Willem de Kooning – Cross-Legged Figure

Willem de Kooning Cross-Legged Figure (previously published as Floating Figure), 1972 Born 1904. Rotterdam. The Netherlands; died 1997. East Hampton. New York Foundry: Modern Art Foundry. Astoria. New York Bronze (Edition 1 of 7) 24 x 14 x 14 inches Gift of Rose M. Shuey. from the Collection of Dr. John and Rose M. Shuey CAM 2002.19 Willem de Koening is best known as a leading New York Abstract Expressionist painter. Trained in art and design in Rotterdam, he moved to New York in 1927. Seeking intensity, he transformed his early elegant Cuba-Surrealist canvases into the dramatic rough surfaces and vigorous shapes of his mature fem ale figures and landscapes. One critic dubbed his brawny ladies "tipsy trollops." In Rome in 1969, he began a five-year exploration of the figure in three-dimensional bronze. Some were life-size. Many, like Cross-Legged Figure, are of a more intimate scale. Created with closed eyes to intensify the "feel" of the shapes, these bronze figures seem ripped from the paintings into three-dimensional space, exchanging their ponderous painterly womanhood for a pan-human vitality. ...

Charles and Ray Eames – ESU (Eames Storage Units)

Charles and Ray Eames (Designers) ESU (Eames Storage Units), designed 1949-1951 in production 1950-1955; 420-C-Birch White Glass Cloth Laminate Storage Unit, made 1951-1954,· 200 Series-N-Birch Chest, made 1953-1954 Charles: Born 1907. St. Louis. Missouri: Cranbrook Academy of Art (CM). Student. Architecture. 1938-1939: CM Instructor of Design. 1939-1941 : died 1978. St. Louis. Missouri Ray: Born Bernice Alexandra Kaiser. 1912. Sacramento. California: Cran brook Academy of Art. Student. 1940-1941 : died 1988. Venice. California Manufacturer: Herman Miller. Inc .. Zeeland. Michigan Steel. birch plywood and plastic laminate Storage Unit: 58 3/4 x 47 x 15 3/ 4 inches Chest: 321 /4 x 47 x 15 3/4 inches Gift of Herman Miller. Inc. CAM 1989.32 and CAM 1989.33 Charles and Ray Eames are one of the great design couples of all time. Their collaborative projects, which included toys, film, urban planning and furniture, influenced almost every aspect of late twentieth-century design. The Eameses met at Cranbrook, married, and moved to California wherE they began their joint practice initially focusing on furniture and interior design. They strove ...

Charles and Ray Eames – FSW (Folding Screen-Wood)

Charles and Ray Eames (Designers) FSW (Folding Screen-Wood), designed circa 1946 in production 1946-1955 Charles: 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 Ray: Born Bernice Alexandra Kaiser. 1912. Sacramento. California: Cran brook Academy of Art. Student. 1940-1941 , died 1988. Venice. California Manufacturer: Herman Miller. Inc .. Zeeland. Michigan Laminated plywood with ash veneers and canvas 68 x 59 1 /2 inches Museum purchase with funds from the lmerman Acquisition Fund CAM 1992.12 Charles and Ray Eames began their experiments with plywood furniture in 1940 while in residence at Cranbrook Academy of Art. During World War IL they successfully mass-produced molded plywood leg splints for the U.S. Navy. Thin sheets of wood were shaped and glued together under pressure into compound curves, taking advantage of the strength and flexibility of inexpensive materials. The FSW (Folding Screen-Wood) is made up of molded panels joined with canvas "hinges" that are laminated between the wood layers. The entire screen can be folded into ...

Florence Knoll Bassett – Armchair

Florence Knoll Bassett (Designer) Armchair, manufactured 1946, for the Rockefeller Family Offices, Rockefeller Plaza, New York, New York, completed 1946 Born Florence Schust. 1917. Saginaw. Michigan: Kingswood School Cranbrook. Graduate. 1934: Cranbrook Academy of Art. Student. Department of Architecture. 1934-1935. 1936-1937, 1939 Manufacturer: Knoll Associates. Inc., East Greenville. Pennsylvania Wood: replacement upholstery 30 x 23 5/8 x 22 inches Gift of Laurence S. Rockefeller CAM 1986.35 Florence Knoll Bassett is one of the most significant women in twentieth-century design. A close friend of the Saarinen family, she studied under Eliel before taking classes and working with such luminaries as Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. When she was head of Knoll Furniture's Planning Unit. she helped the firm become one of the most important design companies in America. A recent recipient of the Presidential National Medal of the Arts, Bassett's design work has largely focused on refining furniture forms and arrangements to maximize their comfort, practicality, beauty and use. Bassett's innovative interiors were often realized in her designs for corporate offices. This custom ...

Marianne Strengell – Throw Blanket

Marianne Strengell Throw Blanket, circa 1950s Born 1909. Helsinki. Finland: Cranbrook Academy of Art (CAA). Instructor of Weaving. Costume and Textile Design. 1937-1942: CAA Head. Department of Weaving and Textile Design. 1942- 1961 : died 1998. Wellfleet. Massachusetts Mohair warp: mohair and mylar weft: satin border 72 1 /2 x 67 inches Gift of Peggy deSalle CAM 1984.89 The daughter of an architect and an interior designer, Marianne Strengell placed utmost value on the functional application of the art of weaving. After she began teaching at Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1937, pictorial weaving was completely displaced by design for production. Her progressive instruction stressed both the technical and professional aspects of the craft, from yarn dying to merchandising and client relations. Shortly after Strengell inherited the directorship of the Department of Weaving from Loja Saarinen in 1942, a powerloom was installed in the studios, allowing students to better accommodate design for industrial manufacture, an application further promoted through class trips to local factories. The close proximity of the automotive and furniture industries provided numerous professional opportunities ...

