12/21=winter soltice=longest day

Settling into winter and the longest day of the year.....
The Library's current display at the Circulation Desk, "And Still: snowy - quiet - meditative selections," brings together a variety of materials to enhance your winter's rest experience.  Selections include ice and snow photography and sculpture, ice crystals, repetitive patterns and the works of Richard Long, James Turrell, Agnes Martin, Olafur Eliasson and Mark Rothko.  There are many beautifully illustrated books choose from, and even some DVDs too.  Stop by and check out a few for the break.

Happy Holidays from your friends in the MCAD Library

Should MCAD Have a Library Cat?

Enough with the “Cat-alog” jokes, already . . .

This idea isn’t as off-the-wall as it might sound at first.  The Library Cat Society maintains a listing of hundreds of libraries around the world with resident felines (you can see their map here).

The video documentary “Puss in Books:  Adventures of the Library Cat,” along with its companion book Dewey / The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World, chronicles the life and exploits of the late Dewey Readmore, famed feline bibliophile of the Spencer Public Library in Iowa.

http://www.spencerlibrary.com/dewey.shtml 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-1141182/Puss-books-How-cat-transformed-town.html 

Here at MCAD, students who are lonesome for their own beloved companion animals waiting for them back home might benefit emotionally from spending a few quality moments with a Library Cat. Before his untimely demise last year, long-time neighborhood resident Yo Yo Meow used to warm many MCADian hearts with his frequent, friendly visits. On evenings when classes were due to wrap up, Yo Yo Meow would hang out by the gallery doors, greeting students and asking them to slow down for a minute, receiving affectionate pets in return.  Also, truth be told, the MCAD Library has from time to time experienced “mouse problems,” which a resident cat could help to alleviate.

Most MCAD Library staffers are "cat people"

On the other hand, most libraries with resident cats are smaller public libraries with limited hours, rather than busy academic libraries with extended hours.  Some people have allergies triggered by pet dander; and other unfortunate souls are ailurophobic (literally “scared of cats”), a psychological condition that goes way beyond just “being generally annoyed by cats.” From time to time, even normally well-behaved companion animals experience stress-related issues (don’t we all?), and might as a consequence sometimes act in a less than sociable manner.  Which, inevitably, raises the question of which staff member would get to be custodian of -- and assume responsibility for -- the Library Cat’s (ahem) litter box?  

In the end, perhaps it’s a good thing that the decision is out of our hands:  College policy forbids keeping animals on campus.

Allan Kohl
Visual Resources Librarian

It's time for the Library's annual book sale!

The Library book sale will be held this Wednesday & Thursday, Nov. 10-11 from 8:30am to10pm in the Library.  The first day is reserved for current students who pay just 1/2 price!  As usual there will be a variety of books and magazines on art and literature plus this year VHS tapes and vinyl LPs.
New this year we're holding a drawing for a lovely art book: Hiroshige's 100 views of Edo.  To win you must be a follower of the Library's Facebook page.  No purchase required!  See you at the sale!

Luis Fitch of Uno Branding lectures @ MCAD 11/1

Luis Fitch, creative director and founder of Uno Branding will speak this evening (11/1) in auditorium 150 @ 6:30 pm. View his presentation at the AIGA business and design conference in 2008 about Uno's branding projects.  See more of Uno's work at http://unoonline.com/

Elliott Erwitt at Weinstein Gallery

Meet a former president of Magnum, a fabulous photographer of those absurd and poignant moments that zip past us.  He is one of the most iconic photographers of the last 60 years and he will be here at the Weinstein Gallery tonight Oct 29th from 6-8:30pm. The show is up until January 9th.

Elliott Erwitt was born in Paris in 1928 but has lived in many locations including Italy, Los Angeles, Germany, France and mostly New York. He studied photography and filmmaking at Los Angeles City College and at the New School for Social Research in New York before working for the US Army as a photographer.  After he met and was mentored by Edward Steichen, Robert Capa and Roy Stryker he was invited to join Magnum Photos agency and went on to be their president for 3 terms.

He has worked as a freelance photographer for many magazines and done advertising and industrial photography as well as producing 20 books.  He also has made documentary films and comedy programs for Home Box Office.

You can see examples of his work at his website and at Magnum Photos. Take a look at these images and you will realize how many you recognize because they have been routinely published over the years.  They are so beautiful, funny or moving that they are very memorable. You will be glad to have seen them.

Eva Hyvarinen
Visual Resources Assistant
Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Lecture by photographer James Welling Oct. 14

Don't miss photographer James Welling's lecture this Thursday at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. It will be held in the Pillsbury Auditorium from 6-7 pm. and it is FREE to MCAD students with an I.D.

