Happy Birthday Eliel and Eero Saarinen!

CRANBROOK SIGHTING: SAARINEN HOUSE, CRANBROOK ACADEMY OF ART CAMPUS Dining Room, completed circa 1930; restored 1992 - 1994 Interior and furniture design by Eliel Saarinen Placemat designs by Eero Saarinen Textile designs by Loja Saarinen and Greta SkogsterEliel and Eero Saarinen, 1941. Photo by Betty Truxell, courtesy of Cranbrook ArchivesAugust 20th is a big occasion here at Cranbrook--the day both our campus architect Eliel Saarinen (Finnish, 1873 - 1950) and his architect son Eero (Finnish-American, 1910 - 1961) entered this world! In honor of two great men from one of the design community's most accomplished families (read blog posts about matriarch Loja Saarinen here and Eero's big sister Pipsan here), today on the blog we'll visit the Saarinen House dining room, where father-and-son birthdays were most certainly celebrated on many an August 20th throughout the 1930s.Saarinen House Dining Room, designed 1928; restored 1994. Photo by Balthazar Korab, (c) Cranbrook Art Museum.Eliel Saarinen designed Saarinen ...

Tagged: Eero Saarinen, Eliel Saarinen, Saarinen House, Shelley Selim

From the Files: The Viewpoint ’81 Exhibition at Cranbrook Art Museum

One of the perks of my job is the opportunity to sift through our old files when scholars email us with research questions. One such request led me to our records for Viewpoint '81, an exhibition of works by six artists created for and painted directly on the gallery walls at Cranbrook Art Museum. Daniel Buren, Gene Davis, Sol LeWitt, Patrick Ireland, Rick Paul, and Dorothea Rockburne each contributed to the installation, which was up from January 20 to March 1, 1981.Cranbrook Art Museum Viewpoint '81 brochure, 1981I could kiss whoever documented the development of this exhibition. When I got to the old metal file cabinets in storage, I found folders filled with hundreds of slides showing the installation process, along with photographs and mail correspondence between artists and museum employees. Above is the cover of the brochure produced for the show. You can view it in its entirety by ...

Tagged: Daniel Buren, Dorthea Rockburne, Gene Davis, Painting, Patrick Ireland, Rick Paul, Shelley Selim, Sol LeWitt, Viewpoint '81

Saarinen Heaven at the Dam Site Inn

Cranbrook Sighting # 12 Sighter: Shelley Selim Sighted: Saarinen Tulip Furniture Galore! Location: The Dam Site Inn, Pellston, Michigan Date: June 28, 2014 At the end of June my beau and I embarked on a Michigan road trip, driving up north to Mackinac and down the western coast of the state. The Island, Tunnel of Trees, Sleeping Bear Dunes, and plenty of breweries made the list, and when Cranbrook Art Museum director Gregory Wittkopp mentioned to me a restaurant and cocktail bar in Pellston filled with Eero Saarinen furniture, I knew we had to take a special detour.Cocktail Bar at the Dam Site Inn, Pellston, MichiganBehold, the Dam Site Inn! A staple on the Maple River since 1953, it seems little has changed about the decor since it opened, and how wonderfully so! It is quite a feeling to sip a Manhattan in this Saarinen tulip garden, and the wood paneling and whimsical brass light ...

Tagged: Furniture, Pellston, Shelley Selim, Textiles

Summer Exhibitions are Now Open!

After many weeks of install, Cranbrook Art Museum was thrilled to unveil six new summer exhibitions over the weekend! Our team of preparators at the museum is truly outstanding, and it was a joy to watch all of the shows slowly come to life through all of their hard work. When I've had spare moments these past few weeks, I've taken the opportunity to walk through the galleries and photograph some of the installation for our Instagram page. Here are a few more highlights of the design and construction process:Beginnings of the purple rhombus didactic panel for Modern/ModernaModern/Moderna Screening RoomCranbrook Goes to the Movies, ready for object placementBust of a Chippewa Man and a stuffed Red Head DuckCurator Shoshana Resnikoff tests the lighting for the Kingswood School Cranbrook Tennis Championship Bowl in Cranbrook Goes to the MoviesWith objects inside their vitrines, the Movies installation evokes a moody specimen shelf!South Gallery, ...

Tagged: Andy Warhol, Film, Ken Isaacs, Paul Evans, Shelley Selim

Warhol: Under the Covers at Cranbrook | WDET

"... Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross, John Lennon, he's doing these album covers similar to that serial factory production Andy Warhol-style that we're so familiar with." We all the the soup can man. We recognize a few of the players in his clique of characters, we've read about the sex and drug fueled Factory parties. We know the haircut, the glasses, the bony cheeks behind the experimental films, multiple color-combo celebrity portraits, and his role with a certain New York rock band. Before, during, and after his rise to become an international art star and pop cultist, Andy Warhol was a working graphic artist and his work often spilt into the music business. He created the art for dozens upon dozens of vinyl albums from 1949 to 1987. Some of them, like the Velvet Underground’s debut record, are as infamous as the music they contain. More than 100 covers, including five that have never ...

