concrete, unusual for the time, and the very large and long skylight over River Road was made of glass block held in thin concrete ribbing. The living units were constructed over a four-story base that contained 250,000 square feet of amenities. River City represents the last built iteration of Goldberg’s urban housing projects. From the origins in more complex and larger urban planning, it was built as a stand-alone ahead of its time on the south side of the loop. The River Road atrium is probably Goldberg’s most developed and mature interior space.
RAYMOND HILLIARD HOMES The Raymond Hilliard Homes (also called Center) (1963–1966) was a Chicago Housing Authority complex located on the near south side of Chicago, containing two 16-story round towers for elderly housing and two 18-story curved towers for low-income family housing. Unlike Marina City, which was largely supported by its core, Hilliard Homes was supported by its exterior structure, what Goldberg called a “shell structure.” As Goldberg described it, “an eggshell is more efficient than a tree.” In the core he placed the usual mechanical systems and also a community space, because he felt that this was important for the elderly and also hoped that by designing a complex for both the young and old that the elderly could bring their wisdom experience to the younger groups and the elderly would also benefit from their interaction with the young.
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BRENNEMAN SCHOOL Commissioned by the Chicago Public School District, the educational program for the Brenneman School (1960–1963) was for twenty-two rooms ranging from kindergarten through sixth grade. Goldberg believed that the ideal educational setting for young children should be modeled on the one-room schoolhouses of the past. The roof structures of the classrooms were constructed out of sprayed reinforced concrete, and the administrative offices and gym are post and beam framing. Goldberg wrote: “The school represents my thinking on the entire problem of lower grade schools. Historically, schools have been built so institutionally that children are either freighted by them or conditioned by them to fit into an in institutional society. I firmly believe that there is need for schools which are scaled both in concept and in size to young people who will be using them and who, I hope, will grow as individualists.”
HELSTEIN HOUSE The Helstein House (1950–1951) was one of Goldberg’s last single-family residential designs. Goldberg pulled back the corners of the box, thus accenting the dramatic concrete frame. The exposed formwork of the concrete slabs and columns created a dramatic contrast to the glass walls, steel mullions and casement windows. The ground floor housed storage, a carport, a large sheltered outdoor terrace, and a small foyer, which provided access to the living space above via a dramatic suspended staircase. When viewed from the outside, the staircase appeared to be floating between the two stories. There were three bedrooms on the second story as well as the kitchen and an open plan living and dining area, which is a two-story space rising from the second-story to the third. On the third floor there was a sleeping area bedroom, sitting area, and additional bathroom.
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HIGGINSON HOUSE Bertrand Goldberg received his first commission in 1934, from Harriet Higginson. Described by Goldberg as “an early feminist spirit,� she wanted a house she could clean using a garden hose. The resulting structure was a wood frame covered with wood sheathing, which was covered with a canvas treatment similar to that used for aircraft in those years. The house contained a single room divided by a fireplace that heated the entire space. On one side of the fireplace was a living/dining area and on the other side of the fireplace was a bedroom area. The kitchen and bath were back to back on the far side of the house. The fence concealed a bedroom terrace that could be used for sunbathing, and the house only cost $1200.
WILLIS TOWER In 1969, Sears Roebuck and Company was the largest retailer in the world, with about 350,000 employees. Deciding it needed a central office space for its many employees, the company hired architects Skidmore, Owings and Merrill to design what would become one of the largest office buildings in the world. After breaking ground in 1970, it took three years to complete and used enough concrete to make an eight-lane, five-mile-long highway. The last beam put in place was commemorated by the signatures of 12,000 construction workers, Sears employees, and Chicagoans. In 1988, Sears Roebuck and Company sold and moved out of the building, but the Sears Tower name remained the same. It was renamed Willis Tower in 2009 after the Willis Group Holdings, the global insurance broker who calls the Tower its Midwest home.
SKIDMORE, OWINGS, & MERRILL SOM is an American architectural, urban planning, and engineering firm. It was formed in Chicago in 1936 by Louis Skidmore and Nathaniel Owings; in 1939 they were joined by John O. Merrill.
