Thursday, October 1, 2009 and Friday, October 2, 2009 at 6pm
Guests in person!
- Image: László Moholy-Nagy & ID students, Design Workshops (1944).
“The illiterates of the future,” the pioneering Hungarian artist and educator László Moholy-Nagy once famously proclaimed, “will be ignorant of the camera and pen alike.” Founded in Chicago in 1937 and modeled after the German Bauhaus, Moholy-Nagy’s groundbreaking Institute of Design [ID], now part of the Illinois Institute of Technology, was one of the first American schools to develop an art-film program. Its influence on photography, art, and design was unparalleled at the time and still resonates today.
This two-evening program brings together a remarkable collection of experimental, documentary, and design-focused films by ID faculty and students, dating from the school’s beginnings through 1970. Featured are works by Moholy-Nagy, Nathan Lerner, Marvin Newman, Yasuhiro Ishimoto, Ken Josephson, and Millie Goldsholl, including a number of rarely-screened prints from the Chicago History Museum.
Presented in collaboration with the Chicago History Museum. This series is part of the “Learning Modern” exhibition at SAIC Sullivan Galleries, and a program of Living Modern Chicago, organized by SAIC and the Mies van der Rohe Society/Illinois Institute of Technology. Visit www.livingmodernchicago.org.
Vision in Motion, Program 1
Thursday, October 1
(1944-1970, USA, various artists, various formats, ca 75 min)
Do Not Disturb (László Moholy-Nagy & students, 1945, 16mm on DVD, color, sound, 19 min.)
Outtakes “Light Machine” (László Moholy-Nagy & Nathan Lerner, 1944, 16mm, color, silent, 4 min.)
Motions (Harry Callahan, 1948-49, 16mm, b/w, silent, 10 min.)
Licht Spiel Nur 1 (Robert Stielger, 1966, 16mm on HDV, color, silent, 6 min.)
DL #2 (Larry Janiak, 1970, 16mm, color, sound, 11 min.)
George & Martha Revisited (Wayne Boyer, 1967, 16mm, b/w, silent, 8 min.)
Followed by a discussion with Hattula Moholy-Nagy, scholar and daughter of Moholy-Nagy; Elizabeth Siegel, Associate Curator of Photography at the Art Institute of Chicago; and Wayne Boyer, filmmaker and Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
Vision in Motion, Program 2
Friday, October 2
(1950-1968, USA, various artists, various formats, ca 75 min)
Chicago Morning (Boris Yakovleff & students, 1952, 16mm, b/w, sound, 14 min.)
A Motion Control Drawing (Len Gittleman & Faythe Nelson, 1953, 16mm, color, silent, 5 min.)
Night Driving (Millie Goldsholl, 1957, 16mm, color, sound, 9 min.)
The Church on Maxwell Street (Yasuhiro Ishimoto & Marvin Newman, 1951, 16mm on BetaSP, b/w, sound, 8 min.);
Nebula 2 (Robert Frerck, 1969, 16mm on HDV, color, sound, 6 min.)
33rd and LaSalle (Ken Josephson, 1962, 16mm, b/w, silent, 8 min.)
Adam’s Film (Larry Janiak, 1963, 16mm, color, sound, 12 min.)