Propaganda and Decorative Art Taking Over Miami
My favorite museum in the entire universe, The Wolfsonian Museum, is now getting much bigger, twenty-thousand-square-feet bigger in a downtown space, located on Flagler Street, Miami. It will enable the museum to build on education and research offerings and offer a qualitatively different way of engaging with the collection.
The Wolfsonian will remain headquartered in Miami Beach with plans to vastly expand offerings there. “Collecting is a constant of the human condition,” says Wolfsonian founder Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. It has certainly been a constant in his own life — he began collecting at age 12 and has not stopped. Gifting has also been a constant in Wolfson’s life. Sixteen years ago, he donated The Wolfsonian’s building and its contents to Florida International University. On July 1, he made another major donation to The Wolfsonian–FIU. His gift of three floors of an office condominium building in the heart of downtown Miami and an irrevocable promised gift of approximately twenty-five thousand objects, rare books, works-on-paper, and archives significantly expands The Wolfsonian’s physical presence and enhances its singular collection.
+ + + + + + +
Ernst Reichl, Book Designer, Exhibited
Not to be missed: The Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Columbia University has just opened Ernst Reichl: Wide Awake Typographer, the first major exhibition of the work of Ernst Reichl (1900-1980), German-American book designer, active and prominent in New York/American publishing from the 1930s into the 1970s. The curator is Martha Scotford (assisted by Kezra Cornell). For more information read Scotford’s essay here.
Reichl, says the Library website introductory note, “believed in the harmonious totality of the package and the value of one design vision for all its parts, and became one of the top trade book designers, prolific and award-winning. He actively promoted the profession and high standards in book publishing, by example and through writing, teaching, and exhibitions. A serious reader (he read broadly and seldom designed without reading the manuscript), Reichl was also a scholar, and a fine writer. The latter activity was an unexpected discovery in his papers, given to Columbia by his widow, Miriam Reichl, and the catalyst for this exhibition.” The exhibit runs from July 8 – September 13, 2013 at the Kempner Gallery in The Butler Library (6th Floor East) 535 West 114th Street. 212 854-5590.
+ + + + + + +
Comic Trumps Evil
Dark Horse, which has been publishing reproduction archives of some fantastic “B” level crime and super hero comic books from the 30s and 40s, recently issued The Original Daredevil Archives Volume 1, leading off with Daredevil Battles Hitler (which you can also see here).
This original Daredevil, not to be confused with Marvel’s character, was created by Jack Binder for a feature in Lev Gleason Publications’ Silver Streak #6 (Sept. 1940). Editor Jack Cole, creator of Plastic Man a year later, transformed Daredevil and matched him with the villainous Claw, for a five-issue battle. Daredevil Battles Hitler (July 1941), was the premiere issue of the eponymous Daredevil Comics rendered by Charles Biro and Bob Wood, where Daredevil and other Silver Streak heroes fought Herr Hitler in anticipation of U.S. declaring war on the Axis.
+ + + + + + +
Jarvis Rockwell at The Rockwell
The son of Norman Rockwell, Jarvis Rockwell, began collecting action figures in 1979. His collection increases by hundreds or thousands of pieces per year. His fascination for fictional narratives are established by the figures’ random intersections.
Jarvis Rockwell, who has shown at Mass MoCA, will have his first exhibition at the citadel of his father’s work, The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass. Jarvis’s own endeavors ―from early examples created as a student at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and while in the Air Force, to his most recent drawings and constructions―will be on view. A documentary film created by filmmaker Rachel Victor, will be featured. Read more here. The show runs from July 13, 2013 through October 20, 2013.
+ + + + + + +
Bloomberg’s Ups and Downs
We may all agree that words are unnecessary here. Right?
(Thanks to Mirko Ilic’s eye for the sardonic.)
Additional Resource: Did You Miss HOW Design Live?Or, do you want to get the scoop on some of the sessions you didn’t get a chance to see? Check out the HOW Design Live ONLINE Event, July 17-19th!