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THE LAW SCHOOL Since its construction in the 1950s, the University of Chicago Law School has attracted the attention of major public figures. In 1958, Chief Justice Earl Warren laid the cornerstone of the new Law School facilities, and just one year later, Vice President Richard Nixon dedicated the buildings at their completion. The Eero Saarinen complex has been lauded as a crowning achievement of Modern architecture. The building’s long, low classroom and administrative wings are in keeping with the Modernist interest in horizontality and interlocking space.
EERO SAARINEN Eero Saarinen was one of the most prolific, unorthodox, and controversial masters of twentieth century architecture. Although his career was cut short by death at age 51 in 1961, Eero Saarinen was one of the most celebrated architects of his time, both at home and abroad.
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INTERIOR DESIGN & FURNITURE
03 GOLDBERG
GLASS TIGERMAN MCCURRY
YOU LIVE IN MODERNISM INTERIOR DESIGN & FURNITURE Hey again. Hope we haven’t lost you yet. Modernism really is important to us, to you, and to the rest of your city. Modernism also infiltrates the interiors of buildings—kitchens, room divisions, carpets, couches...You name it, and Modernism has touched it. Open floorplan concepts and stainless steel appliances didn’t originate in today’s hippest home magazine. Both elements are the offspring of Modernism’s greatest minds. So, next time you see sleek glass tables, 90˚ angles, neutral color palettes with only a few carefully chosen accent colors, and furniture that may seem “minimalist,” you’re looking at manifestations of the Modern philosophy.
FLORSHEIM KITCHEN Commissioned by his mother-in-law, artist Lillian Florsheim, this kitchen (1949–1952) was a connection between a pair of small townhouses built on a narrow lot designed by architect Andrew Rebori in 1938. With his bridge kitchen, Goldberg united the two houses built around a small courtyard. The kitchen measured only 35’ by 8.5’ and was inspired by Goldberg’s research into railway galley kitchens. It was suspended from two l beams, spanning the courtyard. Metal tension rods held up the floor and a fiberglass screen wall enclosed the structure.
BERTRAND GOLDBERG Goldberg (1913–1997) was an architect with strong interests in individual solutions of unique character and innovation. Mentioned in the architecture section above, Goldberg’s interests and talent also resulted in innovative interior, industrial, and furniture design.
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STANDARD PREFAB BATHROOM This design (1946–1947) was the outgrowth of Goldberg’s wartime experience creating the prefabricated appliances and connections for his Standard Houses. Designed for the Standard Fabrication Corporation, the Standard Prefabricated Bathroom was efficient and affordable. The five-foot long bathroom contained a bathtub, shower, sink and toilet. The sink was designed to pivot over the toilet or bathtub, so that the unit only occupied a small amount of floor space. All the plumbing was included in the appliance. Installation needed only four connections: hot and cold water, drain, and vent. The unit featured a back wall to hang towels, a sink “big enough to bathe a baby,” and a storage cabinet. Unit costs were only $275-$375 (including installation) at the time of sale.
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FURNITURE Goldberg began designing furniture in 1935. He worked independently, creating designs for individual clients. Goldberg designed two pieces of furniture for an exhibit at the 1939 World’s Fair in San Francisco. Most of his innovative furniture was done in the late 1940’s into the mid-1950’s, and include innovative use of materials. This can be seen in his chromed steel chairs, benches of lucite or stone on bicycle spoke legs, tables of glass or wood on special metal legs, and other domestic pieces. In general, the furniture pieces were exploratory and for his own residence or for his other residential projects, such as the Florsheim Residence and Helstein House. None were ever put into series production. One of his revised glass dining tables is at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.
KLING STUDIOS “Kling Studios [1946] was my most comprehensive architectural project,” recalled Glass, “since I did both the building design and interiors,” including everything from the selection of raw building materials, to lighting design, to the design of the artist’s easels. In 1947, Architectural Forum devoted seven pages to the project, noting that Glass “combined imaginative design and relatively inexpensive materials to produce, in record time, one of Chicago’s most attractive, most efficient, most talked about commercial buildings.” The success of the Kling project helped Glass establish his own design firm, Henry P. Glass Associates. The same year, Glass began teaching industrial design at the School of the Chicago Art Institute, where he taught until 1968 while maintaining a full-time design practice.
HENRY P. GLASS Glass (1911–2003), a Chicago resident, is one of the most ingenious inventors and product designers of the twentieth century and has designed furniture, appliances, showroom exhibits, industrial equipment, housewares, modular building systems, hotels, and office buildings.
