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Print, People Work–Evening, 1937
Benton Spruance (American, 1904–1967)
Philadelphia
Lithograph
The Wolfsonian–FIU, Miami Beach, Florida,
The Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection
84.4.662 |
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SEPTEMBER 2010
AND SO MUCH MORE TO THINK ABOUT! |
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THE WOLFSONIAN–––
FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY
1001 WASHINGTON AVE
MIAMI BEACH, FL 33139
HOURS FOR MUSEUM &
MUSEUM SHOP
Noon-6pm: Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday;
Noon-9pm: Friday;
Closed Wednesday.
Free admission after 6pm on Friday.
PHONE
General information: 305.531.1001
Program information: 305.535.2644
Membership information: 305.535.2631
$7 adults; $5 seniors, students, and children 6-12; free for Wolfsonian members, State University System of Florida staff and students with ID, and children under 6.
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
UPCOMING EXHIBITION
| The Wolfsonian–Florida International University uses objects to illustrate the persuasive power of art and design, to explore what it means to be modern, and to tell the story of social, historical, and technological changes that have transformed our world. It encourages people to see the world in new ways, and to learn from the past as they shape the present and influence the future. | |
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Talking with Speed Limits Curator Jeffrey Schnapp
Jeffrey T. Schnapp began thinking about the role of speed in our lives long before he curated the exhibition Speed Limits and edited the companion book, also titled Speed Limits. He's been working on a book called Quickening: An Anthropology of Speed for the past ten years, which makes it—what else?—"the slowest book I've ever worked on," he says. The report he brings from the trenches of the world of speed to those of us who see our lives flashing by on our PDAs is that a preoccupation with speed is not unique to our times. "Contrary to what many like to imagine about the cultural history of the idea of speed, it is not limited to the era of industry," he says. "The idea of speed has centrally shaped human experience going back to prehistoric times." Ideas about velocity are central to the belief systems of many religions, and Schnapp explains that "speed is a defining attribute of the divine." In particular, Judeo-Christian religions foster a "kind of cult of speeding up that is part of the apocalyptic vision, this sense that time is running out and that you better get on the right side before it’s too late," he says.
Speed Limits, on view at The Wolfsonian from September 17, 2010 through February 20, 2011, celebrates the hundredth anniversary of Italian Futurism, whose 1909 manifesto proclaimed that "the world's magnificence has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed." The exhibit is jointly organized by The Wolfsonian and the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), Montréal and includes more than two hundred objects from the two institutions. The exhibit was previously on view at the CCA from May 20 through November 8, 2009.
Schnapp, CCA senior Mellon fellow, professor at Stanford University, and visiting professor at Harvard, conceived the idea for Speed Limits while working as a consultant on the reinstallation of The Wolfsonian's permanent exhibition. "I was thinking in a very concrete way about The Wolfsonian's collection, which is an extremely rich, interesting, and unusual corpus of materials. It seemed to me that speed was a very powerful theme that was reflected in many ways in the collection," he says.
Schnapp sought to frame the exhibit by exploring two sides of the experience of speed in modernity. He wanted to "tell the story, through material culture, about the ways in which the heroic culture of speed has invaded every aspect of life in the modern era and to show the reverse, to trace the rise of the sense that we are nearing or perhaps have even passed the limits of speed's effectiveness, this ongoing critique that says there is something unnatural about this acceleration of life, that it disrupts the quality of life, of social interactions, and of our ability to function cognitively."
In organizing Speed Limits, Schnapp's challenge was to make a broad and abstract theme concrete to museum visitors. He chose to focus the exhibit in a series of five key areas of modern life: circulation and transit; construction and the built environment; efficiency; the measurement and representation of rapid motion; and the mind/body relationship. He sought to represent our relationship to speed using images, objects, videos, and juxtapositions that would intrigue and surprise people. "I tried to take the questions of speed and limits into domains where people might not think about it, such as architecture, especially construction and demolition," he explains.
Schnapp hopes that viewers of the exhibit reflect critically on some of the fundamental questions we face today as individuals and as a society. "This is not a show that gives answers. It seeks to offer a series of frameworks for thinking about the historical background of the world we live in," he says.
