Eliel Saarinen – Cranbrook School for Boys, Aerial Perspective – 1926

Eliel Saarinen Cranbrook School for Boys, Aerial Perspective 1926 Born 1873. Rantasalmi. Finland; Cranbrook. Resident Architect. 1925-1950; Cranbrook Academy of Art (CAA). President. 1932- 1946; CAA Director of Department of Architecture and Urban Design. 1946-1950; died 1950. Bloomfield Hills. Michigan Pencil on drawing board 26 1/4 x 29 1/2 inches Gift of Cranbrook School CAM 1954.5 This exquisite drawing of the Cranbrook School Quadrangle captures in delightful detail Eliel Saarinen's almost completed plan for the new boys' boarding school complex. Saarinen ha d given George Booth a simple footprint for the school buildings in the spring of 1925 and returned to the project in the fall eager to develop his designs for the high school. By the time he made this drawing Saarinen had fully visualized the final arrangement of the buildings. The working ideas here include a raised track around the football oval (the track was later lowered to ...

Arthur Nevill Kirk – Triptych

Arthur Nevill Kirk Triptych 1940, or earlier Born 1881. Lewes. Sussex. England: Cranbrook School. Instructor,1927-1929: Cranbrook Academy of Art. Director of Silver Shop. 1929-1933: died 1958. Birmingham. Michigan Silver and enamel 9 5/8 x 6 x 3 inches Gift of George Gough Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth through The Cranbrook Foundation CAM 1940.69 Arthur Nevill Kirk was a renowned metalworking instructor at the Central School of Arts a nd Craftsin London when George Booth invited him to relocate to Detroit in 1927. Kirk assumed a postion at the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts and was commissioned to produce an ecclesiastical plate for ChristChurchCranbrook. The following year, Kirk moved his family to Cranbrook, where he turned out a variety of works while overseeing the Silver Shop associated with the early Academy of Art operations. This triptych in gold and silver and translucent enamels was executed in 1940while Kirk taught metalwork ...

Doris Lee – Fisherman’s Wife

Doris Lee Fisherman's Wife, 1945 Born 1905, Aledo. lllinois; died 1983. Clearwater, Florida Oil on canvas 221/2 x 281/2 inches Gift of George Gough Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth through The Cranbrook Foundation CAM 1945.27 Doris Lee was a popular American artist from the 1930s to the 1950s. Although she is sometimes taken for a folk artist because of the seemingly naive style, Lee studied painting at the Kansas City Art Institute, in Paris with various artists, including Cubist André Lhote, and at the California School of Fine Arts. Early in her career, her paintings were Regionalist in style and subject but in the 1940s her style shifted to flattened, simplified forms. Fisherman's Wife appears deceptively simple at first glance, but closer scrutiny reveals a refined use of shape and pattern with bright, harmonious colors. The smiling wife on her porch welcomes the viewer, as well as her husband, into ...

Jack Keijo Steele

The War Collection '1' 1942-1945 Robert T. Barbee (CAA MFA, Department of Painting. 1951) William A. Bostick (CAA Student, Department of Painting, 1938) Robert Collins (CAA MFA. Department of Painting. 1948) John Cornish (CAA Student. Department of Painting, 1936) David Fredenthal (CAA Student. Department of Painting. 1936-1937) Edward Frederic James (CAA Student, Department of Painting. 1938-1939) David A. Mitchell (CAA MFA, Department of Painting. 1947) Jack Keijo Steele (CAA Student. Department of Painting, 1940-1945) William K. Whitney (CAA MFA. Department of Painting, 1958) Represented by: Jack Keijo Steele, Soldiers in New Guinea, 1944 Born 1919. Ironwood. Michigan; Cranbrook Academy of Art (CAA). Student. Department of Painting. 1940-1945; died 2003. Garden City, Michigan Watercolor on illustration board 31 3/4 x 44 3/4 inches Gift of the Artist CAM 1994.55 In 1942, the U. S. Navy commissioned the first artists to record the unfolding events of World War II. The Marine Corps ...

Emile Lenoble – Vase

Emile Lenoble Vase, 1928, or earlier Born 1875. Paris. France: died 1939. Choisy le Roi. France Stoneware 10 l/4 x 8 l/4 (diameter) inches Gift of George Gough Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth CAM 1929.134 Emile Lenoble studied at the Écoledes Arts Decoratifs in Paris before working for his fatherin-law, the famed late nineteenth-century French ceramist, Ernest Chaplet. Through experimentation, Chaplet's guidance, a nd exposure to Pre-Columbian, Asian a nd Greek ceramics at various exhibitions, Lenoble developed a personalized vocabulary of expression. Traditional shapes decora ted with precise geometric incisions characterize his work and reflect the influence of ancient cultures on his vessels. Lenoble often complemented his stylized and abstracted patterns with white, beige and black glazes, reinforcing his ties to ceramists of antiquity while also appealing to graphic Art Deco sensibilities. Notable Art Deco designers such as Jacques-Emile Ruhlmann recognized Lenoble's talent and often commissioned pottery from him. George ...

