Past Exhibitions
Vital Forms:
American Innovations In Art and Design, 1940-1960
The World War II and Cold War eras witnessed the spread of suburbia, the proliferation of the automobile, the growing popularity of television, the dissolution of regional barriers and the dawn of the Atomic Age. It was a time of optimism and anxiety, prosperity and enormous change. The arts were not immune, as wartime ingenuity was transformed into cultural design. Artists and designers reacted against the hard-edged, linear machine form of the pre-war period, and were vitalized by more natural and organic forms. Ranging from paintings by Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock and furniture by Charles and Ray Eames to the Slinky and Hula Hoop, Vital Forms: American Innovation in Art and Design, 1940 - 1960 is the first exhibition to explore the vast array of visual arts during this vital period in history.
The 230 objects in the exhibition provide a sweeping look at American material culture. From a clock reminiscent of electrons circling a nucleus to science fiction paperback covers, from a Rothko painting to the coveted Spacelander bicycle, the exhibition explores the period through architecture, ceramics, clothing, furniture, glass, graphic design, industrial design, jewelry, metal, painting, photography, sculpture, toys and textiles. Phoenix Art Museum also will include in its showing of the exhibition an example of the epitome of automobile design of the period, a 1953/54 Kaiser Darrin - one of only 435 made. The Kaiser Darrin was the first to have a fiberglass body and it sported sliding doors. Taken together, these diverse objects, from the most sophisticated to the most mundane, capture the psychology of American life at the time of their creation.
The material culture and design presented in Vital Forms in many ways reflects a vigorous period in the development of Phoenix, as well, which came of age during this post-war boom. Phoenix Art Museum also will present Vital Phoenix: The Post-War Years, an adjunct exhibition in the Rineberg Gallery featuring architectural photography, models and drawings of such landmarks as Grady Gammage Auditorium, Ciné Capri movie theater, and the Coliseum at the State fair grounds. Many of the drawings and models were created by famed architect with Phoenix ties, Frank Lloyd Wright.
Vital Forms was organized by the Brooklyn Museum of Art and was made possible, in part, by generous grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. It is the third in a series of exhibitions organized by Brooklyn Museum of Art - following The American Renaissance, 1876-1917 and The Machine Age in America, 1918-1941. The Arizona presentation of the exhibition is made possible by the generous support of Bank One, Accenture, Target, The Boeing Company Charitable Foundation, The Marshall Fund of Arizona and the Museum's Contemporary Forum. Promotional support is provided by The Arizona Republic, Dillard's, Phoenix Magazine, azcentral.com, KJZZ/KBAQ Radio, and Jewish News of Greater Phoenix.
Left: "Ball" Wall Clock, Model No. 4755. Irving Harper for George Nelson Associates. Designed 1947. Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York. H. Randolph Lever Fund. Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Museum of Art. Center: Predicta Line, Pedestal, Model No. 4654. Catherine Winkler, Severin Jonaffen and Richard Whippie for Philco Corporation. Designed 1957-58. Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York. H. Randolph Lever Fund. Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Museum of Art. Right: Spacelander Bicycle. Benjamin J. Bowden. Designed 1946. Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York. Bernice Bitzer Fund. Photo courtesy of Brooklyn Museum of Art