And do stop by the Library and have a look at some of the books in the collection on Welling's work. They're now on display in the main reading room.

John Tenniel's Civil War Cartoons

Editorial cartoons and satirical drawings by English artist John Tenniel, famed as the original illustrator of Lewis Carroll"s Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, will be the subject of a talk given by Allan Kohl, MCAD's Visual Resources Librarian, at the October meeting of the St. Croix Valley Civil War Roundtable on Monday, October 25, at the Lowell Inn in Stillwater, Minnesota.

Tenniel's cartoons offer an unusual look at the events and personalities of the Civil War from a European perspective.  As the principal cartoonist for the venerable British periodical Punch, Tenniel reflected the political views of that periodical's Tory (Conservative) readership.  These views are evident in his pro-Southern spin on events, and especially in his viciously negative portrayals of the American President, Abraham Lincoln. 

Kohl is particularly interested in the interaction of “high art” and popular visual culture –- including materials such as theatrical posters, political cartoons, sheet music covers, currency, and even advertising -- during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Many of the illustrators and designers who created these early examples of “mass publications” began their careers as traditionally-trained artists, and freely appropriated compositions, figure poses, and gestures from “high art” sources such as classical statuary, or narrative and genre paintings.  Kohl’s three-year study of Tenniel’s cartoons commenting on the Civil war resulted in his web publication John Tenniel and the American Civil War:  Political Cartoons from Punch, 1860-1865.  

The St. Croix Valley Civil War Roundtable meets on the fourth Monday of each month at the historic Lowell Inn, located at 102 N. 2nd St. in Stillwater, MN.  Social hour is at 5:00 PM, with dinner at 6:00 PM and program at 7:00 PM.

Four generations of Yoshida Family artists

Did you know that Ayomi Yoshida whose installation, Reverberation, now in the MCAD Gallery was born into a dynasty of famous Japanese printmakers?  For more than a century the Yoshia family has created work wedding traditional and modern artistic practices.

To find out more about their body of work take a look at the book A Japanese  Legacy: Four Generations of Yoshida Family Artists in the Library's collection (N 7359.Y67 A4 2002).  This beautifully illustrated exhibition catalog produced by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, which includes essays by Matthew Welch, curator of Japanese art at The Minneapolis Institute of Arts and others, "provides new insights into each artist as well as a broad view of major issues confronting Japanese art in the late 19th and 20th century. The unique perspective of a single family also offers a rare opportunity to examine how family ties impact artistic creation."

The Library also has the catalog for Yeodensis, Ayomi Yoshida's installation at Northern Illinois University in 2008 (Pamphlet N 7359.Y674 A4 2008)

Enjoy Reverberation now in the MCAD gallery!

Kay Streng
Technical Services Librarian

Color Observations Outside

Get outside and see our leaves changing. The Twin Cities are at about 50-75% peak color now. We have plenty of beautiful trees right here on campus including the MIA courtyard.  For farther afield check out the Fall Color Reports from the Minnesota DNR which show a state map, photos, videos and reports for each state park.

If you are wondering what is actually happening in the leaves take a look at Wikipedia's explanation with graphics showing the carotenoids and anthocyanins and how they form.

And if while you're staring at the leaves you begin to notice how much the leaves, bark and shapes vary from tree to tree you might want to use a key to identify the trees.  Try these:
Dichotomous Tree Key (DNR Wisc.)
Tree Identification Arbor Day Foundation
Key to Wisconsin Woody Plants for the iPod

The library also has some books to help you key your trees:
A field guide to trees and shrubs Ref QK 482 .P43 1972
The illustrated encyclopedia of trees, Ref QK 475 .E29 1978 
Trees of North America and Europe Ref QK 477.2 .I4 P45

Have fun observing nature and enjoy the wonderful color combinations.

Eva Hyvarinen, Visual Resource Assistant

MCAD Library

Explore the Dark Side

Ready or not, Halloween will be here soon!
To prepare you, to get you in the mood,  we have pulled some items from the Library's collection for display, celebrating the dark side, the macabre, the gruesome and the ghastly.
Among the selections are DVDs (including The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror and Nosferatu), graphic novels,  childrens books, exhibition catalogs (100 Artists See Satan), critical works on the Gothic, books on the holiday itself (Dressed for Thrills), on The Day of the Dead, and the art of Edward Gorey.
Stop by the Library circulation desk and check them out (literally).

Richard T. Brewer, MCAD Alumnus at Gallery 360

Dick Brewer will be in a two-man show with Al Wadzinski at Gallery 360  from 2 Oct. to 7 Nov. with an opening Saturday night from 7-10 pm.  They will be showing "unorthodox object d'art"  with some masks, animal-forms carved and painted plexiglass and mixed media sculptures according to the gallery.  The Star Tribune's article claims that "you should expect a scene at the opening party". 

