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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Édouard Vuillard

Wednesday, November 12, 2025 | Karl Cole

Édouard Vuillard was a pivotal artist in the transition from representational and abstract art. He was a member of the Nabis group of painters, "nabi" a Hebrew word for prophet, i ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Anders Ruhwald

Wednesday, November 5, 2025 | Karl Cole

Anders Ruhwald is an artist whose works blur the line between sculpture and design. One of his key interests is in the contrasting of textures of different materials. ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Matsuzaki Kenichi

Wednesday, October 15, 2025 | Karl Cole

Kenichi Matsuzaki exemplifies the richness of the contemporary ceramic art of Japan. His rough surface stoneware works pay tribute to the centuries old traditions of Japanese ceramics, one of the ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Marianne Brandt

Wednesday, October 1, 2025 | Karl Cole

Between 1919 and 1933, Germany was the site of one of the first art schools that emphasized contemporary modernist style in fine arts being applied to industrial arts. Marianne Brandt was a pioneer in ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Abram Games

Tuesday, July 29, 2025 | Karl Cole

A conservative dating of the so-called Golden Age of posters is the 1890s up to World War I (1914–1918). However, poster art continued to develop and flourish through the 1920s into World War II ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Alexander Calder

Tuesday, July 22, 2025 | Karl Cole

Alexander is an artist who is renowned in art history for his pioneering exploration of movement in sculpture, and abstraction. He also became renowned for making jewelry which was a combination of mo ...

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Curator's Corner

World Bicycle Day: Josef Müller-Brockmann

Tuesday, June 3, 2025 | Karl Cole

Starting in the late 1800s, posters began to be designed by fine artists, and what ensued what has been called the Poster Renaissance. After World War II, Swiss artists developed the International Typ ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Chunghi Choo

Friday, May 23, 2025 | Karl Cole

Chunghi Choo works in the ages-old tradition of gold or silver overlay on copper vessels. Like other far Eastern cultures, Korea had a great reverences for all art forms, including those considered &l ...

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Curator's Corner

National Tweed Day: Otto Baumberger

Thursday, April 3, 2025 | Karl Cole

This PKZ (department store) poster typifies the "object poster" genre. The object to be marketed is presented in extreme close-up, either in photo-realistic or almost abstract fashion. Text ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Nicolas Roope

Wednesday, February 26, 2025 | Karl Cole

As an artist, Nicolas Roope looks beyond industry rhetoric in favor of the truths of digital media and design. He has founded numerous influential tech and design companies. Roope only approached desi ...

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Curator's Corner

Artist Birthday: Alvar Aalto

Monday, February 3, 2025 | Karl Cole

Alvar Aalto designed all of the furnishings for his buildings. Using native birch, Aalto designed a number of chairs and stools made entirely of bent plywood and laminated wood. He also invented some ...

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Curator's Corner

Japanese Fashion: Yamamoto Kansai

Monday, December 11, 2023 | Karl Cole

Having studied fashion history in college, I’m always keen on researching unconventional designers. Kansai Yamamoto certainly fills that bill. His outstandingly avant-garde designs helped advanc ...

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Curator's Corner

Gem of the Month: Lori Weitzner

Monday, October 16, 2023 | Karl Cole

Some of the major developments in the design world during the 2000s have involved the use of sustainable materials, ecologically friendly production processes, and upcycling otherwise wasted materials ...

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Curator's Corner

Gem of the Month: Mary White

Monday, April 12, 2021 | Karl Cole

As long as I’m pining for the greenery of spring to emerge, I’ll indulge in one of the wonderful art works in our collection that brings that pining to mind. As you know, I’m a big f ...

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Curator's Corner

California Bound: Isamu Noguchi

Monday, August 12, 2019 | Karl Cole

I’m going to California, namely Los Angeles, on vacation to visit dear friends in a couple of weeks. And what artists come to mind when I say “Los Angeles,” you might ask? Well, ...

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Curator's Corner

Mobility Awareness Month: Kawasaki Kazuo and Rainer Küschall

Monday, May 21, 2018 | Karl Cole

By the early 21st century, it is certainly no longer questioned that industrial design and art have learned how to go hand-in-hand. I think we also agree that most creative efforts—from chefs to ...

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