Schnapp will speak about Speed Limits on September 16 at The Wolfsonian during the members' preview of the exhibition, which begins at 6pm. For membership information or to RSVP to the event, please call 305.535.2631 or email ian@thewolf.fiu.edu. Free for members and the FIU Community; $10 all others.
Speed Limits is co-organized by the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), Montréal and The Wolfsonian. The Wolfsonian installation is designed by Rene Gonzalez Architect. The Wolfsonian thanks the following supporters for making this exhibition possible: Continental Airlines, the Official Airline of The Wolfsonian–FIU; BVLGARI; James Woolems and Woolems Inc.; FPL FiberNet, a leading provider of fiber-optic solutions; Tui Lifestyle; the Frances L. Wolfson Fund at Dade Community Foundation; the Funding Arts Network; and The Wolfsonian–FIU Alliance.
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Cover, Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, no. 26, Mexico Theme Issue, 2010
Detail from Jorge González Camarena, Materia, forma y color
(also known as La Tolteca en Mixcoac), oil on canvas, 19 ¾ x 39 ¼ in.
(50 x 100 cm), 1931
Private collection
© 2009 Artists Rights Society, New York/SOMAAP, Mexico City |
| | The Journal Launches in Miami, Mexico City, and NYC
Get an insider's perspective of the recently published Mexico Theme Issue of The Wolfsonian's Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts at our Miami launch and celebration of the volume on Friday, October 1 at 7pm at the museum. Join us for a conversation between two specialists on modern Mexican art as they discuss key currents in Mexican art and design that emerged from fields such as painting, stained glass, political caricature, architecture, and furniture design. Lynda Klich, guest editor of the issue and visiting assistant professor of art history, Hunter College, CUNY, is joined by Anna Indych-López, author of Muralism without Walls: Rivera, Orozco, and Siqueiros in the United States, 1927-1940, associate professor of art history, CCNY and CUNY Graduate Center. The discussion is followed by a reception and book signing, and is co-sponsored by The Cultural Institute of México in Miami as part of 3° Festival Mexico Miami.
In addition, there are planned launch celebrations of the Journal in both Mexico City and New York City. The Mexico City launch is on October 27, during the trip to Mexico City of The Wolfsonian–Florida International University Alliance (the museum's international support group) and the Advisory Board. The launch takes place at Museo Franz Mayer and features a panel discussion titled "Nationalism and Internationalism in Modern Mexican Art and Design" with several Journal contributors: Lynda Klich; Rafael Barajas (editorial cartoonist); Karen Cordero Reiman (art historian, Universidad Iberoamericana); Alejandro Hernández Gálvez (architect); Ana Elena Mallet (independent curator); James Oles (art historian, Wellesley College); Federica Zanco (architectural historian, Barragan Foundation); and Carla Zurián de la Fuente (art historian, Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia). The New York event is anticipated in March, and is currently in the planning stages. |
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Vase, c. 1905
Designed by Fritz Albert (French, 1865–1940)
Made by Teco Pottery, Terra Cotta, Illinois
Matte glazed terracotta
The Wolfsonian–FIU, Gift of Gregg G. Seibert,
2008.14.1 |
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15 Years of Achievement: Gregg G. Seibert on Collecting
In honor of The Wolfsonian's fifteenth anniversary, ePropaganda is running a series of articles on people, programs, and events that have helped shape the museum. Gregg G. Seibert is a collector who has donated several rare and outstanding examples of American Arts and Crafts movement furniture and decorative arts to the museum in recent years, including a Gustav Stickley Eastwood chair and a Teco Pottery vase. He is executive vice president of Cablevision Systems Corporation and formerly was with Merrill Lynch for two decades, recently serving as senior vice president and vice chairman. In addition to supporting many organizations involved in the arts, he has served on the boards of trustees for both the Montclair Art Museum and
The Craftsman Farms Foundation.
Please describe your collecting interests.
I have an eclectic collection that ranges from fine arts to decorative arts and includes artworks primarily by twentieth century masters such as Jasper Johns and Willem de Kooning to key figures in the Arts and Crafts movement including George Ohr and Gustav Stickley. More recently I've added a few pieces of furniture by George Nakashima to the collection. I seek to pair objects that relate to one another in subtle ways.