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NEISSER CONDOMINIUM In April 1997 in Architectural Digest, Paul Golderberger stated, “Tigerman McCurry produced a design of stunning elegance and utter harmony....If the details of this apartment are modern, its soul is classical...modernism feels not like an oppositional force to classicism, but like a partner to it. Traditional, highly articulated space is married to detail of rare precision and restraint, and the result is both exhilarating and serene...The real achievement in this joint venture is an apartment in which evenness is perceived as a calm order that relaxes, not a rigid one that confines...For all its whiteness, the residence is not just surface glitter and gleam, as are so many modern apartments. The classical order gives a resonance and depth that contemporary spaces often lack: Its niches, columns and reveals punctuate and define the space, focusing it on human scale and movement.�
TIGERMAN MCCURRY In 1982 Stanley Tigerman and Margaret McCurry merged their companies. Working from Chicago, the diverse portfolio of Tigerman McCurry Architects includes institutional, educational, and religious facilities, museum installations, mixed-use and affordable housing projects, retail showrooms, restaurants, recreational facilities, and private residences.
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FOUR SEASONS RESIDENCE In the early 2000s, Tigerman McCurry’s clients assembled two adjacent apartments in a multi-use condominium complex designed by KPF at the end of the “magnificent mile.” Connecting the two two-bedroom units was a challenge primarily due to the arbitrary disposition of plumbing risers and mechanical systems and a non-modular structural system. One of their goals was to design a 3,000 s.f. museum-like modern interior that would blend a collection of old and not-so-old master drawings and French Art Deco furniture with new furniture designed in that mode and veneered in macassar ebony. To counteract the potential oppressiveness of low ceilings in an open plan, the ceilings were compartmentalized, subdividing areas by means of “mechanical” beams in the Dining Room. These clad “beams” rest on cabinetry “columns” thus solving both visual and storage issues.
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WATER TOWER RESIDENCE The Water Tower Residence was designed in the early 2000s as a museum setting for a diverse personal collection of old masters, antiquities, and modern crafts. Two separate apartments, totaling 5800 s.f., were combined and gutted. A plan was developed not unlike that of a traditional museum with axial progressions of rooms arranged enfilade to extend spatial perceptions. To gain a perception of greater height, especially necessary in larger rooms, the bronze anodized aluminum window bays were extended vertically. New furnishings that were designed, such as metal or glass lounge, kitchen, or dining tables, needed to join the established eccentric craft tradition and be completely unique in concept.
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MAINBOCHER
HALSTON FROWICK
YOU WEAR MODERNISM FASHION Characterized by clean-lined and elegantly simple forms, post war fashion brought custom fitted styles to all people. Men, do you like that sharp, broad and bold look? Say thanks to mid-century designers who brought you your masculinity. Women, are you excited about that cinched wait and bust emphasis from your newly purchased clothes? Make way for the trend setter from way back when... Or are you a fan of that loose fitting style? The women of 1950s say you’re welcome.
EVENING DRESS Modern high fashion meant extravagance and deep discretion. This satin Evening Dress by Mainbocher is just that. By the 1950s and 1960s, customers enjoyed wearing impeccably made Mainbocher dresses, gowns, coats, and suits designs.
MAINBOCHER Born in Chicago in 1890, Main Rousseau Bocher studied art at the University of Chicago and the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. In 1929 he operated in Paris until 1939. He then moved back to America to continue his Mainbocher fashion label. Main Bocher passed away in 1976.
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AMERICAN RED CROSS AND GIRLSCOUTS UNIFORM With the rise of women and their role in western society, organizations such as Red Cross (above right) and Girlscouts (below right) were moving forward and needing an updated identity during the 1940s. Mainbocher focused on a unified appearance that expressed professionalism and discipline.
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WOMANS NAVAL RESERVE UNIFORM Also known as WAVES (Woman Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service). Mainbocher was the man behind Navy uniform redesign in the1952. Focused on feminity with functinality he created a sharp and sleek, slim fitting jacket and skirt uniform.
PILLBOX HAT Halston achieved great fame after designing the Pillbox hat that Jacqueline Kennedy wore to her husband’s presidential inauguration in 1961. Even though this style of hat has existed long before Halston, his redesign with the pairing of an iconic woman was all it took for this minimalistic hat to return. These hats were made out of wool, velvet, organdy, mink, lynx, or fox fur among many other materials.
