14

Jun

From the Archives: Teaching and Exhibiting Painting at Cranbrook, 1930-1970

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From the Archives: Teaching and Exhibiting Painting at Cranbrook, 1930-1970, photograph courtesy of Justine Tobiasz.

With the opening of the summer exhibition season at the Cranbrook Art Museum, the campus is filled with opportunities to learn about art, design, and history.  This also marks the first of a regular series of exhibitions that explore the unplumbed depths of Cranbrook’s archival holdings.  From the Archives: Teaching and Exhibiting Painting at Cranbrook, 1930-1970 highlights the efforts of Cranbrook teachers and curators and explores the work they did promoting painting at Cranbrook at the mid-century mark.  Curated by Head Archivist Leslie S. Edwards, the show uncovers untold accounts about the moments and figures that populate Cranbrook’s storied painting history.   From the Archives: Teaching and Exhibiting Painting at Cranbrook, 1930-1970 will be on view in the Cranbrook Art Museum from June 14 to September 29, 2013, so be sure to check it out!

[Ed. note: if you missed the Archives exhibition in person, don’t worry – it lives forever on the internet! Check out the Archives online exhibition, From the Archives: Teaching and Exhibiting Painting at Cranbrook, 1930-1970.]

13 years ago Short URL

Exhibitions

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31

May

From an Intern’s Eyes: Old Drama and Timeless Art

In the second week of May, I began my first day at the Cranbrook Archives for my Senior May Project, a program ran by the Cranbrook Upper School to send anxious fourth quarter seniors off campus for internships and adventures.  And now, after two weeks of dealing with numerous dusty, yellowed papers (and one suspicious wooden box featuring some dead bugs and cobwebs) my initial excitement only grew.

One of my first projects here was to research the tenure of past Academy of Art faculty and staff members between the years of 1932-1976, and to make a comprehensive spreadsheet on the matter. That project led me to read through old faculty files comprised of payroll information (“how did people survive on $200 a month!” I thought to myself), retirement records, old correspondence­—I even came across the first telegram I had ever seen. I wondered, from time to time: “Did the secretary who typed this letter up ever think that a teenaged intern from China would one day behold this work and marvel at its antiquity?”

The first telegram I've ever seen. 1943, Cranbrook Archives.

The first telegram I’ve ever seen. 1943, Cranbrook Art Museum Exhibition Records, Cranbrook Archives.

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Archives/Ceramics/collections/Cranbrook Academy of Art/Cranbrook Art Museum/Cranbrook School/Exhibitions

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29

May

Kitchen Sink Caption Contest: What is Bud West Thinking?

Welcome to the first ever Kitchen Sink caption contest!  This historic photograph features Bud West, a Cranbrook Academy of Art graduate and painting instructor at Kingswood, viewing an exhibition of David Berger’s work mounted at Kingswood in 1957.   As historians, we would never dare to presume what he’s thinking – which just means that we need you to do it for us!  Leave us your entries in the comments, and the winning caption (chosen by an extraordinarily scientific system of “whatever makes us laugh the most”) might just make it into a future Photo Friday post!*

And if you’re interested in painting at Cranbrook in the mid-century period, be sure to visit Cranbrook Art Museum to see the upcoming exhibition What to Paint and Why: Modern Painters at Cranbrook, 1936-1974.  Curated by Chad Alligood, the art museum’s 2012-2013 Jeanne and Ralph Graham Collections Fellow, the exhibition opens June 14.

Bud West

* Be sure to include a name (real or fake) that we can use to identify your entry!

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Images

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21

Mar

Cranbrook and the Car, Part 1: The Aristocrat of Small Cars

In its 100-year history, Cranbrook has been known for producing artists, designers, scholars, athletes, and leaders.  But cars?  An upcoming exhibition mounted by the Center for Collections and Research (that’s us!) at the Cranbrook Art Museum will explore the relationship between Cranbrook and the automobile industry. Called A Driving Force: Cranbrook and the Car, it will highlight the history of Cranbrook through the lens of the automobile, detailing the ways that members of Cranbrook’s community have innovated and influenced the auto industry for the past 100 years.  You can learn more about the exhibition at Cranbrook Art Museum’s website here.

As we prepare to open A Driving Force: Cranbrook and the Car on June 12, we’ll be writing up occasional posts about the exhibition, highlighting bits and pieces of our research and providing glimpses into the down-and-dirty world of museum exhibiting.   And we’re going to kick it all off with the story of James Scripps Booth and the Scripps-Booth Company.

James Scripps Booth (behind the wheel) with brother Warren Scripps Booth in a Scripps-Booth 4-cylinder Model C at Tower Garage at Cranbrook House. Their father George Gough Booth stands next to the car, partially hidden by the windshield. Circa 1917, Cranbrook Archives.

James Scripps Booth (behind the wheel) with brother Warren Scripps Booth in a Scripps-Booth 4-cylinder Model C at Tower Garage at Cranbrook House. Their father George Gough Booth stands next to the car, partially hidden by the windshield. Circa 1917, Cranbrook Archives.

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Archives/Cranbrook Art Museum/Cranbrook House/Exhibitions

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