Richard Brewer graduated from MCAD in 1969 and exhibited at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in 1977.  He also won a Bush Foundation fellowship in 1989 and a McKnight Foundation fellowship the same year.  His works are owned by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Frederick R. Weisman Museum, Minnesota Museum of Art and by many local corporations. His website has a beautiful gallery of his work and background information about him.

Whether or not you see the show you can see more about Richard Brewer in the following publications in our library:  Alumni exhibition / Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Pamph N6535.M54 M4 1986; Bush artist fellowships, Pamph NX412 .B8 1989; Eight McKnight artists, Pamph N6530.M6 E3 1990;  Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program presents five geniuses, N6530.M6 M556.

-- 

Eva Hyvarinen

Visual Resource Assistant

Minneapolis College of Art and Design

Installation artist, type designer, stone carver, sculptor, and biomedical animator win MacArthur grants

Among the 23 people named 2010 MacArthur Fellows (winners of the $500,000 "genius grant"):

Nicholas Benson, stone carver
Drew Berry, biomedical animator
Matthew Carter, type designer
Jorge Pardo, installation artist
Elizabeth Turk, sculptor


Non-MacArthur Fellow Tim Kiser
Circulation Assistant, MCAD Library

Jody Williams Artist's Books Here and in New Show

Jody Williams, who teaches printmaking and book arts here, is having a show at  Form+Content Gallery 23rd Sept. - Oct 30th. She will have receptions on Saturday Sept. 25th and Wednesday Oct 13th from 6-9 pm. They will be showing her new artist's book Relative Remains with etchings of invertebrates and fossils.  

You can also find out more about Jody's work at Flying Paper Press.

The MCAD library has several of Jody's earlier works in our Artist's Books Collection which do not check out but you can look at them here if you ask at the library's circulation desk.  Here is a list of all the books that we have by or about her with their locations and call numbers: 

Bugs of Summer

Francesca Di Piazza ... [et al.]. [Minnesota] : Flying Paper Press, c1998.

MCAD Artists' Book Collection: N7433.4 .B84 1998

Time will tell

Jody Williams. Minneapolis, MN : Flying Paper Press, [1991]

MCAD Artists' Book Collection: N7433.4.W49 T56 1991

Marvel Ann's dream

Jody Williams. Rosendale, N.Y. : Women's Studio Workshop, c1989.

MCAD Artists' Book Collection: N7433.4.W49 M37 1989

Dualities

Nicole Ashley ... [et al.] Minneapolis : Out of Hand Press, 1991.

MCAD Artists' Book Collection: N7433.M564 D8 1991

There is no other way to speak

edited by Bill Holm. [Minneapolis, MN] : Minnesota Center for Book Arts, 2005.

MCAD Artists' Book Collection: PS571.M6 T3 2005

500 handmade books : inspiring interpretations of a timeless form

senior editor, Suzanne J.E. Tourtillott. New York : Lark Books, c2008.

MCAD Book Stacks N7433.3 .F2 2008

30 below : a juried competition for young Minnesota artists : January 18-March 15, 1987, University Art Museum, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

[artists, Jon Anderson ... et al.]. Minneapolis : The Museum, c1987.

MCAD Pamphlets N6530.M6 T47 1987

WARM, a landmark exhibition

Minneapolis, Minn. : WARM, Women's Art Registry of Minnesota, c1984.

MCAD Special Collection: N8354 .W65 1984

We hope to see you here and I'm sure Jody would love to see you at her opening.

Eva Hyvarinen

Visual Resource Assistant

MCAD Library

Art of the Poster, 1880-1918

This collection of over one hundred and sixty digital images of historic posters from the “Golden Age of the Poster” (1880s through the First World War) was originally compiled to support the teaching of Design History and Graphic Design courses at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design. 

In the late nineteenth century, lithographers began to use mass-produced zinc plates rather than stones in their printing process. This innovation allowed them to prepare multiple plates, each with a different color ink, and to print these in close registration on the same sheet of paper. Posters in a range of colors and variety of sizes could now be produced quickly, at a modest cost. Skilled illustrators and graphic designers – such as Alphonse Mucha, Jules Cheret, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec -- quickly began to exploit this new technology; the “Golden Age of the Poster” was the spectacular result. Many of the artists who designed posters during this period were already well known in other media, such as painting, printmaking, and architecture. Their creative success helped to bridge the gap between “high art” and popular visual culture, and to introduce even those who never visited museums or galleries to examples of innovative modern design. Today, these striking posters are highly regarded as being among the most distinctive examples of fin-de-siecle styles such as Art Nouveau and the Vienna Secession.

