The exhibition will be on display from Thursday, September 10, through Monday, February 1, 2010, in the Kemper Room Art Gallery of the Galvin Library, 35 West 33rd St., Chicago, on IIT’s Main Campus. An opening reception, including an artist’s talk by Barbara Crane, will be held from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday, September 10, in the Kemper Room Art Gallery.

The IIT Archives and the IIT Paul V. Galvin Library have recently announced the opening of a significant archival collection, the Institute of Design Records, 1948-2001, from which Crane’s ID portfolio was gathered.

This collection includes materials produced by a number of ID students and faculty, along with materials documenting significant school activities and programs. This body of ID records joins a previously opened collection, Institute of Design Records, 1937-1955, which includes materials from the school’s opening in 1937, by László Moholy-Nagy, as the New Bauhaus in Chicago.

The collections are open to scholars and researchers by appointment only. Remarks about the newly catalogued ID Archives will be offered at 6 p.m. on September 10, as part of the exhibition’s opening reception.

Independent curator Susan Aurinko created the idea for the exhibition when she learned that the IIT ID archives had been reorganized and made available for study, realizing that a collection of Barbara Crane’s works from her time as a student at ID could be displayed to the public for the first time.

Through the years, Aurinko represented Barbara Crane’s work at FLATFILEgalleries in Chicago, discovering that the experimental aesthetic developed during her studies at ID remains strong in her contemporary work. With the newly accessible archives, Aurinko was able to pull Crane’s Master’s Thesis, unseen in its entirety since 1966, and exhibit images from the portfolio together with the artist’s thesis essay. A selection from the 90 photographs in her thesis will be exhibited alongside her work from the last several years.

By juxtaposing the old work with the new, a connection is established, showing that what Crane learned and experimented with during her ID studies continues into her current work. This exhibition will run concurrent to the Barbara Crane retrospective, which will open on Saturday, October 3, at the Chicago Cultural Center.

Beginning her career in photography in 1948, Crane earned a master’s degree in photography from ID in 1966, where she began the unique and pioneering techniques that still mark her work today.

Crane has received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship (1979), an Illinois Arts Council Artists Fellowship grant (2001), two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships (1988,1974), and numerous other awards, grants and honors. She served as a full professor at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago from 1967 to 1995, and has presented more than 100 solo exhibitions in museums and galleries.

Her work is included in numerous private and public collections in the United States, Japan, France, Greece, and Germany.

The concepts Crane learned at ID are still a driving force for her today; strong individuality, visual experimentation and purity of form are stressed in her work, about which she has said, “The issues in my work are often of a similar nature with an abstract edge. Though I build on past experience, I attempt to eradicate previous habits of seeing and thinking. I keep searching for what is visually new to me while always hoping that a fusion of form and content will take place”.

Exhibition hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. For parking information and directions, or for more information about art@IIT, please visit art.iit.edu.

This exhibition is part of Living Modern Chicago (March 2008–May 2010), a slate of programs organized by the Mies van der Rohe Society at IIT and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago that probe the presence of the modern today, featuring the legacy of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and László Moholy-Nagy who carried Bauhaus principles to Chicago and IIT. For more information about Living Modern Chicago programs, visit livingmodernchicago.org

About the Illinois Institute of Technology

Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting university with more than 7,300 students in engineering, sciences, architecture, psychology, design, humanities, business and law. IIT’s interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum is designed to advance knowledge through research and scholarship, to cultivate invention improving the human condition, and to prepare students from throughout the world for a life of professional achievement, service to society, and individual fulfillment. Visit iit.edu.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Tanya Pantone, 312-567-6930
Media Relations Specialist
tpantone@iit.edu

Illinois Institute of Technology Presents Barbara Crane Exhibition Presenting Artist’s Past and Present Work Sept. 10 | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.

Barbara Crane: Challenging Vision will be on view in the Chicago Cultural Center’s Fourth Floor Exhibit Hall from October 3, 2009, through January 10, 2010. On Thursday, October 1, curator Kenneth C. Burkhart will lead a gallery talk at 5:30 p.m., which will be followed by an opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Also the opening event for Chicago Artists Month, Barbara Crane will be receiving the DCA’s first Ruth Horwich Award to a Famous Chicago Artist.

Barbara Crane, Chicago Beaches and Parks, 1972-78, gelatin silver print, 11 x 14 in. Courtesy of the artist. More Images Available Upon Request.