What is an example of the ways in which objects in your collection relate to each other?
I began collecting decorative arts prior to collecting fine arts. With George Ohr, I loved the way he integrated his personality into his art and that he had a truly modern aesthetic in the 1890s. Much later in life I ended up collecting works by Jasper Johns, who used images of Ohr pottery in many of his works. It was a relationship that just kind of came about.
How did you get started as a collector?
I collected coins and stamps as a kid, and it kindled an interest in me. When I was in college I began frequenting flea markets. If I needed furniture, I would much rather buy a piece that was old and had character. I started collecting Roseville Pottery from the 1920s, which was mass produced. As I researched art pottery I realized it would be more fun and challenging to seek out one-of-a-kind pieces by the best artists of the period. As a collector in the early 1980s, I had the opportunity to collect some great material. Then I expanded the collection to include American modernist art and Gustav Stickley furniture. With the exception of Ohr pottery, those are mostly previous interests now. My primary focus is on the fine arts collection.
What is your collecting process?
When I was a kid collecting coins, I met a dealer who had a coin I wanted but couldn't afford. He told me, "Son, you always have to buy the book before you buy the coin." It was the right approach. I've always done a lot of research on the areas I collect and often obtain as much original source material as I can. After I add a piece to the collection, its relationship to the other works will often suggest a new direction to take. Occasionally a piece doesn't work, usually because it doesn't have the power or subtlety to fit in.
When you talk about the pieces working with each other, does that mean that everything is in your homes, that a portion isn't in storage?
Everything is out. Everything is lived with. It is there for the kids to appreciate, for people to see, for me to live with and enjoy. One of my favorite ways to relax is to sit in the living room in a Stickley chair and appreciate the art and the artists who made it.
What is your collecting philosophy?
I have wanted to give back some of the enjoyment and stimulation I've derived from this material. I lend items whenever I'm asked. I also enjoy donating pieces to institutions where people have the opportunity to learn from them. The Stickley Eastwood chair I donated to The Wolfsonian is a great object. The Wolfsonian has a fantastic collection of chairs in general, and I felt it was a perfect fit. |
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Instructor Jessica Abel demonstrates inking techniques during the Comic Kraze workshop. | |
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Grant Supports Next Steps for Digital Wolf Design Lab
At-risk teens with an interest in design but little access to digital technology or design instruction will have a chance to study with highly qualified professionals and learn to use state-of-the-art digital tools through a new Wolfsonian program. In addition, they will create design portfolios that will allow them to apply for opportunities such as design magnet schools and college programs where they can further advance their design education. Thanks to a recently awarded $20,000 grant from The Batchelor Foundation, The Wolfsonian will develop and offer weekend classes through the Digital Wolf Design Lab in 2011 from January–May and October–November to at-risk low- and moderate-income teens. Museum staff worked with a professional advisory group to equip the lab with eight Apple iMac computers, Wacom drawing tablets, printers, scanners, and traditional tools used by professional designers. This past summer the museum tested the Digital Wolf Media Lab and its new teen design program through Comic Kraze, an intensive two-week graphic novel and cartooning workshop for fourteen- to eighteen-year-old students supported by Miami-Dade County Cultural Affairs Council's Youth Enrichment Program grant and The Children's Trust. "We're thrilled and appreciative to receive the Batchelor Foundation funding, which allows us to take the Digital Wolf Design Lab to the next level of service and make an important contribution to the community," says Wolfsonian director Cathy Leff. Participating students will benefit significantly from exposure to both cutting-edge equipment and intensive instruction. "By bringing students together with wonderful design professionals who are also effective and motivating teachers, and giving students access to the latest technology, we will be a vital part of helping these students create high-quality art portfolios," explains Kate Rawlinson, assistant director for education and public programs. The lab equipment and software was supported by the Wachovia/Wells Fargo Foundation, Harry S. Kramer Memorial Fund, and The Citi Foundation. |
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Catalog, Führer durch die Ausstellung Entartete Kunst
[Guide through the exhibition on Degenerate Art], 1937
Published Verlag für Kultur- und Wirtschaftswerbung, Berlin
The Wolfsonian–FIU, Miami Beach, Florida,
The Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection
83.2.399 |
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Catching up with Oren Stier, Recipient of Curriculum
Development Grant
Oren Stier, an associate professor of religious studies and director of the Judaic Studies Program at FIU, has been teaching a course on the Holocaust for more than ten years. Last spring, thanks to a curriculum development grant awarded to him by The Wolfsonian, he was able to infuse the course materials with the added dimension of visual culture, working with Wolfsonian staff members and collection materials to enrich the course. The grant that Stier received was supported by a three-year, $500,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to strengthen the academic role of the museum’s collections and programs.
