Summer Exhibitions are Now Open!


Cranbrook Sightings BlogExhibitions

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

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Cranbrook and the American Look


Cranbrook Sightings Blog

Cranbrook Sighting # 11 Sighter: Shelley Selim Sighted: Cranbrook Art Museum and Library Location: the Internet Date: March 10, 2014The Internet Archive continues to be a hardy source of endearment for me, and this weekend I found myself traipsing through a favorite district of its offerings--Prelinger's backlog of mid-century Populuxe videos. The term "Populuxe" was coined by cultural and design historian Thomas Hine for his 1986 book of the same name, which analyzed the hyper-consumerism that swept the United States in the 1950s and '60s. Product styling--an extension of a collective fervor for material abundance and variety--became a wellspring of national pride during the Cold War, particularly as a means of counter-defining American capitalist prosperity against the Soviet Union's Communist economy. Many "Populuxe" promotional films were produced in the mid-century, and American Look, sponsored by General Motors' Chevrolet Division, is a champion of its genre. It has it all: bright colors (in the '50s, practically ...

Tagged: Advertisements, Film, Harry Bertoia, Populuxe, Shelley Selim

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