The Lawrence University Library is hosting the scanned images for the Art of the Poster collection for public access in collaboration with Library Visual Resources at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design where the images were scanned and cataloged.

http://www.lawrence.edu/library/contentdm/posters/index.htm

Allan Kohl

Visual Resources Librarian

MCAD Library

Read banned books. Celebrate the right to think for yourself!

September 25 through October 2 is Banned Books Week, the annual event established by the American Library Association (ALA) to celebrate the freedom to read and the freedom of the press covered by the First Amendment.  The MCAD Library staff invites you to join in the celebration of Banned Books Week by reading what you want to and enjoying free and open access to information, but also to remember that censorship and attempted book banning still occurs.

We're all familiar with many of the books that have been singled out.  Deemed 'unsuitable for many audiences,' were (and often still are) To Kill a Mockingbird, The Grapes of Wrath, The Color Purple, and more recently the Harry Potter and Twilight series to name only a few.  Did you know that one of the recommended books for the MCAD all-school project, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie is on the ALA's top ten most challenged books for both 2008 and 2009? 

The MCAD Library's popular collection of of comics and graphic novels is a genre of literature that has historically been a target for censorship so it's not surprising the cartoonist or graphic novelist would address this topic in their work.  We'd like to bring to your attention to the online graphic novel, Americus, written by M.K. Reed and illustrated by Jonathan Hill.  It's the story of a "book-loving boy from the small Oklahoma town of Americus who grapples with the travails of high school and takes a stand when it looks as though his favorite fantasy series, starring a young sorceress (Apathea Ravenchilde, the huntress wytch) who hunts monsters and tyrants, might be banned from the local library."  Americus will be published in book form in its entirety in 2011 but can be read in weekly installments at:

http://saveapathea.com/

To read more about M.K. Reed and Jonathan Hill's collaborative project go to:

First Second Graphic Novel with Banned Book Theme Appears First on Web, Later in Stores

Read what you like and as the American Library Association says: "think for yourself and let others do the same."

See you in the Libary!

Kay Streng
Technical Services Librarian
MCAD Library

You Can Vote at ArtPrize

It may be too late to enter your artwork but it's not too late to vote for your favorite in the $250,000 ArtPrize 2010 competition. You will have to get to Grand Rapids, Michigan (about a ten hour drive) between Sept. 22 and Oct 6 if you want to take part in the ArtPrize voting. Last year they had 200,000 visitors with 37,000 people voting.  You can check out the voting rules at ArtPrize

The competition is open to any artist who can convince one of the event's venues to be his/her host. The top ten artists who are chosen by the popular vote of those attending will receive part of the total $449,000 with $250,000 to the first place holder, $100,00 to 2nd, $50,000 to 3rd and $7,000 to 4th through 7th place holders. This year ArtPrize will also have juried awards of $5,000 each for 2D, 3D, Performance/Film/Video, and urban space.  

The prize money, which is the largest art prize anywhere, is coming from the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation. Dick DeVos is the son of the founder of Amway. One of the foundation's trustees is Rick DeVos who came up with the idea of ArtPrize. The DeVos family is known in Michigan for their politically conservative views and for their philanthropy.

This year they have 1,713 artists showing at 192 venues around Grand Rapids, Michigan.  You can look at the artist's bios and their artworks on ArtPrize's Artist: Full list

To read more about ArtPrize, check out these articles:  Wall Street Journal Magazine: Critical Mass by Taylor Antrim and ArtDaily: Grand Rapids Awaits ArtPrize Crowds, Back for a Second Year by David Runk.

Eva Hyvarinen

Visual Resource Assistant
MCAD Library

Commemorate Labor Day!

Labor Day was created by the labor movement to recognize the economic achievements of American workers. It has been celebrated as day to lay down your tools and to come together with other workers.  To help you enjoy it, we are displaying selected books about the history of the labor movement and about some painters, printmakers, and photographers who depicted workers.

Look at the murals of David Alfaro Siqueros, Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, the prints and drawings of Kathe Kollwitz, the photographs of Lewis Hine, Sebastiao Salgado, Edward Burtynsky and others.

Read about Minnesota's strong labor movement history and the violent reaction of business and police in response to strikes.  We even have songbooks so you can sing the workers' melodies.

Come in and take a look; check out a book for the holiday.  Samuel Gompers would approve.

Eva Hyvarinen
Visual Resource Assistant


from the "Significance of Labor Day" by Samuel Gompers in the New York Times, Sept 4, 1910
"Among all the festive days of the year, of all the days commemorative of great epochs in the world's history, of all the days celebrated for one cause or another, there is not one which stands so conspicuously for social advancement to the common people as the first Monday in September of each recurring year-Labor Day.