HALSTON FROWICK moved to Chicago in 1952 to enroll in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Upon being featured in the Chicago Daily News in 1958 Frowick opned his first hat shop. In his later years Frowick moved onto designing full outfits. Halston passed away in 1990.
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05 CHICAGO
THOMAS A. DORSEY KANYE WEST
YOU HEAR MODERNISM MUSIC What is the musical equivalent of mid-century modern design? Experimental jazz, blues, gospel, rock, hip-hop, all the way to house music. Next time you hear that synthesizer, rich gospel-soul, or guitar with horn section you’re hearing the early beginnings of mid-century music. Do you like the sample in your new favorite hip-hop track? It is most likely influenced by yours truly. Into the jazz scene? Miles Davis, Moondog, and even Mort Garson are perfect for bringing mid-century to your ears.
CHICAGO Chicago is one of the longest-running and most successful rock groups and a leader in the world’s best-selling groups of all time. Chicago has sold more than 100 million records. Chicago helped introduce the horn section into the rock and pop-rock scene. Their new and strong sound carved the path for others to follow.
CHICAGO Formed in 1967 the group was originally named The Chicago Transit Authority only to be shortened to Chicago in later years. They described themselves as a “rock and roll band with horns” and began as a politically charged, sometimes experimental, rock band. In later years they moved to a predominantly softer sound.
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THOMAS A. DORSEY Known as the “father of black gospel music,” Dorsey’s songs, at one time, were known as “Dorseys.” Gospel music combines Christian praise with jazz and blues rhythms. Dorsey composed many famous songs. Two you may have heard are Take My Hand, Precious Lord and Peace in the Valley.
THOMAS A. DORSEY Dorsey (1899–1993) was raised by Christian parents and was well known for his blues, jazz, and gospel. Dorsey became the music director at Pilgram Baptist Church in Chicago. Dorsey studied at the Chicago College of Composition and Arranging and later formed the Dorsey House of Music in 1932 while becoming the first independent pusblisher of black gospel music.
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TAKE MY HAND, PRECIOUS LORD Precious Lord, take my hand Lead me on, let me stand I’m tired, I’m weak, I’m worn Through the storm, through the night Lead me on to the light Take my hand, precious Lord, lead me home When my way grows drear precious Lord linger near When my light is almost gone Hear my cry, hear my call Hold my hand lest I fall Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home When the darkness appears and the night draws near And the day is past and gone At the river I stand Guide my feet, hold my hand Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home Precious Lord, take my hand Lead me on, let me stand I’m tired, i’m weak, i’m lone Through the storm, through the night Lead me on to the light Take me on to the light Take my hand precious Lord, lead me home.
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PEACE IN THE VALLEY I am tired and weary, but I must toil on Till the Lord comes to call me away, Where the morning is bright and the Lamb is the light, And the night is as fair as the day. There’ll be peace in the valley for me someway, There’ll be peace in the valley for me I pray no more sorrow and sadness or trouble will be, There’ll be peace in the valley for me. There the flowers will be blooking, The grass will be green, And the skies will be clear and serene, The sun ever shines, giving one endless beam And no clouds there will ever be seen. There the bear will be gentle, the world will be tame, And the lion will lay down by the lamb, The host from the wild will be lead by a Child, I’ll be changed form the creature I am. No headaches or heartaches or misunderstands, No confusion or troubles won’t be No frowns to defile, just a big endless smile There’ll be peace and contentment for me.
KANYE WEST At first glance, Modernism and Kanye West seem to have little in common. However, his latest album Yeezus, is an intentional push for minimalism and modernism. Yeezus drew a mixed reaction from his fanbase due to its experimental departure from his earlier work. Though primarily a hip-hop artist, West integrates the sounds of industrial music, acid, and drill music (sounds of Chicago) to create something much harsher and grittier than any of his previous work.
KANYE WEST West was born in Atlanta in 1977. He left college to pursue a music career, producing tracks for Jay-Z while polishing his demo. He released The College Dropout in 2004. It sold 2.6 million copies and won Best Rap Album. His follow-up releases have been equally successful and West has become famous for his outrageous and entertaining statements.
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GEORGE WASHINGTON FERRIS JR.
