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ART DESIGN CHICAGO – Designed to be Seen: Art and Function in Chicago Mid-Century Film

August 27, 2018

 

 

We’re thrilled to announce that we will be participating in the Terra Foundation for American Art’s Art Design Chicago initiative. Art Design Chicago is a spirited celebration of the unique and vital role Chicago plays as America’s crossroads of creativity and commerce. Initiated by the Terra Foundation for American Art, this citywide partnership of more than 75 cultural organizations explores Chicago’s art and design legacy and continued impact with more than 30 exhibitions, hundreds of events, as well as the creation of several scholarly publications and a four-part television series presented throughout 2018.

As part of the Art Design Chicago initiative, CFA is presenting Designed to be Seen: Art and Function in Chicago Mid-Century Film, a series of screenings that reframe the history of cinema in Chicago through various lenses and modes of production. This four program series illuminates the diverse factors that have shaped the filmic landscape of the region from the mid-century through the 1970s.

Form and Function: The Legacy of the Institute of Design, provides historical context and a new perspective on the lasting impact of Lászlo Moholy-Nagy’s teachings at the New Bauhaus. Two programs, The New World: Industrial, Corporate and Sponsored Films and Creative Broadcast: Communication, Commercials and Advertising, focused on industrial, commercial, sponsored, and advertising films, examine the innovative design work being done on film in the mid-century. Personal Legacies: Materiality and Abstraction, presents personal and experimental films made by the artists who worked for the design studios and corporations highlighted in the second and third programs of the series. As a whole, the series tells a chapter of Chicago’s history on film that has yet to be seen.

This series uncovers the interconnected histories of commercial and artistic film production in Chicago and, in doing so, sheds new light on the multitude of ways in which art and design industries overlapped and intersected in the city. “Designed to be Seen” explores the distinct genres and production models that were most dominant during this period of time and provides a new perspective on filmmaking in Chicago. It illustrates the innovative ways in which artists and designers used the moving image to both tell and sell the stories of their time. The four screenings in the program are timed to compliment other concurrent exhibitions taking place as part of the Terra Foundation’s Art Design Chicago Initiative, including those at our host venues: The Chicago Cultural Center and the Chicago History Museum.

For more information about each of the screenings, please click on the links below.

2:30pm  Sunday, November 4, 2018
The New World: Industrial, Corporate and Sponsored Films
The Claudia Cassidy Theater, Chicago Cultural Center
Program Introduction and Post-Screening Discussion: Lara Allison (Lecturer, Department of Art History, Theory and Criticism, School of the Art Institute of Chicago). Presented in partnership with the Chicago Humanities Festival.

6pm  Wednesday, November 7, 2018
Personal Legacies: Materiality and Abstraction 
The Claudia Cassidy Theater, Chicago Cultural Center
Program Introduction and Post-Screening Discussion: Daniel Bashara (Adjunct Faculty, Department of Cinema and Media Studies, DePaul University)

6pm  Tuesday, November 27, 2018
Creative Broadcast: Communication, Commercials, and Advertising
The McCormick Theater, Chicago History Museum
Program Introduction and Post-Screening Discussion: Michael Golec (Chair and Associate Professor of Art and Design History, Department of Art History, Theory & Criticism, School of the Art Institute of Chicago)

6pm  Tuesday, December 4, 2018
Form and Function: The Legacy of the Institute of Design
The McCormick Theater, Chicago History Museum
Program Introduction and Post-Screening Discussion: Jan Tichy (Assistant Professor, Department of Art & Technology, School of the Art Institute of Chicago)

All four programs are free and open to all.

Support for Art Design Chicago is provided by the Terra Foundation for American Art and Presenting Partner, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation. Additional funding for the initiative is provided by Leslie Hindman Auctioneers, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and the Joyce Foundation. The Chicago Community Trust, Leo Burnett, Polk Bros. Foundation, and EXPO CHICAGO are providing in-kind support.

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