Cranbrook exhibit showcases Andy Warhol’s famed album covers | The Detroit News

For an artist whose work ultimately commanded millions of dollars, Andy Warhol also, and quite deliberately, created original work accessible to ordinary people — in the form of record album covers. This democratic side of the great pop artist is on view at the Cranbrook Art Museum starting Saturday in “Warhol on Vinyl: The Record Covers 1949-1987.” The show features more than 100 bonafide album covers, stretching from the dawn of Warhol’s career in 1949 to his death in 1987, from the Rolling Stones’ “Sticky Fingers” to the extremely rare “Giant Size $1.57 Each.” Interestingly, notes Cranbrook curator of contemporary art and design Laura Mott, those same years pretty much describe the rise and fall of vinyl L.P. records, introduced to the industry in 1948 and all but replaced by CDs by 1987. The covers on display are largely drawn from Cranbrook’s own outstanding collection donated by a local collector. “There are six guys in ...

Detroit-area museum shows off Warhol record covers | Detroit Free Press

BLOOMFIELD HILLS — The banana. The zipper. Along with his Marilyn Monroe portrait and the Campbell Soup cans, Andy Warhol’s album covers have their own place in the pop-art pantheon. The Cranbrook Art Museum is kicking off what it says is the most comprehensive exhibition of authenticated Warhol record covers to date — including three recently discovered albums that never before have been shown in such a setting. “Warhol On Vinyl: The Record Covers, 1949-1987+,” which opens to the public on Saturday and runs through March 15, features 60 unique album covers and nearly 100 in all, including color and size variations. They range from the recognizable to the rare. There’s The Velvet Underground’s 1967 debut album, “The Velvet Underground & Nico,” which features a Warhol drawing of a banana on a plain white background; as well as 1971’s “Sticky Fingers,” a Rolling Stones record that includes not only hits such as “Brown Sugar” and ...

Cranbrook to exhibit Andy Warhol record covers | Detroit Metro Times

You probably already know about the iconic Velvet Underground "banana" cover, but artist Andy Warhol actually designed sleeves for many other artists as well. This month, Cranbrook Art Museum will host Warhol On Vinyl: The Record Covers, 1949-1987+, which exhibits dozens of record sleeves designed by the artist. The collection, a recent gift to the museum, features five recently discovered album covers from the 1950s that have never been exhibited before. According to a press release, "the album covers range from the extremely rare to the widely recognizable; together they offer a unique lens to survey the artist’s career from a young graphic designer to a cultural phenomenon. At the same time, the exhibition documents the history of the mass-produced vinyl record and the zeitgeist of these eras through the inclusion of music, video, and artworks from the Museum’s extensive Andy Warhol collection." An opening reception for ArtMembers on June 20 from ...

Warhol on Vinyl: Cranbrook Shows Off Andy’s Record Covers | IXITI/Culture Source

Most vinyl fans collect records for the music – the sound quality, the nostalgic value, even the hipster credibility. But for a handful of collectors, there's a more specific purpose: Finding Andy Warhol's art. Warhol on Vinyl: The Record Covers, 1949-1987+, opening June 21 at the Cranbrook Art Museum, will showcase more than 50 album covers designed by Warhol. The exhibition, centered around the donation of a Warhol-designed album collection gifted to Cranbrook by collector and board member Frank M. Edwards and his wife Ann M. Williams, includes some extremely rare pieces, as well as some that may or may not be Warhol. “The discoveries of Warhol's work from the 1950 is ongoing, because there weren't great records kept of his work as an illustrator,” explains Curator of Contemporary Art and Design Laura Mott, who designed the Warhol exhibition. “When we're searching for these earlier works, we're looking closely at his other drawing ...

Andy Warhol on Vinyl exhibit with nearly 100 album covers to make world premiere in Detroit | MLive

DETROIT, MI -- Fans of Andy Warhol's art and vinyl album covers ranging from 1949 to the late 80s should be in for a treat when the Warhol on Vinyl exhibit opens next month at the Cranbrook Art Museum. The museum, at 39221 Woodward in the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills, will have the Warhol on Vinyl exhibit open to the public from June 21 to March 15, 2015. For more information, visit the museum's website. The exhibit, expected to include nearly 100 album covers, is drawn from the museum's preeminent Warhol collection that was part of a recent gift by Frank M. Edwards and Ann M. Williams, according to a museum press release. Album covers on display are expected to range from the extremely rare to the widely recognizable. This collection will include five recently discovered Warhol album covers from the 1950s that have never before been exhibited. A museum press release says ...