MARTIN COOPER PAUL AND JOSEPH GALVIN
YOU USE MODERNISM INNOVATION You know that thing—a phone—that you probably knocked off your bed this morning? Yeah, the thing that caused a major heart attack as you heard it hit the floor. What would you say if I told you that your phone was made by a Modernist? The innovative Modernist strived to create, improve, and reshape his or her environment with the aid of scientific knowledge, technology, and practical experimentation. Little did they know how much their innovations would rock their worlds and how subsequent improvements would be made upon them. So go ahead and turn the page and discover what other Modernist innovations by Chicagoans shaped the world.
THE FERRIS WHEEL Ferris achieved national celebrity and enduring fame for his Modernist conception, design, and building of the Great Ferris Wheel that became the signature attraction of the World’s Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893. The Wheel was built using both solid and hollow segments of steel. Modernists often utilized industrial materials. It was finished in 1893, rising 264 feet above the Midway, and it was 825 feet in circumference. It weighed more than 2.6 million pounds, had thirty–six cars, each with a capacity to hold sixty passengers. It was powered by two 1,000-horsepower steam engines, and was illuminated by more than 3,000 electric lights.
GEORGE WASHINGTON GALE FERRIS JR. Ferris (1864-1896), born in Galesburg, Illinois moved his family to Nevada in 1864 where they established a ranch. In 1873 he enrolled at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. There he studied civil engineering and received his degree in 1881. Later he would move to Chicago for a short time to design and complete the Ferris Wheel.
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THE FIRST CELL PHONE Modernist innovators strived to improve their environment through new inventions that would drive humanity forward, and that is just what Martin Cooper accomplished. While he was a project manager at Motorola in 1973, Cooper set up a base station in New York with the first working prototype of a cellular telephone, the Motorola Dyna-Tac—a modern invention that would sweep the world by storm. After some initial testing in Washington, Mr. Cooper and Motorola took the phone technology to New York to show the public. The first cell phone weighed 2.5 pounds, stood at 9” x 5” x 1.75” inches, had a talk time of only 35 minutes, and had a recharge time of 10 hours.
MARTIN COOPER Martin grew up in Chicago and earned a degree in electrical engineering at the Illinois Institute of Technology. After four years in the navy serving on destroyers and a submarine, he worked for a year at a telecommunications company. He was then hired by Motorola in 1954 and continues to work in the realm of technology.
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MOTOROLA Motorola created some of the most Modern innovations of the 20th century—innovations that would last for a life time and are still in use today. In 1928, Paul and his brother Joseph purchased the bankrupt Stewart battery Company’s battery eliminator plans and manufacturing equipment at a auction for $750. With the new equipment and space, Galvin Manufacturing Corporation set up shop on west Harrison Street, Chicago. The company had only $565 in their working capital and only five employees. After many years of success, the company would be re-branded “Motorola.”
PAUL GALVIN Galvin (1895-1959) was an electronics business pioneer and co-founder of Motorola, Inc. He was born in Harvard, Illinois, went on to establish the Motorola company, and sat as a chair member up until his death at the age of 64. He is best known for creating the company and most of its early inventions.
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TWO-WAY RADIO Donald Mitchell, who worked for Motorola, helped develop a prototype of a handheld portable two-way radio that would “follow men into combat.” However, the U.S Army Signal Corps was not interested and considered it a stopgap radio because of its limited range of about only one mile. However, Mitchell continued to improve the design, giving it a more Modern “less is more” design that allowed someone to be able to operate it with one hand. He and his team succeeded in developing a two way AM radio that was tuned using simple sets of crystals for transmitting and receiving; it was battery-powered and weighed just five pounds. Finished in 1940, it was called the Handie-Talkie SCR536 portable two-way radio, which became a World War II icon.
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DASHBOARD RADIO With a Modern design reflecting the principle, “form follows function,” and keeping with their “less is more” ideals, Galvin was able to create a radio that could fit any model vehicle, and was designed with a simplistic control system that anyone could operate. Galvin was able to demonstrate a working model of the radio at the June, 1930 Radio Manufacturers Association convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Afterward he was able to bring in enough orders to keep the company afloat and to pursue new Modern innovations.
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THANKS FOR TAKING THE TOUR Here we are at the end of your trip through Chicago. With your eyes adjusted and your brain informed, we hope the city has been transformed for you. Modernism is the core of almost all your daily routines and environments. If there is anything we want you to take away from this, it is ‘LESS IS MORE’ and ‘FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION.’ If you think it’s contemporary, take a second look. If you think it’s too complicated, take charge and simplify it. After all, you are a Modernist. Now go out and be simple, ‘YAAMIT.’