Paul Manship – Pair of Candelabra (Venus and Vulcan and Adam and Eve)

Paul Manship Pair of Candelabra (Venus and Vulcan and Adam and Eve), 1916 Born 1886. St. Paul. Minnesota: died 1966. St.Paul. Minnesota Foundry: Roman Bronze Works. Brooklyn. New York Bronze Each candelabrum: 58 l/2 x 12 l/2 x 12 l /2 inches Gift of George Gough Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth CAM 1942.24 and 1942.25 At the age of twenty-three, PaulHoward Manship became the youngest sculptor ever to receive the prestigious Prix de Rome fellowship. While in Europe, he acquired a love of Classical and Renaissance art and became fascinated with Greek and Roman mythology. After returning to the UnitedStates, he created several works for his Manhattan home in 1916, including the original pair of these candelabra in gilt-bronze. Adam and Eve and Venus and Vulcan, which personify Manship's love of the juxtaposition of human and animal forms, were exhibited at the Detroit Societyfor Arts and Crafts in 1919. The ...

Eero Saarinen and Charles Eames – Side Chair

Side Chair, 1949, for the “Organic Design in Hume Furnishings" Competition, The Museum of Mildew Art exhibited 1941 , Saarinen: Born 1910. Kirkkonummi. Finland: Cranbrook Academy of Art instructor. 1939—1942; died 1961. Bloomfield Hills. Michigan ' Eames: Born 1907. St. Louis. Missouri; Cranbrook Academy of Art (CAA) Student. Architecture, 1938—1939; CAA Instructor of Design. 1939-1941; died 1978. St. Louis. Missouri Manufacturers: Haskelite Corporation. Chicago (plywood shells); Marli Ehrman. Germany (upholstery designer); Heywood-Wakefield Company. Gardner. Massachusetts (upholsterer) Molded plywood shell with Honduras mahogany veneers. maple legs and original wool upholstery 32 HZ x 18 x 18 inches Gift of Susan Saarinen with assistance from the Imerman Acquisition Fund CAM 2001.1 Eero Saarinen and Charles Eames's Side Chair was first exhibited at New York's Museum of Modern Art in the 1941 "Organic Design in Home Furnishings" competition, an exhibition often regarded as the formal beginning of mid-century American modernism. Designers who were ...

Ralph Rapson – Rocking Chair, 1940

Ralph Rapson [Designer] Rocking Chair, 1940, for the “Organic Design in Home Furnishings” Competition, The Museum of Modern Art, exhibited 1941 Born 1914. Alma. Michigan: Cranbrook Academy of Art. Student. Department of Architecture and City Planning, 1938—1940 Painted wood frame with replacement linen webbing 31 3/4 x 28 3/4 x 381/2 inches Gift of the Designer CAM 1990.28 Although Ralph Rapson's right arm was amputated in infancy because of a deformity, he fulfilled his dreams of becoming a draughtsman and architect. Between 1938 and 1942, Rapson pursued graduate studies at Cranbrook Academy of Art and worked as a designer in Eliel and Eero Saarinen’s private architectural practice. Afterwards, as a principal in his own firm, Rapson established himself as a prominent mid— century modernist architect and also taught at the Illinois Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before assuming leadership of the School of Architecture and Landscape ...

Harry Bertoia – Coffee and Tea Service – 1940

Harry Bertoia Coffee and Tea Service, 1940 Born 1915. San Lorenzo. Udine. italy: Cranbrook Academy of Art (CAA). Student. Silver and Metalsmithing. 1937: CAA Manager and instructor in the Metalcratt Shop. 1937-1943; CAA instructor of Graphic Art. 1942-1943; died 1978. Barto. Pennsylvania Silver with cherry handles 8 x151/2 x 15 1/2 inches (overall) Gift of Mrs. Joan R. Graham CAM 1986.34.A through .F Harry Bertoia had a prolific and varied career ranging from furniture design to sculpture to graphic design. However different in form, with each medium Bertoia expressed his innovative and unique artistic sensibilities. His design for this Coffee and Tea Service captures the streamlining trends in 19305 and 19405 design— a time when everything from vacuum cleaners to car fenders was subject to a curvilinear aesthetic. The form of Bertoia's Coffee and Tea Service suggests the nature of the liquids each object was meant to contain, while the ...

Maija Grotell – Vase – Green – 1942

Maija Grotell Vase, circa 1942 Born 1899. Helsinki, Finland; Cranbrook Academy of Art. Head, Department of Ceramics. 1938—1966: died 1973. Pontiac. Michigan Stoneware 20 x 11 1/8 (diameter) inches Gift of Mrs. Benjamin Micou in memory of Maija Grotell CAM 1978.16 As early as 1927, Maija Grotell was attuned to contemporary ideas of decorating vessels with the linear and geometric combinations of Art Deco motifs. She worked primarily with strong cylindrical and spherical forms, often leaving the clay unglazed, textured only with fingers or tools. Frequently, Grotell made massive vessels when cleaning up the studio so as not to waste scrap clay, and later became well-known for using the large surfaces for glaze experimentation. While embracing simplicity of form, this immense vase also exemplifies Grotell's fascination with the depth of layers and patterns she found in nature. Hand-thrown on a footoperated wheel, the vase was textured with Albany slip relief ...