Labor Day is the day conceded by no one class or set of people to another: It is the day of the workers..secured by the workers for the workers, and for all.

The struggle of labor is to free man from his own weakness, from his own cupidity, from his own unfair, unjust, and unnecessarily cruel environments.  The struggle is for home and fireside, for a higher life, a noble manhood, womanhood, and childhood, which may look forward to the day of deliverance from absurd economic conditions and cruel burdens.  The future will substitute the college and forum for the arsenal and jail; the home, and not the factory, for motherhood; the playground, school; and sunlight, and not the mill or workshop, for childhood."
 

Lewis Hyde's books in the Library

As announced Lewis Hyde will give a lecture this Friday at MCAD.  His latest book is Common As Air, which was reviewed in the Sunday New York Times Review of books on August 22.  In it he addresses "the question of how our cultural commons, our shared store of art and knowledge, might be made compatible with our modern age of stringent copyright laws, intellectual property rights, and restrictive patenting." 

Click Here to read the review written by Harvard University Library Director, Robert Darnton



This week the MCAD Library is highlighting Common As Air as well as other books written by Hyde from the collection: Trickster Makes This World and The Gift. They're all on display at the Circulation throughout the week.  Don't miss this important, free event!


Kay Streng
Technical Services Librarian

Butter Sculpting at the Fair

Art and the State Fair do interesect.  Follow this link to read a great article about Linda Christensen's butter sculpting (an MCAD graduate) at our state fair. You will find out more than you thought you wanted to know and laugh too.

The Wall Street Journal also has a slide show and video.  They interviewed the sculptress, the Princesses of the Milky Way, butter head family members, and an art historian, Pamela Simpson, who is writing a book about butter sculpting and corn palaces.  We will need to get that book when it comes out. 

You might want to go to the fair to see this sculpting in progress.  It is special in the world of butter sculpting because they are using solid blocks of butter that are carved not just attaching butter over an armature.  The fair also passes out the butter chips on crackers for the crowd to enjoy.  As the art historian Pamela Simpson says it is a "perfect case of having your art and eating it too".

For more fun information about butter sculpting go to Pamela Simpson's page at: http://www.wlu.edu/x33594.xml.  Here is one of the photos from her slide show of some amazing and historic butter sculptures. Be sure take a look at it.

For information on the fair go to:
http://www.mnstatefair.org/

Eva Hyvarinen
Visual Resource Assistant
MCAD Library

Original Illustration Portfolios in MCAD Library Special Collections

This French fashion plate from 1913 was inspired by Japanese Ukiyo-e color woodblock prints

The many treasures in the MCAD Library's Special Collections include rare original illustration portfolios.  Unique among these is a set of hand-colored French fashion plates from the Gazette du Bon Ton.  Published from 1912-1925, the Gazette chronicled contemporary developments in fashion, lifestyle, and beauty, while advancing fashion illustration to a new level of refinement and sophistication. The most distinctive feature of the publication was its illustrations. Each issue of the Gazette contained ten unbound, high-quality pochoir prints by notable artists and illustrators such as Georges Lepape, Pierre Brissaud, Georges Barbier, and Bernard Boutet de Monvel.

In each issue of the Gazette, seven of ten prints depicted the latest haute couture designs from Parisian fashion houses such as Doeuillet, Doucet, Paquin, Redfern, and Worth. Three additional prints in each issue presented wholly fanciful designs invented by the illustrators, in which they both interpreted and commented on the latest styles and the lives of those who wore them. Through these prints, the Gazette's readers were offered glimpses of upper class life, manners, social environments, and leisure pursuits. As such, the Gazette du Bon Ton illustrations provide a unique visual record of fashion and high society in early 20th century France, from the last years of the Belle Epoque to the dawn of the Art Deco era.

The original prints are available for study by request in the MCAD Library.  One hundred of these beautiful prints have also been scanned and cataloged for inclusion in ARTstor, where they are available for research and study, as well as inspiration and enjoyment, by users across the world.
http://library.artstor.org/library/collection/mcad_gazette

Allan Kohl
Visual Resources Librarian
MCAD Library

HEADS UP! A new contemporary art periodical in the Library

We are now receiving Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art, from Duke University Press.
This magazine features a discourse on global art, and in particular contemporary African art and it's history. Nka includes scholarly articles, reviews of exhibitions, book reviews, and discussions focusing on contemporay African artist and their art. The current issue has a roundtable discussion on contemporary African art history and the scholarship.
Nka will be currently displayed on the New to the Collection shelves.

Stephen Colbert interviews Chuck Close, 8/12/10

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Chuck Close
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes 2010 Election Fox News

The science of ugliness.