CREDITS BEN BOERMA
MEREDITH ‘EDITH’ LYONS
Expert typesetting; keeping a level head; architecture section; fits of much needed laughter; overall design; master file holder
ANNA MCABEE
Goal setter; innovation and design sections; section break designs; silent genius; detail manager
RACHEL GARRISON
146 CREDITS
Meeting coordinator; postive working attitude; typesetting; fashion and music sections; overall design; food manager
Overall design; the large arts section; grid guru; general sass master; cover design
C
Credits Southbound To Modernism
Exit
SOURCES
12-13
IMAGES ARTIST BIO TEXT
14-15
IMAGES ARTIST BIO TEXT
16-17
IMAGES ARTIST BIO TEXT
18-19
IMAGES ARTIST BIO TEXT
20-23
IMAGES
loopchicago.com biography.com cityofchicago.org
staticflickr.com dwr.com cityofchicago.org; travelandleisure.com
theculturetrip.com harrybertoia.org biography.com
espionart.wordpress.com theartstory.org tate.org
artblart.com; danzigergallery.com; aesthetic.gregcookland.com
ARTIST BIO amazon.com TEXT
24-27
IMAGES ARTIST BIO TEXT
29-31
IMAGES ARTIST BIO TEXT
148 SOURCES
nytimes.com; danzigergallery.com; lensculture.com
pictify.saatchigallery.com; clevelandart.org, museaum.state.il.us pictify.saatchigallery.com the-athenaeum.org; museum.state.il.us
flickr.com; chicagomodern.org artfinding.com; chicagomodern.org flickr.com; chicagomodern.org
32-35
IMAGES ARTIST BIO TEXT
36-37
IMAGES ARTIST BIO TEXT
38-39
42-43
44-45
artic.edu facebook.com
georgesthriller.blogspot.org biography.com buchholtzsidoramericanstudies.wikispaces.com
IMAGES
hubpages.com
ARTIST BIO
biography.com
TEXT
40-41
artgallerypaintedfaces.com; garland.files.wordpress.com; the culture trip.com
wh.agh.edu.pl
IMAGES
chicagofilmarchives.org
ARTIST BIO
chicagofilmarchives.org
TEXT
chicagofilmarchives.org
IMAGES
cooper black typeface
ARTIST BIO
typedia.com
TEXT
typedia.com
IMAGES
umbra typeface
ARTIST BIO
luc.devroye.org
TEXT
luc.devroye.org
46-47
48-49
50-51
56-57
58
IMAGES ARTIST BIO
luc.devroye.org
TEXT
lucdevroye.org
IMAGES
60
150
spd.org
ARTIST BIO
theparisreview.org
TEXT
theparisreview.org
IMAGES
collectorsweekly.com; icollector.com; qwkdog.com
ARTIST BIO
qwkdog.com; nytimes.com
TEXT
nytimes.com; qwkdog.com
IMAGES
blueprintchicago.org
ARTIST BIO
miessociety.org
TEXT
miessociety.org
IMAGES TEXT
59
fontsinuse.com; myfonts.com
IMAGES
studyblue.com miessociety.org
infiniteinterior.tumblr.com; arch.iit.edu
TEXT
miessociety.org
IMAGES
panoramio.com
TEXT
miessociety.org
61
IMAGES TEXT
62
64
65
IMAGES
blueprintchicago.org miessociety.org
IMAGES
cgarchitect.com
TEXT
miessociety.org
IMAGES
IMAGES TEXT
67
miessociety.org
TEXT
TEXT
66
miessociety.org
IMAGES commondatastorage.googleapis.com TEXT
63
wikipedia.org
IMAGES TEXT
wikipedia.org miessociety.org
flickr.com miessociety.org
wikipedia.org miessociety.org
68
IMAGES TEXT
69
IMAGES TEXT
70-71
IMAGES ARTIST BIO TEXT
72-73
76
IMAGES
miessociety.org
artic.edu chicagobauhausbeyond.org books.google.com (Yesterday’s Tomorrow)
wikipedia.org
TEXT
bertrandgoldberg.org
IMAGES
IMAGES
IMAGES TEXT
152 SOURCES
wbez.org
