Aug

We’d like to welcome the newest collections fellow to our team, Kevin Adkisson. Kevin received his undergraduate degree in Architecture from Yale University and a Master of Arts degree from the Winterthur Program in American Material Culture. He has had a number of interesting internships and job experiences along the way, including one at the Royal Institute of British Architects in London, the Yale University Art Gallery, and at Robert A. M. Stern Architects in New York.

Kevin spent his first two weeks touring the buildings and outdoor spaces on campus with his colleagues. He brings vitality and enthusiasm to our team and we are looking forward to seeing what projects he sinks his teeth into while here. Oh, and he will definitely be contributing to the blog in the VERY near future! Welcome, Kevin!

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collections fellow/Winterthur/Yale University

Aug

Summer Break in the Archives

Giuliano working with the slide collections.

Reviewing primary source material in the Archives.

Volunteering in the Archives was a great experience! As a Cranbrook grad, it was really interesting seeing how things used to be at my old school. It was especially fun seeing photos from familiar events like the fifth grade December Program, taken decades before my own class’ production. There were also of course some less familiar things, like pictures of Brookside students at the Art with goats. Personally I think Cranbrook should consider bringing that back, but maybe that’s just because I’m a fan of goats. That was one of several things I enjoyed seeing, as were photos of Amelia Earhart and even… my dad’s yearbook! All in all, it made for a great three weeks. My thanks to all the great people I worked with!

Brookside School pet show, 1936.

– Giuliano Stefanutti, CKU ’15

Editor’s Note: We are very grateful for the work Giuliano completed when he was here. He processed slide collections, sorted historic photographs, and inventoried a large audio-visual collection. We wish him well as he heads back to college!

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Author: Giuliano Stefanutti/Brookside School/Cranbrook School/internship/Summer

Aug

Automobiles and Art?

Did you know that Ford Motor Company supported and encouraged the artistic activities of its employees, sponsored traveling art exhibitions, and published contemporary American art in its company magazines? I had no idea until I found a couple of copies of Ford Times magazine and a Lincoln-Mercury Times in one of our collections.

“Fish,” Big Spring, Michigan. Lincoln-Mercury Times, May-June 1956. Painting by Bill Moss. Moss was a graduate of the Academy of Art and painted over 300 works for Ford Times from 1949-1958.

Much of the auto company’s support and use of artworks began under Arthur Townsend Lougee, who served as the Executive Editor and Art Director of Ford Times magazine, as well as the Lincoln-Mercury Times, from 1946-1961. During his tenure, Lougee commissioned thousands of articles on America and Americana, which were illustrated with watercolors by regional Ford artists who, for the most part, painted local motifs. Ford’s policy was to leave the subject matter up to the discretion of the artist.

“Lake Superior’s Eastern Shore.” Lincoln-Mercury Times, May-June 1956. Painting by Robert Bannister

A small company magazine at 4 x 6 inches, each issue of the monthly Ford Times consisted of several stories about vacation destination spots and those of historical interest, as well as promotional information about contemporary Ford products. Watercolor paintings first appeared as cover art in the June 1946 issue, and on the interior in September 1947.

“Fruita,” Bryce Canyon National Park. Ford Times, Sep 1959. Painting by V. Douglas Snow.

Lougee also assembled the Ford Times Collection of American Art, a collection of over 7,000 of the paintings commissioned for the Ford publications. Nearly 700 American painters were represented in the collection. The Ford Times art exhibition program was established in 1954 and made available to schools and universities, libraries, and art organizations across the country. Exhibitions included American Byways (1953), Artists and Fishermen (1955), Faculty Artists (1962), Variety No. 8 (1962), and Travel in Mexico (1969). Under the auspices of the United States Information Agency, international exhibitions traveled to countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East as a way of promoting good will and friendship among nations.

Lincoln-Mercury Times, May-June 1956

Thanks to the collection of Jack Keijo Steele, a Cranbrook Academy of Art alum, clay modeler in the Ford Styling Office, and lifelong painter, we are able to tell this interesting story of Ford’s contributions to art in this country.

– Leslie S. Edwards, Head Archivist

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Author: Leslie S. Edwards/Bill Moss/Cranbrook Academy of Art/Cranbrook Archives/Ford Motor Company/Ford Styling Office/Ford Times/Jack Keijo Steele

Aug

Paris Calls: Cranbrook and Marcel Duchamp

Occasionally we post blogs that we hope will illustrate and educate about the work that we do here, both as archivists and registrars. One of my greatest pleasures is answering interesting research queries, so I thought I would share one from today.

I received a phone call from Paul B. Franklin, an independent art historian and one of the world’s experts on Marcel Duchamp. Born in Detroit, he received his doctorate from Harvard where his dissertation was on Duchamp. He now lives in Paris, where he edits the journal “Étant donné Marcel Duchamp.”

Exhibition Announcement Card, 1959. Courtesy Cranbrook Archives.

Today, Paul was seeking clarification about the exhibition “Art and the Found Object” (which was held here at Cranbrook in April 1959 in what was then known as the Galleries of Cranbrook Academy of Art) for his catalogue essay in conjunction with the upcoming exhibition “”Marcel Duchamp: Porte-bouteilles” to be held in Paris in the fall.

News clipping, Detroit News, 9 Apr 1959. Courtesy Cranbrook Archives.

In an email exchange with Paul, he told me the Paris exhibition “is centered on the version of “Bottle Rack” that Duchamp exhibited in “Art and the Found Object” and which Robert Rauschenberg purchased for a mere three dollars.” (Rauschenberg’s work “Odalisque/Odalisk” was also in the exhibition.) “Duchamp signed his readymade for Rauschenberg in March 1960, and Rauschenberg retained possession of it his entire life.”

What a great story! And the fact that we had materials in the collections of Cranbrook Archives to add to the story is even better. Thanks, Paul, for allowing me to share this story with our readers.

– Leslie S. Edwards, Head Archivist