Join us on Friday, December 13, for the preview opening of three exhibitions that celebrate Cranbrook’s connection to art, craft, and design.
Exhibition Preview Celebration
Friday, December 13
6–9pm
ArtMembers: Free
Non-Members: $20/at the door
Ruth Adler Schnee: Modern Designs for Living
December 14, 2019 – March 15, 2020
This retrospective exhibition and publication about Cranbrook Academy of Art graduate, textile and interior designer, Ruth Adler Schnee, still in active practice at age 96, affirms her pivotal role in the development of the modern interior. The exhibition presents Adler Schnee’s textile designs created over her prolific seven-decade career, including screen-printed fabrics that helped define mid-century American modernism as well as their later translation into woven textiles. The exhibition reveals Adler Schnee’s rigorous, iterative design processes and also presents residential and commercial interior design projects alongside archival materials.
In the Vanguard: Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, 1950–1969
December 14, 2019 – March 8, 2020
In the Vanguard: Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, 1950-1969 is the first museum exhibition to explore the impact of this important artistic community located in rural Maine and its impact on twentieth-century art. Featuring approximately 90 works, including textiles, ceramics, glass, metalwork, paintings, and prints, as well as archival materials, In the Vanguard features works by artists such as Anni Albers, Dale Chihuly, Robert Ebendorf, M.C. Richards, and Cranbrook alumni Olga de Amaral, Jack Lenor Larsen, Harvey Littleton, and Toshiko Takaezu, among others.
Formed by a group of craft artists in 1950 with support from philanthropist Mary Beasom Bishop of Flint, Michigan, and led by artists Francis and Priscilla Merritt, who had spent time at Cranbrook, Haystack shares many affinities and connections with Cranbrook Academy of Art. The exhibition foregrounds the innovative and collaborative nature of the Haystack experience and its role in national debates about the boundaries between art, craft, and design.
Come back on Saturday for a special "curators in conversation" talk with Rachael Arauz and Diana Greenwold, joined by Paul Sacaridiz, Executive Director of Haystack Mountain School of Crafts. The talk will be held on Saturday, December 14, at 2pm.
Christy Matson: Crossings
December 14, 2019 – March 15, 2020
Christy Matson is a Los Angeles-based artist known for her painterly approach to textiles. Matson employs a hand-operated, computer-programmable Jacquard loom to create intricate weavings to which she often applies paint and other fiber techniques. Matson’s work reflects on the gendered histories of weaving in conjunction with art historical approaches such as geometric abstraction and collage.
Christy Matson: Crossings features 16 weavings configured into 2 monumentally scaled tapestries that were originally conceived for a special commission for the U.S. Embassy in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. Additionally, Matson will present a selection of smaller recent works that continue her reflections on historic weave structures in conjunction with her unique approach to pastiche and collage.
There will be a special lecture and reception with Matson to celebrate this exhibition on Friday, January 14, 2020.
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