bertrandgoldberg.org
TEXT
78
miessociety.org
ARTIST BIO
TEXT
77
picssr.com
aiga.org; petrolicious.com; tumblr.austinkleon.com; amazon.com; keenan1898. wordpress.com; thisisdisplay.tumblr.com designishistory.com; designishistory.com
francotettamanti.com; luc.devroye.org; andrewkeir.com; artofthetitle.com; aiga.org; 007james.com designishistory.com; designishistory.com
library.rit.edu; printmag.com; library.rit.edu; aiga.org; library.rit.edu designishistory.com; designishistory.com
79
IMAGES TEXT
82
IMAGES TEXT
83
84
85
IMAGES
pinterest.com bertrandgoldberg.org
wikipedia.org bertrandgoldberg.org
IMAGES
bertrandgoldberg.org
TEXT
bertrandgoldberg.org
IMAGES
IMAGES TEXT
87
designishistory.com; eamesoffice.com
TEXT
TEXT
86
pinterest.com; design-is-fine.org; socks-studio.com; theredlist.com; nvdyv.tumblr. com; itsnicethat.com
IMAGES TEXT
midcenturymundane.wordpress.com; coroflot.com bertrandgoldberg.org
flickr.com bertrandgoldberg.org
atalierbranco.tumblr.com; bertrandgoldberg.org bertrandgoldberg.org
88
89
90-91
IMAGES
bertrandgoldberg.org
TEXT
bertrandgoldberg.org
IMAGES
bertrandgoldberg.org
TEXT
bertrandgoldberg.org
IMAGES ARTIST BIO TEXT
92-93
IMAGES ARTIST BIO TEXT
98-99
100
101
154 ARCHITECTURE
willistower.com wikipedia.org willistower.com
wikipedia.org eerosaarinen.net architecture.uchicago.edu
IMAGES
bertrandgoldberg.org
ARTIST BIO
bertrandgoldberg.org
TEXT
bertrandgoldberg.org
IMAGES
bertrandgoldberg.org
TEXT
bertrandgoldberg.org
IMAGES
bertrandgoldberg.org
TEXT
bertrandgoldberg.org
102-103
IMAGES
architechgallery.com
ARTIST BIO
architechgallery.com
TEXT
104-105
jeffreyhead.net
IMAGES
tigerman-mccurry.com
ARTIST BIO
tigerman-mccurry.com
TEXT
tigerman-mccurry.com
IMAGES
tigerman-mccurry.com
TEXT
tigerman-mccurry.com
IMAGES
tigerman-mccurry.com
TEXT
tigerman-mccurry.com
106
107
IMAGES
112-113
ARTIST BIO TEXT
http://theredlist.com https://en.wikipedia.org https://www.pinterest.com ; https://en.wikipedia.org
114-115
IMAGES
116-117
IMAGES s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com ; www.pinterest.com TEXT
http://theredlist.com
https://www.pinterest.com ; https://en.wikipedia.org ; coutureallure.blogspot.com
118-119
IMAGES
ARTIST BIO TEXT
124-125
IMAGES
ARTIST BIO
www.elle.vn en.wikipedia.org ; www.biography.com www.nytimes.com ; en.wikipedia.org
soundsandstories.org en.wikipedia.org ; chicagotheband.com
TEXT en.wikipedia.org
126-127
IMAGES
ARTIST BIO TEXT
130-131
IMAGES
musicrising.tulane.edu ; georgiamusic.org en.wikipedia.org ; blackartblog.blackartdepot.com en.wikipedia.org
thewaveuca.files.wordpress.com
ARTIST BIO en.wikipedia.org ; www.biography.com TEXT en.wikipedia.org ; www.biography.com
136-137
architecture.org
ARTIST BIO
anb.org
TEXT
anb.org
138-139
IMAGES
weird.com
ARTIST BIO
engology.com
TEXT
engology.com
140-141
156 SOURCES
IMAGES
IMAGES
pearson4loyalty.com
ARTIST BIO
illinoisreview.typepad.com
TEXT
illinoisreview.typepad.com
142-143
IMAGES
metalfloss.com; 78578.mrsite.com; wisegeek.com
ARTIST BIO
illinoisreview.typepad.com
TEXT
illinoisreview.typepad.com