Maija Grotell – Vase – 1943

Maija Grotell Vase, 1943, or earlier Born 1899. Helsinki, Finland: Cranbrook Academy of Art. Head. Department of Ceramics. 1938-1966; died 1973. Pontiac, Michigan Platinum design on unglazed blue stoneware 13 1/2 x 14 (diameter) inches Gift of George Gough Booth and Ellen Scripps Booth through The Cranbrook Foundation CAM 1943.13 When Maija Grotell began teaching ceramics at Cranbrook in 1938 the program was unformed and students were mainly in attendence to learn how to throw a pot or amuse themselves after working on their "art." Grotell developed the course into one known for producing fine ceramic artists. Her distinguished students include Richard DeVore, Toshiko Takaezu, Harvey Littleton, and Howard Kottler. Grotell's own art served as their example. This ovoid vessel with its applied geometric pattern is a superb example of her early Cranbrook work. The visibly expanding and then contracting throwing rings emphasize the large scale of the piece. The ...

Zoltan Sepeshy – Sunday Afternoon – The Family – 1944

Zoltan Sepeshy Sunday Afternoon-The Family, 1944 Born 1898. Kassa. Hungary (now Kosice. Czech Republic); Cranbrook Academy of Art (CAA). Instructor,Department of Painting. beginning 1931 ; CAA Director. Department of Painting, beginning 1936;CAA Educational Director. 1944-1946;CAA Director. 1946-1959: CAA President. 1959-1966: died 1974. Bloomfield Hills. Michigan Tempera on hardboard 35 x 45 inches Gift of George Gough Booth and Ellen ScrippsBooth through The Cranbrook Foundation by exchange CAM 1950.48 Turning to more emotionally expressive works in the 1940s,Zoltan Sepeshy used his four-year-old daughter Cecilia and his wife Dorothy as models for this painting, which employs his painstaking tempera technique (he later wrote a book on tempera painting). At first glance Sunday Afternoon-The Family appears to represent a happy nuclear family in the American Midwest. But closer examination reveals something unsettling. Sepeshyplaces the family atop a hill with a steep decline that leads to an ominous landscape in the background. And what ...

Loja Saarinen and Eliel Saarinen – Study for the Festival of the May Queen Tapestry – 1932

Loja Saarinen (Designer) and Eliel Saarinen (Designer and Draftsman) Study for the Festival of the May Queen Tapestry, 1932 Loja: Born Louise Gesellius. 1879. Helsinki. Finland: operated Studio Loja Saarinen at Cranbrook. 1928-1942: Cranbrook Academy of Art. Head of Department of Weaving and Textile Design. 1929-1942: died 1968. Bloomfield Hills. Michigan Eliel: 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 Watercolor and gouache with pencil underdrawing on tracing paper 28 1/2 x 26 1/2 inches Gift of Kingswood School Cranbrook CAM 1981.12 The Festival of the May Queen Tapestry celebrates a revered rite of spring at Cranbrook. The May Queen stands beneath a highly stylized tree filled with white birds and receives edible tribute from a handmaid while the Queen's attendants wrap her in a red garland. Designed by ...

Eliel Saarinen and Walter von Nessen – Torchere – 1928-32

Eliel Saarinenand Walter von Nessen (Designers) Kingswaad SchoolCranbrookDining Hall Torchére, designed circa 1928, manufactured 1932 Saarinen: 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 Von Nessen: Born 1889. Berlin. Germany; died 1943. New York. New York Manufacturer: Nessen Studio. Inc... New York. New York Assembler: Leonard Electrical Company. Birmingham. Michigan Polished aluminum shades with chrome-plated stem Height: 67 inchesGift of Kingswood SchoolCranbrookCAM 1972 .23 Torcheres were popular fixtures in most Art Deco interiors, including many spaces at Cranbrook. Oneof twelve originally ordered for the dining hall at Kingswood School Cranbrook, torcheres like this one are still used today at Kingswood. The design allows the room to be lit indirectly, as light is aimed towards the ceiling, while the machine-age layered and inverted funnel forms further reflect light on ...

J. Robert F. Swanson – Candelabrum

J. Robert F. Swanson (Designer) Candelabrum designed 1935, manufactured 1947 Born 1900, Menominee. Michigan: died 1981. Bloomfield Hills. Michigan Manufacturer: Cray. Boston. Massachusetts Brass with chrome satin finish 25 1 /4x 18 1 /4 x 6 inches Gift of the Estate of Mr. And Mrs. Alfred C. Wermuth zo 1979.4 Architect J. Robert F. Swansonand his wife, Pipsan Saarinen Swanson, encountered difficulty when they sought contemporary furnishings appropriate to his modern buildings. To meet this need they worked with Pipsan's father Eliel Saarinen to develop the Flexible Home Arrangements line of furniture in 1939. After World War II they expanded this line to create the Saarinen SwansonGroup, a collection of coordinated furniture, fabrics, lamps, metalwork, glassware and pottery. Because of the line's versatility, affordabili ty and modern design, it met postwar desires for convenience, order, comfort, simplicity and economy. J. Robert F. Swanson's contributions to the group included designs for ...