"Visual culture is another way to get students studying the Holocaust to see the real history of the period," Stier explains. "A key goal of the course is to help the students understand the Holocaust not as an abstract but as a conglomeration of historical events. There are some major hurdles in Holocaust education. To truly teach students, they have to get past the problematic history of anti-Semitism and the sheer horror and scale of the events. It is very easy to make students cry. It's harder to teach them why they are crying." In approaching the Holocaust through visual culture, in studying images and materials such as stylized swastikas, posters of ideal Aryan types, and children's propaganda books, students were able to "literally see how powerful these images were, how deeply they infiltrated the culture," Stier says.
Stier spent time over the course of several weeks during Fall 2009 working with Wolfsonian materials and Wolfsonian staff members to incorporate visual materials into his course. Early in the course, Wolfsonian chief librarian and FIU adjunct history professor Francis X. Luca presented a lecture to orient students to the general context and contours of Third Reich visual culture, including the design of symbols and insignia, racial hygiene, and propaganda imagery of both Jews and idealized "Aryans." Stier worked with Luca to prepare a resource room in the museum's library for students in which primary and secondary source materials were laid out for student use, along with a computer for on-site access to the museum's collection. As part of their course requirements, students were required to write an essay based on Wolfsonian-related research.
In addition to adding a new dimension to the course, students' experiences with The Wolfsonian materials fostered an appreciation for visual culture as a valuable resource for a deeper understanding of history across the board, according to Stier. In the future, he plans to add more visual material and integrate it more fully with other aspects of the course. |
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Wolfsonian Friends Tour Barnes Foundation and other Sites
A group of twenty-nine friends of The Wolfsonian, museum staff members, and Florida International University administrators headed north in late August for an intensive two-day excursion in and around the City of Brotherly Love, centering on a guided tour of the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Penn. and a presentation about the future home of the Foundation in Philadelphia, which is currently under construction, along with private tours of several other collections and museums. The Barnes Foundation houses one of the largest collections of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and early Modern paintings including extensive holdings by Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne, Renoir, and Modigliani, as well as important examples of African sculpture. Other highlights of the August 20-21 trip included lunch at the home of Burn and Susan Oberwager, collectors of American paintings (focusing on 1840s to mid-1930s), eighteenth century American furniture, and metal work by Samuel Yellin; the Fabric Workshop and Museum; the Masonic Temple; the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) Museum; the Mummers Museum; and a tour of the collection of Lisa Roberts and David Seltzer called Antiques of the Future, which is dedicated to innovative contemporary design. The Friends of The Wolfsonian on the trip were: Lin Arison; Adrienne Arsht; Judy Auchincloss; Mark Bibbins; Charles Cowles; Kira and Neil Flanzraich; Marvin Ross Friedman and Adrienne Bon Haes; Susan Hakkarainen; Tom Healy; Susan Grant Lewin; Helen Little; Martin, Constance, Elizabeth, and Joe Margulies; Alvaro Martinez-Fonts; Lynne Tillman; Stephen Urice; and Aaron and Nina Yassin. They were joined by Wolfsonian founder Mitchell Wolfson, Jr.; museum director Cathy Leff; and staff members Marianne Lamonaca and Ian Rand. FIU personnel on the tour were Robert Conrad, vice president, University Advancement; Rafael Paz, associate general counsel (for The Wolfsonian–FIU); and Steve Sauls, vice president, Government Relations. |
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Freedom to Read: Celebrate Banned Books Week with Us