New York Times:  A Masterpiece of Nature? Yuck! 

Investigations into why we find certain animals unsightly, even when they don't threaten us.

Jaws turns 35! The Library has it and other blockbuster movies

The summer blockbuster film phenomenon began 35 years ago this summer with the release of the movie Jaws on June 20, 1975.  It set a new standard for the measure of box office success making over $100,000,000 in ticket sales.  The wild popularity and massive financial success of Jaws caused studios and distributors to plan their annual marketing strategy around a big release by July 4, a practice that continues today, especially with the sequel films, that began with Star Wars, and continues on  with today's release of the latest Twilight movie.

In honor of the blockbuster film as a force in American film making and popular culture, and for just plain entertainment, Library is highlighting some of these uber-popular movies in the collection.  They’re all on display at the Circulation Desk.  Stop in and have a look, or browse the collection remotely from the Library website.

For more on the making of Jaws read this article from the Christian Science Monitor
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2010/0618/Jaws-35th-anniversary-How-Jaws-changed-summer-movie-blockbusters

Sheila Pepe@MCAD June 16

Sheila Pepe, Assistant Chair of the Fine Arts Department at Pratt Institute, Booklyn, NY will speak Wednesday, June 16 at 7 pm in Auditorium 150.  Pepe is the visiting artist at MCAD's Women's Art Institute 2010 Summer Studio Intensive.  In conjunction with the lecture the Library is currently featuring a display of publications in which the artist's work is illustrated and artistic practice discussed.  You can also check out the online journal, Blackbird:
http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v2n1/gallery/pepe_s/index.htm

Enjoy the lecture and see you in the Library this Summer!
 

Library holds annual Nat'l Library Week giveaway

The Library's National Library Week popular giveaway is well underway!  This is day three and there are still many great books and DVDs to win.  Stop on by & sign up to win.
Here are the items we're giving away this week:

Monday, April 12

Books:

Dress Codes: The Third ICP Triennial of Photography and Video (exhibition catalog)

Suffragettes to She-Devils: Women’s liberation and beyond By Liz McQuiston

DVD:

Herb & Dorothy: You don’t have to be a Rockefeller to collect art A documentary film by Megumi Sasaki


Tuesday, April 13

Books:

A History of Graphic Design By Philip B. Meggs

Launching the Imagination: A comprehensive guide to basic design By Mary Stewart

DVD:

Superbad Written by Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg; Directed by Greg Mottola


Wednesday, April 14

Books:

Thomas Eakins (exhibition catalog) By Darrell Sewell

Van Gogh and Gauguin: The studio of the south (exhibition catalog) By Douglas Druick and Peter Zegers

DVD:

Taxi Driver  Written by Paul Schrader; directed by Martin Scorsese

Thursday, April 15

Books:

The Visual Culture Reader By Nicholas Mirzoeff

Watching Anime, Reading Manga: 25 years of essays and reviews By Fred Patten

DVD:

Rocky & Bullwinkle & Friends: Complete season one

Friday, April 16

Books:

Georgia O’Keeffe: the New York years

Mary Cassatt, Modern Woman (exhibition catalog) By Judith A. Barter 

DVD:

The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror (V,VI,VII,XII)

Douglas Crimp lectures @ MCAD April 15

Renowned art historian, critic and art activist, Douglas Crimp will present his lecture entitled Action Around the Edges, Thursday, April 15 at 6:30 pm in Auditorium 150. The lecture is a portion of his memoir in progress which chronicles "the artistic and sexual experimentation thriving in the abandoned industrial spaces of Manhattan in the 1970s."
Crimp has written extensively on late 20th century art and the rise of AIDs activism.  This week the MCAD Library highlights many of his publications from the collection including the special issue of October he edited in 1987 entitiled, AIDS: Cultural Analysis/Cultural Activism, and his book On the Museum's Ruins.  All items are now on display in the main reading room.

April circulation desk display highlights art in the great outdoors

During the month of April the Library is featuring a display of material from the collection about recent developments in artists' and designers' use of the landscape as context, and the earth and plants as media.  Examples of public green spaces, private gardens, earthworks and living sculpture are beautifully illustrated in these selections, and feature artists well known for creating land art such as Andy Goldsworthy, Michael Heizer, and Robert Irwin, as well the growing number of national and international artists working in this area.  Turn your creative eye to the great outdoors! Spring has sprung!!  