Named for one of Chicago’s most steadfast art supporters, the award recognizes the enduring career of an esteemed Chicago artist. For more information on Chicago Artist Month, the annual celebration of Chicago’s talented and diverse visual arts community during the month of October, visit chicagoartistsmonth.org. Additional events related to the exhibition are listed below. Admission to the exhibition and these associated programs is free.

Barbara Crane, artist-photographer and educator, has explored photography as a vehicle for creative expression for over sixty years. The result has been a changing, ongoing body of work conceptually consistent, varied in approach and experimental in style.

An early investigator of repetition and deconstruction of visual information, she has experimented with sequences, grids, scrolls, and large modular murals. Crane continues to work in many formats ranging from the intimate to the large scale and to use diverse materials and processes including platinum-palladium, Polaroid formats, gelatin silver, and digital.

Born in Chicago, Crane studied at Mills College in California, completing her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Art History at New York University. She received her Master of Science Degree from the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology. She began teaching photography in 1964 and soon joined the faculty of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she retired as Professor Emeritus in 1995.

Crane has been the recipient of many grants, awards, and fellowships, including the National Endowment for the Arts Grants in 1975 and 1988, a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship in Photography in 1979, and an Illinois Arts Council Artists Fellowship Award in Photography in 2001. Her work is represented in major collections around the country, including the George Eastman House in Rochester, the Center for Creative Photography in Tucson, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Related Events:

• Thurs., Oct. 1, 5:30 pm: Gallery Talk led by guest curator Kenneth C. Burkhart
• Thurs., Oct. 1, 6-8 pm: Opening Reception and Chicago Artist Month Opening Celebration
• Sat., Oct. 3, 2 pm: Interview of the artist Barbara Crane by Franςois Poviot, Director of Galerie Franςois Poviot, Paris, 1st floor Garland Room of the Chicago Cultural Center
• Thurs., Oct. 29, 12:15 pm: Gallery Talk led by Gregory Knight, Deputy Commissioner for Visual Arts
• Thurs., Nov. 19, 12:15 pm: Gallery Talk led by Abigail Foerstner, essayist on Barbara Crane
• Thurs., Dec. 17, 12:15 pm: Gallery Talk by Whitney Bradshaw, Curator of Photography for the Bank of America Collection
• Thurs., Jan. 7, 12:15 pm: Gallery Talk with the artist Barbara Crane

Also on exhibit in the Chicago Cultural Center’s first floor Michigan Avenue Galleries are “Jane Fulton Alt: After the Storm” from October 3 to December 27, 2009, and “Rosilene Luduvico: Paintings and Drawings” and “Josue Pellot: New Work” from October 10, 2009, to January 3, 2010. The Project Onward Gallery is showing “David Blaisdell: MIND and ANTI-MIND” from October 6 to November 16, 2009, and “Ryan Tepich: Angels” from November 18, 2009 to January 4, 2010.

Viewing hours for Barbara Crane: Challenging Vision and other exhibitions at the Chicago Cultural Center are Mondays through Thursdays, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Fridays, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturdays 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Chicago Cultural Center is closed on holidays. Admission to Chicago Cultural Center exhibitions is free.

Organized by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, this exhibition was guest curated by Kenneth C. Burkhart, and was made possible in part by the David C. and Sarajean Ruttenberg Arts Foundation.

Exhibitions and related educational programming presented by the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs at the Chicago Cultural Center are partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency. Transportation support is provided by United Airlines, the Official Airline of the Chicago Cultural Center. Lawry’s the Prime Rib is the restaurant sponsor of Chicago Cultural Center exhibitions.

For more information about Barbara Crane: Challenging Vision and the Chicago Cultural Center, the public can visit www.chicagoculturalcenter.org or call 312.744.6630. (TTY: 312-744-2947).

Attached: Barbara Crane, Chicago Beaches and Parks, 1972-78, gelatin silver print, 11 x 14 in. Courtesy of the artist.
More Electronic Images Available Upon Request

MEDIA CONTACT:

Christine Carrino, 312-742-1148
Media Relations Manager
Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs
christine.carrino@cityofchicago.org

“Barbara Crane: Challenging Vision” Exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center Highlights Chicago Photographer Oct. 3, 2009 to Jan. 10, 2010 | Chicago Press Release Services - Chicago's leading press release newswire service; professional press release services, press release distribution and newswire services.