Taken by Design
Photographs from the Institute of Design, 1937-1971
One of Chicago's great cultural achievements, the Institute of Design was among the most important schools of photography in twentieth-century America. It began as an outpost of experimental Bauhaus education and was home to an astonishing group of influential teachers and students, including Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, Harry Callahan, and Aaron Siskind. To date, however, the ID's enormous contributions to the art and practice of photography have gone largely unexplored".Taken by Design" is the first publication to examine thoroughly this remarkable institution and its lasting impact.
With nearly 300 illustrations, including many never-before published photographs, "Taken by Design" examines the changing nature of photography over this critical period in America's midcentury. It starts by documenting the experimental nature of Moholy's Bauhaus approach and photography's new and enhanced role in training the "complete designer". Next it traces the formal and abstract camera experiments under Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind, which aimed at achieving a new kind of photographic subjectivity. Finally, it highlights the ID's focus on conscious references to the processes of the photographic medium itself. In addition to photographs by Moholy, Callahan, and Siskind, the book showcases works by Barbara Crane, Yasuhiro Ishimoto, Joseph Jachna, Kenneth Josephson, Gyorgy Kepes, Nathan Lerner, Ray K. Metzker, Richard Nickel, Arthur Siegel, Art Sinsabaugh, and many others. Major essays from experts in the field, biographies, a chronology, and reprints of critical essays are also included, making "Taken by Design" an essential work for anyone interested in the history of American photography.
Contributors include:
Keith Davis, Lloyd Engelbrecht, John Grimes, Nathan Lyons, Hattula Moholy-Nagy, Elizabeth Siegel, David Travis, Larry Viskochil, James N. Wood
Contents:
Foreword James N. Wood
1. Laszlo Moholy-Nagy: An Appreciation – Hattula Moholy-Nagy
2. Educating the Eye: Photography and the Founding Generation at the Institute of Design, 1937-46 – Lloyd C. Englebrecht (Plates, 1937-46)
3".To Open an Individual Way": Photography at the Institute of Design, 1946-61 – Keith R. Davis (Plates, 1946-61)
4. Photography on Its Own: The ID in the 1960s – John Grimes (Plates, 1961-71)
5. Big City, Small World: The Photography Scene in Chicago, 1937-71 – Larry Viskochil
6. Vision in Motion: Film and Photography at the Institute of Design – Elizabeth Siegel
7. Epilogue: After 1971 John Grimes
Notes
Biographies
Chronology
Catalogue
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Contributors
Photography Credits
Index
About the Author
David Travis is a curator of photography at the Art Institute of Chicago. His books include "Edward Weston: The Last Years in Carmel" and "All Around the House: Photographs of American-Jewish Communal Life".
Elizabeth Siegel is an assistant curator of photography at the Art Institute of Chicago.
Reviews
"This is the catalog for the year's landmark exhibition that proved beyond a doubt that the greatest artistic achievements in Chicago during the mid-20th Century were not paintings and sculptures but photographs... The six essayists engaged here have produced a study not likely to be surpassed soon. It is measured, thorough and beautifully illustrated with often surprising images. What's more, its contemporary design is as brilliant as the work it serves, enhancing a volume that should be in the library of every history-minded Chicagoan" – Alan G. Artner, Chicago Tribune
"Tells the story of the Institute of Design's rise to prominence and illustrates the work of many of its best students, including Barbara Crane, Linda Connor, Eileen Cowin, Ken Josephson, William Larson and Ray Metzker" – Andy Grundberg, The New York Times Book Review