Kevin Huizinga @ MCAD 3/25. The Library's got his comics

Greetings comic lovers!
The Library has many of Kevin Huizenga's comics which depict the exploits of his "everyman protagonist," Glenn Ganges.  They're collected in the book Curses shown above published in 2006 and singly in the anthologies Drawn & Quarterly, Kramer's Ergot, & The Best American Comics series.  Many of you already know this apparently because most of our books that have Huizinga's comics in them are checked out.  Curses, though, is currently on comics instructor Zak Sally's reserves shelf, so it's available to anyone to use in the Library throughout the semester.   
Drawn & Quarterly describes Glenn as "a seemingly middle class man living in the suburbs whose blank-eyed wonderment at everyday experiences brings together such diverse aspects of our world as golf, theology, late-night diners, parenthood, politics, Sudanese refugees and hallucinatory vision, into a complete experience as multifaceted as our own lives."  Whoa!
We just added the 2009 edition in The Best American Comics series.  In it is Huizenga's Glenn Ganges in Pulverize.  It's on display over the next few days so all may get a look at it before it too goes into circulation.
Enjoy!!!

Mike Perry at MCAD 3/25-26. See his books and more in the Library

The Library would like to bring your attention to Mike Perry's books, Hand Job: A Catalog of Type and Over & Over: A Catalog of Hand-Drawn Patterns, in the Library collection.  They along with selected examples of his illustrations done for issues of Print, How, and Dwell magazines are now on display in the main reading room.  Don't for get his TWO lectures on Thursday, March 25th @ 6:30 pm and Friday, March 26th @ 1 pm.  And of course his show in the MCAD main gallery which opens Friday (reception @ 6 pm).

Barthelemy Toguo 3/22, find out more about this visiting artist in the Library

The Library would like to bring your attention to some recent additions to the collection in which the work of next week’s visiting artist Barthelemy Toguo is discussed.  They are Contemporary African Art Since 1980 (cover illustration above), Angaza Afrika, African Art Now, and Drawing Now: Between the Lines of Contemporary Art. In them you can see examples Toguo's work in a variety of media including painting, drawing, photography and installation, and read critical discussion of his themes and motivations.  These books are all on display now in the main reading room of the Library.  We hope they will provide further insight into this artist's practice.  Enjoy the lecture! 

***To view details about the book illustrated above click on the link below.  To see the other titles mentioned enter Toguo in the search box in the catalog view.

http://plus.mnpals.net/vufind/Record/007057953/Holdings

Deborah Stratman films in the Library

Calling all Media Arts Mavens and their friends!

Come to the Library where you can see short films by this week's visiting artist, Deborah Stratman.  Her works, How Among the Frozen Words (2005), It Will Die Out in the Mind (2006), and The Magician's House (2007) are part of the compliation Cinemad Almanac, 2009, in the Library's DVD collection.  You can also read interviews with Stratman in the latest issues of Millenium Film Journal.  The issue shown above is a still from her film, In Order Not To Be Here (2002). 
Enjoy the lecture & see you in the Library!!

Unbearable Cuteness: Ken Brown 3/9

Hey Everyone!
We dare you to try to enter the mind of this week's visiting artist, Ken Brown.  We've got three books of his quirky, amusing cartoons and illustrations: My Parachute is Beige, The Unbearable Cuteness of Being, and Notes From the Nervous Breakdown Lane.  They're now on display in the Library along with some of his wrapping paper designs & postcards.  The Library LOVE-LOVE-LOVEs his cat wrapping paper!

Don't forget his lecture is Tuesday, March 9 @ 1pm

Photo students meet w/John Gossage & Alec Soth 3/5, but all can view their work in the Library!

Attention BFA/MFA Photography Students

Photographer John Gossage & Alec Soth will hold an informal dialogue in Auditorium 140 this Friday, March 5 at Noon.  It's for BFA/MFA photography students only!  Afterward Gossage will join David Goldes' class, The Photographic Book at 1pm.

In the Library we currently have publications on the work of Gossage & Soth on display.  Included is Gossage's most current project entitled Here... Half Blind.  It's part of an exhibition now on view a the Rochester, MN Art Center through April 11.

To find out more about Here... Half Blind, Gossage's documentary project on the city of Rochester go to :

http://www.rochesterartcenter.org/exhibitions/2OG/2010/gossage.html

Serious Comics: on display during March @ the Circulation Desk

Did you know that a growing portion of the comics and graphic novels in the MCAD Library's collection are non-fiction?  They cover topics of national and world history, biographies and autobiographies, and memoires.  For example you can read biographies of Martin Luther King, the Beat Poets, Nat Turner, leader of a slave rebellion in 1831, Physicist Robert Oppenheimer, the architect of the Manhattan project, and more all in comic strip form.  Events of recent history are addressed in A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge (about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina), American Widow, the story of a young woman coping with the loss of her husband in the collapse of the WTC towers on 9/11, T-Minus: Race to the Moon, the story of the American space program and the race to land the first man on the moon, and Persepolis (I & II) the riveting story graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi's childhood in a fundamentalist Islamic regime.  These are only a sample!
When you come to the Library this month you can find these and other non-fiction comics on display at the at the Circulation Desk.  Just look for the sign: Serious Comics: Non-Fiction Sequential Storytelling.   And to find even more, just ask any one of the friendly Library staff.
Enjoy!!

