Cranbrook Gives Michigan its Due in Modern Design | The Detroit News

Cranbrook highlights Detroit’s Midcentury Marvels of Design, Architecture | Detroit Free Press

Michigan Modern is Here!

Michigan Modern: Design that Shaped America (Upper Galleries) Four-Day Symposium: June 13 - 16, 2013 Members’ Only Opening Reception: Thursday, June 13, 2013, 6:30-8:30pm* Exhibition Dates: June 14, 2013 - October 13, 2013 Check out the links below for the latest press coverage of Michigan Modern. Architect’s Newspaper Michigan Modern: Design that Shaped America Detroit Unspun Michigan (and Detroit) Defined the Look of 20th Century Design Dexigner
 Michigan Modern: Design that Shaped America
 Dwell Magazine Michigan Modern: Design that Shaped America mLive "
Michigan's hefty contribution to American Modernism goes on display in Metro Detroit" The Oakland Press "Cranbrook creates framework for modern art, design" The Upper Peninsula’s Second Wave Michigan Hosts Architectural and Industrial Design Event of the Year

Chicago: On Beans and Dumplings

CRANBROOK SIGHTING #8 Sighter: Chad Alligood Sighted: Jun Kaneko, Dango sculptures Location: Millennium Park, Chicago, IL Date:  May 26, 2013 I spent the recent Memorial Day holiday in the Chicago area, seeing several awesome things for the first time: the Bean, Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House, and the Art Institute of Chicago among many others. As I traipsed through Millennium Park on my way to the AIC, frankly giddy at the prospect of viewing Grant Wood’s American Gothic, I stopped cold in my tracks, captivated by a series of large-scale ceramic sculptures that looked vaguely like giant ice-cream pops. Thinking that perhaps these were the work of famed Cranbrook alum Toshiko Takaezu, I hopped the metal barrier to snap a couple of pictures (the open-air exhibition was closed that day for some reason; in the far distance of the image above, you can see the figure of the guard who yelled at me). The surfaces ...

Tagged: Chad Alligood, Chicago, Cranbrook Sightings, Dango sculptures, IL, Jun Kaneko, Millennium Park, Sculpture

A Visual History of Michigan’s Outsize Influence on American Modernism | Atlantic Cities

With the likes of Albert Kahn, Minoru Yamasaki, Eliel Saarinen, and Charles and Ray Eames all calling Michigan home at some point in their careers, the state is arguably long overdue for a look back on the innovations it gave to the rest of the design world. It will soon do just that with Michigan Modern, a planned four-day symposium (June 13 through 16) and four-month design exhibit (June 14 through October 13) put together by the state's office of historic preservation and the Cranbrook Art Museum. The exhibit and symposium will highlight the role Michigan played in the history of American Modernism, one that's largely been under appreciated. America's modernist legacy is more often associated with Los Angeles, a city that came of age during the middle of the 20th century while embracing car culture, high design homes and Herman Miller furniture — all ideas that, along with the Eames ...

A Once-Modern Marvel

CRANBROOK SIGHTING #7 Sighter: Leslie S. Edwards Sighted: MacDonald Building, J. Robert F. Swanson, Architect, and Pipsan Saarinen Swanson Interiors Location: Harbor Springs, Michigan Date: April 2, 2013 Taking a cue from Chad’s road trip, I decided to seek out Cranbrook-related architecture during my recent spring break trip “up north” to our family’s summer home in Goodhart.  Since my family has summered up north for over 40 years, I already knew that many Cranbrook artists and architects vacationed there as well. In fact, many built their own homes and cottages just down the road from ours. This time I was in search of the MacDonald building in Harbor Springs – a design that I recently discovered was a Swanson and Associates project.  The Swansons had a long association with Cranbrook – J. Robert F. (“Bob”) was a classmate of Harry Booth’s at University of Michigan’s School of Architecture, and he acted as interpreter for Swedish-speaking ...