Zoltan Sepeshy – Mural – 1941

Zoltan Sepeshy Study far The Scientist,Artist and Farmer Mural, Hackham Building, Detroit, Michigan, 1941 Born 1898. Kassa. Hungary (now Kosice. Czech Republic): Cranbrook Academy of Art (CAA). Instructor,Department of Painting. beginning 1931: CAA Director, Department of Painting, beginning 1936: CAA Educational Director. 1944-1946: CAA Director. 1946-1959: CAA President. 1959-1966: died 1974. Bloomfield Hills. Michigan Tempera on hardboard 27 l/2 x 27 l/2 inches Transfer from Cranbrook Instituteof Science CAM 1983.60 During the Depression years, government and corporate patronage promoted public artworks designed to inspire civic pride, social unity and job productivity. Like many of his peers, Zoltan Sepeshywas commissioned by the Federal Art Projectto create murals for government buildings, including post offices in Michigan and Illinois. Among his most significant private commissions was a mural for the Rockham Engineering Foundation in Detroit. Destined as an overmantle decoration for the Engineers' Lounge, Sepeshy conceived an image that celebrated nature as the ...

Josef Albers – Homage to the Square – 1967

Josef Albers Born 1888, Bottrop, Germany; died 1976, New Haven, Connecticut Homage to the Square: “Festive,” 1967 Oil on board 48 x 48 inches Gift of Rose M. Shuey, from the Collection of Dr. John and Rose M. Shuey CAM 2002.2 Josef Albers was one of the first modernist artists to focus on color theory and composition, and is credited with influencing the movements of hard-edge Op Art and Minimalism in the 1960s. Born in Germany, Albers enrolled as a student at the Bauhaus design school in 1920, eventually teaching there until it was forced to close by the Nazi party in 1933. He subsequently moved to America, where he held teaching positions at North Carolina’s experimental Black Mountain College, followed by the Yale University School of Art. While at Yale, Albers began his most famous series of paintings, Homage to the Square, employing a strict formula in which the full innermost square is not centered ...

Loja Saarinen and Eliel Saarinen – Rug No. 2

Loja Saarinen and Eliel Saarinen (Designers) Rug No. 2, Loja: Born Louise Gesellius. 1879. Helsinki. Finland: operated Studio Loja Saarinen at Cranbrook. 1928-1942: Cranbrook Academy of Art. Head of Department of Weaving and Textile Design. 1929-1942: died 1968. Bloomfield Hills. Michigan Eliel: 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 Weaver: Studio Loja Saarinen: Loja Saarinen and Walborg Nordquist Smalley Cotton warp: wool pile: plain weave with ten picks of weft between each row of knots 110 1/2 x 39 inches Collection of Cranbrook Art Museum CAM 195 5.3 In 1928 Loja Saarinen, Eliel Saarinen's wife, established Studio Loja Saarinen, a commercial weaving studio she operated at Cranbrook until 1942. Her studio created textiles for special commissions, the bulk of which were for Cranbrook and included rugs, window treatments, and upholstery ...

Carroll Barnes – Paul Bunyan – 1938

Carroll Barnes Paul Bunyan, 1938 Born 1906,Des Moines. Iowa;Cranbrook Academy of Art. Student. Department of Sculpture. 1940;died 1997. Sebastopol. California Cherry 40 1/4 x 24 x 12 inches Gift of the Artist CAM 1981.58 The tall tale of Paul Bunyan and his blue ox Babe first appeared in the Detroit News-Tribune in 1910,based on stories originating from Midwestern logging camps. The heroic lumberjack soon became a nationally recognized icon and a fitting subject for an artist in search of a new and typically American subject matter. Carroll Barnes, who had once worked as a lumber-packer, sculpted his robust figure of Paul Bunyan shortly before enrolling at Cranbrook Academy of Art to study with Carl Milles. Although expert at carving materials as diverse as stone and Lucite, Barnes's greatest affinity was for wood, a material particularly appropriate for subjects like Bunyan and Johnny Appleseed, whom he also sculpted. After settling into ...

Waylande Gregory – Water – 1938

Waylande Gregory Water, 1938, from the Fountain oftha Atom, New York World's Fair, 1939 Born 1905. Baxter Springs. Kansas: Cranbrook Academy of Art. Resident Ceramic Sculptor. 1932-1933: died 1971. Warren Township. New Jersey Glazed terra cotta 70 l/4 x 35 x 33 l/4 inches Collection of Patricia Shaw and Cranbrook Art Museum. partial gift of Patricia Shaw T 1999.33 Waylande Gregory's monumental Fountain of the Atom, created for the 1939 New York World's Fair, was a playful symbol of one the twentieth century's most profound scientific developments. Illustrating the fair's general theme, "Building the World of Tomorrow with the Tools of Today," the artist contrasted ancient and modern concepts of science on the two tiers of the fountain. Onthe bottom tier Gregory personified the atom's electrons as eight exuberant boys and girls dancing with lightning bolts about the nucleus, a central shaft surmounted by a gas flame. Around this shaft ...