Thomas Hirschhorn lectures 2/28: find out more about him

Remember, Thomas Hirschhorn will speak at MCAD Tuesday, Feb. 23 at 6:30 pm.  And when you're in the Library do have a look at the many, illustrated books we have about his work.  Click on the links below for more information on this artist

Thomas Hirschhorn: Philosophical Battery

http://www.papercoffin.com/writing/articles/hirschhorn.html

Review of Cavemanman by Thomas Kimmelmann

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/15/arts/art-in-review-thomas-hirschhorn-cavemanman.html?fta=y


Black & White Hemisphere

http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/10/view/8942/thomas-hirschhorn-black-and-white-hemisphere.html

Elahi & Schneier: Tracking Transience discussion 2/18

 

Don't miss what is certain to be a thought provoking conversation on the critical, often conflicting topics of privacy and security this Thursday, Feb.18 at 5:30 pm in Auditorium 150.  The participants are artist Hasan Elahi who will discuss “Tracking Transience: The Orwell Project,” an online self-monitoring system that he developed after coming under the scrutiny of the FBI, post 9/11, and Bruce Schneier, an internationally renowned security technologist and author, dubbed a "security guru" by The Economist magazine. 

To find out more about Elahi and Schneier before Thursday, visit the Library where you can read selected interviews and articles about them.  We have just added Bruce Schneier's book, Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly About Security in an Uncertain World to the collection.   All these items are on display in the main reading room.

Additional info. may be found at http://elahi.sjsu.edu/

and Schneier on Security : http://www.schneier.com/

Image above: H. Elahi, still sequence from Rua Bin Laden originally shot on the streets of Bissau shortly after civil war and new election in 2002 Guinea-Bissau reworked 2004 (Works 2004-2009 http://elahi.sjsu.edu/ )

John Bielenburg thinks wrong about Mpls Feb. 10!

John Bielenburg is coming to MCAD this week to speak about Project M, design for the common good and thinking wrong.  Find out more about what this means:  http://www.projectmlab.com/

And read this interview with Bielenberg by design guru Steven Heller

Bielenberg has contributed to a number of books on graphic design including Becoming a Graphic Designer, Looking Closer 2 and Design Issues: How Graphic Design Informs Society.  They're in the Library collection and we have them on display in the main reading room this week.

Chloe Piene info in Library, her lecture is 2/5

See more of her work on her website

Stop by the Library to find out about this Friday's visiting artist, Chloe Piene. Among the books and materials we offer is the 2008 book by the American critic and poet, Barry Schwasbky that focuses on Piene's drawings. It includes an interview with her as well. Come and have a look!

Prof. K. Byrne curates latest Library exhibition

MCAD Professor, Kevin Byrne has put together an exhibition of published artists' sketchbooks and original sketchbooks by MCAD faculty, which is now on view in the Library. The books, selected from the Library collection and Kevin's personal collection, "in whole or in part examine and/or capture the subject of natural landscapes and/or wildlife."

Facsimile (modern publications that faithfully replicate the original) and other sketchbooks by over 17 different artists including Delacroix, Cezanne, Calder, Kahlo and Thiebaud are presented in the long display case in stack room two. Adjacent to the case are two smaller ones containing original sketchbooks by MCAD faculty. A display case in the center of the main reading room holds additional facutly sketchbooks. These original books were contributed by Rebecca Alm, Kevin Byrne, Jennifer Hibbard, Emily Hoisington, Ursula Husted, Karen Wirth, Russell Mroczek (Prof. Emeritus, 1943-2008) and MCAD President Jay Coogan.

We hope you will examine this interesting group of books inspired by observations made in nature that are primary documents of the creative process. The exhibit will run during this semester through spring break, and pages of some of the featured books will change during the course of the show. The Library would like to thank Kevin Byrne for bringing this insightful body of material together for us all to enjoy.

See you in the Library!

Studio Furniture: now in the MCAD gallery, learn more about it in the Library

Want see more examples of work by the designers in the Next Generation show, find out about other leading makers of studio furniture and developments in the practice over the last few decades? Then come to the Library! We've assembled a bounty of lavishly illustrated books and magazines about studio furniture & its designers from the collection. They're on display NOW in the main reading room. Check us out!