We're kicking off Banned Books Week (September 25-October 2) in style, with one of our Dyno'Nite events (that means 2-for-1 beer and wine from 6 to 9 pm) and a screening the 2008 film Obscene: A Portrait of Barney Rosset and Grove Press on Friday, September 24 at 7pm in The Dynamo Museum Shop and Café. Join us to celebrate the freedom to read. The event includes raffling off a movie poster signed by Rosset, the renowned publisher of Grove Press and the Evergreen Review, who took risks and fought for the right of free expression throughout his storied and controversial career. Rosset published works such as an unexpurgated version of D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover and Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer, which led to a flurry of lawsuits and ultimately a 1964 Supreme Court ruling that the book was not obscene due to its social value. Rosset was the first American publisher of many groundbreaking writers including Samuel Beckett, Kenzaburo Oe, Tom Stoppard, Che Guevara, and Malcolm X. If you can't make the screening, the film is available for sale in The Dynamo Shop ($29.95). The shop also offers a large selection of banned books, many from the museum’s period of focus (1885-1945). A number of the volumes are accompanied by bookmarks with details of that book's history of censorship, such as the repeated burning of copies of James Joyce's Ulysses and the Concord, Mass. Public Library declaring Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn to be "trash suitable only for the slums." |
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| | Going Soon/Coming Soon
• The member's preview and reception of Speed Limits takes place on September 16 from 6 to 8pm and begins with a talk by exhibition curator Jeffrey T. Schnapp. Not a member? There’s no time like the present! Join online at http://membership.wolfsonian.org or contact ian@thewolf.fiu.edu or 305.535.2631.
• Now that summer is over, the museum is back on its regular schedule. That means it's open more days so there's more time to visit! Beginning September 16, museum hours are: Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday from noon to 6pm; Friday from noon to 9pm; and closed on Wednesday.
• Don't miss out on La Habana Moderna, an exhibit exploring the emergence of a modern identity for the city of Havana in the decades before the Cuban Revolution, on view in the Wolfsonian Teaching Gallery at FIU's Frost Art Museum. The exhibit, co-curated by Marilys Nepomechie, associate professor at the FIU School of Architecture and Jonathan Mogul, Mellon academic programs coordinator, is on view from October 13, 2010 through January 9, 2011. |
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Ongoing as part of Art and Design in the Modern Age | | | | | |
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The Wolfsonian–FIU gratefully acknowledges our current publication, program, and exhibition supporters:
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; the Jerome A. Yavitz Charitable Foundation; the Rockefeller Foundation; FIU Division of Information Technology: University Technology Services; James Woolems and Woolems, Inc.; National Endowment for the Arts; Institute for Museum and Library Services; Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Foundation; Isabel and Marvin Leibowitz; Bulgari; The Batchelor Foundation; Frances L. Wolfson Fund at Dade Community Foundation; The Cowles Charitable Trust; Youth Arts Enrichment Program of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners, and The Children's Trust, The Trust is a dedicated source of revenue established by voter referendum to improve the lives of children and families in Miami-Dade County; FPL FiberNet, a leading provider of fiber-optic solutions; Tui Lifestyle; Carnival Foundation; Rene Gonzalez Architect; the South Florida Group of Northwestern Mutual; Funding Arts Network; and The Wolfsonian–FIU Alliance.
The Wolfsonian–FIU thanks the following supporters of the Speed Limits exhibition:
The Wolfsonian–FIU is proud to receive ongoing support from:
The Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners; the City of Miami Beach, Cultural Affairs Program, Cultural Arts Council; the William J. and Tina Rosenberg Foundation; Continental Airlines, the Official Airline of The Wolfsonian–FIU; Bacardi USA, Inc.; and Arrowood Vineyards & Winery. 
ePropaganda is published monthly by The Wolfsonian–FIU.© 2010 The Wolfsonian–FIU.
Art Direction: Tim Hossler; Communications Manager: Julieth Dabdoub; Editor: Andrea Gollin; Photographer: Silvia Ros, unless otherwise noted. |
  
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