Tagged: Architecture, Harbor Springs, Leslie S. Edwards, MacDonald Building, MI, Pipsan Saarinen, Robert F. Swanson

A Road Trip by Design, Part 2

CRANBROOK SIGHTING #6 Sighter: Chad Alligood Sighted: Eliel Saarinen’s First Christian Church, 1940-42; Eero Saarinen’s North Christian Church, 1964; Harry Weese’s Cummins Engine Company Tech Center, 1968 Location: Columbus, IN Date:  February 22, 2013 Part one of my road trip from Michigan to Kentucky brought me to the doorstep of Eero Saarinen’s Miller House in Columbus, IN. Here, then, I submit for your consideration part two: the rapid-fire highlights of my whirlwind, self-cobbled tour of Cranbrook in Columbus.3:02 PM, Friday afternoon: I need to be in Louisville, KY—about 75 miles away—by 5 PM. Short on time but long on curiosity, I decide to hit as many of the Cranbrook-related local gems of modern architecture as possible before I hit I-65 South. 3:04 PM: I wander out of the Columbus Area Visitor’s Center, map in hand, attempting to plot an architecturally significant route while walking. As I ponder which cool building is closest, I look up from ...

Tagged: Architecture, Chad Alligood, Columbus, IN, Eliel Saarinen, IN

A Road Trip by Design, Part 1

CRANBROOK SIGHTING #5 Sighter: Chad Alligood Sighted: Eero Saarinen’s Miller House, 1953-57 Location: Columbus, IN Date:  February 22, 2013 I love a good road trip. Chintzy roadside attractions, late-night caffeine stops, full-blast radio singing—I’m quite at home behind the wheel at 65 MPH. Road trips satisfy my compulsion to wander while feeding my admiration of classic American kitsch. My recent talk at the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft provided the perfect excuse for a meandering journey from Michigan to Kentucky in my trusty ’91 Toyota Camry. At the behest of our preparator extraordinaire and resident design nerd Mark Baker, I scheduled a stop in Columbus, Indiana on the way down. Why Columbus, you might ask? The answers are so awesome and numerous that they require two blog posts. The first, and perhaps awesomest, is Eero Saarinen’s Miller House. Eero completed a relatively small number of residential commissions in his lifetime; Miller House certainly counts among ...

Tagged: Architecture, Chad Alligood, Columbus, IN, Eero Saarinen, IN

A Paul Evans Moment

Cranbrook Sightings #4 Sighter: Shoshana Resnikoff Sighted: Paul Evans furniture Location: New York City Date: January 26, 2013 I love Cranbrook’s impressive history of 20th century art and design, but sometimes a girl needs to revisit her roots in the 18th century.  It was with that in mind that I went out to New York’s Americana Week at the end of January.  For fans of 18th and 19th century American decorative arts, Americana Week is like Woodstock.  Auction viewings followed by thrilling sales, museum exhibitions devoted to “brown furniture” or master craftspeople, and of course, the Winter Antiques Show at the Park Avenue Armory, where dealers, collectors, and academics gather to see the historical treasures that have resurfaced in the past few years. This year was my second time at the Winter Antiques Show and I was looking forward to connecting with old friends, both human and furniture (I’m looking at you, 18th century japanned high ...

Tagged: Furniture, New York, NY, NY, Paul Evans, Shoshana Resnikoff

Alec Soth Featured on Michigan Radio (NPR)

http://cpa.ds.npr.org/michigan/audio/2013/01/2013116_stateside_alecsoth.mp3 Alec Soth's exhibition, "From Here to There: Alec Soth's America," is on display at the Cranbrook Art Museum through March 30. Soth spoke today with Cyndy about his time in Michigan and the various people he encountered. Soth was unfamiliar with Michigan at the start of his trip. "The truth is, I knew very little about Michigan. So this provided an opportunity to go on an adventure," said Soth. "It was almost like a crazy endurance marathon," he continued. According to Soth, it doesn't take much driving to discover strange, rich parts of the country. During his project, Soth became interested in Michigan's variation between land and cities. For more of Soth's interview, listen to the audio above.