Jay Sae Jung Oh – Savage Chair, 2011

CAM 2011.2 Sae Jung Oh Korean, born 1982 armchairs, Savage Chair 2011 Jute, plastic objects 42 1/2 x 52 x 49 in. (108 x 132.1 x 124.5 cm) Museum Committee 2011 Graduate Degree Exhibition Purchase Award through the Imerman Acquisition Fund Plastics. More than a witty line from "The Graduate", this material engineered the 20th century and has become integral to nearly every facet of daily life. Particularly within the field of design, the use of plastic has permeated the consumer market to provide a multitude of goods and products since the 1940s. The majority of plastics are crafted to be disposable—temporary fixtures within the abundant landscape of the everyday. The National Science Foundation estimates that there is an island of plastic material floating in the Pacific Ocean (colloquially referred to as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch), that measures twice the size of Texas. Savage Chair illustrates how artists and designers address issues of obsolescence and sustainability through creative ...

Katherine McCoy – The Graduate Program in Design, 1989

Katherine McCoy (Designer) Born 1945, Decatur, Illinois The Graduate Program in Design, 1989 Printed by Signet Printing, Detroit, Michigan Offset lithograph poster (two-sided), perforated with postcards on the reverse 28 x 22 inches Gift of Katherine and Michael McCoy CAM 2008.97 Perforated with postcards on the reverse, this recruitment poster was designed by Cranbrook Academy of Art’s co-head of the design department, Katherine McCoy. McCoy pairs oppositional words across a center line, which serves as an anchor for a zig-zag effect created as more words and images fan out to the edges of the page. The composition of image and text is a play on deconstructivist ideas—you can read the text as an image and the images as text. The photomontage reinforces the bifurcation of the page, with the left side featuring designs from the 2D design department in pink, and the right featuring designs from the 3D design department in blue. This poster is a marked ...

Toshiko Takaezu – Hawaii Early Spring, circa 2000

Toshiko Takaezu Born 1922, Pepeeko, Hawaii; died 2011, Honolulu, Hawaii Early Spring, circa 2000 Stoneware 75 x 27 inches Gift of the Artist in honor of Gerhardt Knodel CAM 2007.24 Toshiko Takaezu is one of the foremost ceramic artists of the twentieth century. Between 1951 and 1954, Takaezu pursued a Master’s degree at Cranbrook Academy of Art, studying not only under ceramist Maija Grotell, but also with sculptor William McVey and weaver Marianne Strengell. She continued to teach summer sessions at the Academy through 1956. Over the course of a long and extremely fruitful career, Takaezu’s work progressed from the production of functional vessels to the creation of abstract sculptural vessel forms, which draw on both Eastern and Western aesthetics, the natural world, and the human form for inspiration. Using the productive limitations of a somewhat closed repertoire of forms, Takaezu experimented with surface decoration and a spontaneous approach to glazing her work. -Emily Zilber, 2007–2009 ...

Louise Nevelson – Black Zag I, 1968

CAM 2002.28 Louise Nevelson Russian, 1899 - 1988 sculpture (visual works), Black Zag I 1968 Wood and formica 47 1/2 x 47 1/2 x 5 in. (120.7 x 120.7 x 12.7 cm) Gift of Louise Nevelson Born 1899, Kiev, Russia; died 1988, New York, New York Black Zag I, 1968 Wood and Formica 47 ½ x 47 ½ x 5 inches Gift of Rose M. Shuey, from the Collection of Dr. John and Rose M. Shuey CAM 2002.28 Dubbing herself “The Architect of Shadow,” Louise Nevelson was often linked with other assemblage artists of the 1950s and 1960s, but her choice of medium—found wood—initially distinguished her from her contemporaries. In the mid to late 1950s, she was constructing increasingly architectonic edifices composed of multiple box-like units stacked many levels tall. Each of the dozens of compartments was filled with cryptic juxtapositions of machined forms (balusters, spindles) and salvaged fragments (splintered planks, driftwood). Sprayed a uniform and evocative black, Nevelson considered it “the ...

Jean Dubuffet – Promenade à deux, 1974

CAM 2002.11 Jean Dubuffet French, 1901 - 1985 paintings (visual works), Promenade a deux 1974 Vinyl on canvas, matte Cryla varnish 77 7/8 x 51 1/2 in. (197.8 x 130.8 cm) Gift of Rose M. Shuey, from the Collection of Dr. John and Rose M. Shuey Jean Dubuffet Born 1901, Le Havre, France: died 1985, Paris, France Promenade à deux, 1974 Vinyl on canvas, matte Cryla varnish 77 ⅞ x 51 ½ inches Gift of Rose M. Shuey, from the Collection of Dr. John and Rose M. Shuey CAM 2002.11 In 1962, while aimlessly doodling as he talked on the phone, painter Jean Dubuffet became intrigued by the capacity of his ball point pen (a relatively new invention) to create a continuous uniform line free of the stops and starts of ink or paint. Dubuffet subsequently devised a sinuous network of jigsaw-puzzle-like forms that obscured distinctions between figure and surroundings, and adopted the tricolor palette of ball point pens of the ...