Elmhurst Art Museum reopens with a trio of new fall exhibitions
The Elmhurst Art Museum recently announced a trio of new fall exhibitions, including “Art in the Post,” and “Wright Before the 'Lloyd',” both opening Sept. 8, and an installation by Chicago-duo Luftwerk, “Color Code,” on display Sept. 15. “A Space Problem," organized by Chicago designer David Salkin, is now open in the museum's historic McCormick House through Nov. 15.
“We are thrilled we can welcome back visitors to experience the contemporary art and architecture that defines the Elmhurst Art Museum,” said Executive Director John McKinnon. “Our successful 'Museum From Home' program was a creative lifeline for our community. We are glad to continue a variety of online programming along with enriching visits to see our new inspiring exhibits.”
The museum, 150 S. Cottage Hill Ave., is opening these exhibitions with strict safety guidelines in accordance with the Restore Illinois Plan. Admission is $15, $12 for seniors, and free for students or children under 18. The museum encourages non-members to purchase tickets in advance online. Members, children, and students may check-in without an advance ticket purchase. All visitors must wear a face mask and are asked to review the museum's COVID-19 protocols before visiting at www.elmhurstartmuseum.org/visit/covid/.
“Art in the Post”
Originally conceived as a collaborative project inviting the public to anonymously submit miniature works of art sharing various stay-at-home experiences during the COVID-19 crisis, the mail art project has broadened to include responses to racial injustice and other current events. The result is a community-created exhibition “Art in the Post,” a collection of some 100 postcards submitted by all ages, to be displayed Sept. 8 to Nov. 22 in the sunlit-filled Hostetler Gallery lobby just inside the museum's entrance. The deadline to submit postcards is Aug. 30. Further instructions and information can be found at elmhurstartmuseum.org.
“Wright Before the 'Lloyd'”
The new exhibit, set for Sept. 8 to Jan. 3, is curated by Chicago's cultural historian Tim Samuelson, who has been called a Chicago treasure in his own right. Exploring early work by the young architect “Frank L. Wright,” “Wright Before the 'Lloyd'” is a journey via images and artifacts that portray the myriad of ways Wright flirted with styles including modernism, classicism, Tudor, Colonial and Japanese. What followed these eclectic, youthful explorations was the career of one of the world's greatest architects, which continued to evolve over seventy years until his death at age of 92. In cases where fire and decay left only fragments and shards, cutting-edge technologies have been deployed to make Wright's home designs whole again. This show complements Elmhurst History Museum's upcoming exhibition “Frank Lloyd Wright: Architecture of the Interior,” which opens Oct. 23, and will explore the interior spaces and objects found inside Wright's homes.
“A Space Problem”
The museum's first exhibition to open following the coronavirus shutdown was “A Space Problem,” now on display through Nov. 15 in Mies van der Rohe's McCormick House. Organized by Chicago designer David Salkin, the house is reimagined as the home of a design enthusiast featuring iconic mid-century furnishings, ceramics, patterned rugs, photo collages, design objects, and abstract paintings. Featured artists include Marshall Brown (Princeton, New Jersey), Jennefer Hoffmann (Chicago), Sterling Lawrence (Chicago), David Salkin (Chicago), Geoffrey Todd Smith (Westchester, Illinois). “A Space Problem” complements an adjoining installation dedicated to models, historical photographs, and stories about the House's uniqueness as a prefab prototype by the famed modernist Mies van der Rohe.
“Color Code”
This multi-venue installation, created by Chicago design duo Luftwerk in collaboration with Renata Graw, will be on exhibit Sept. 15 to Nov. 3. It transforms the international distress call SOS from Morse code into colored flags. In solidarity and connectedness, several organizations will each display three flags by the artists as a call for humanity and willingness to help one another. As the world adjusts to new norms in challenging times, “Color Code” helps us reconsider how language, objects and symbols, and even color can help others find stable ground and safety. The outdoor installation of contrasting color flags by Luftwerk investigates color as a system of language and symbols, and a marker of emotion. “Color Code” is created in collaboration with Renata Graw, founder and creative head of Normal — a small, independent team of designers and creative thinkers in Chicago.
For more information, including most up-to-date summer hours, visit elmhurstartmuseum.org.
About the McCormick House
In 1952, the renowned modern architect Mies van der Rohe designed a home for Robert Hall McCormick III, a member of Chicago's most prominent families, and his wife, the poet Isabella Gardner. The home is a rare and important example of Mies van der Rohe's mature style, incorporating elements of his celebrated designs for the Farnsworth House (1951) and 860-880 Lake Shore Drive (1951). The McCormick House — one of only three single-family homes designed by Mies in the United States — originally served two purposes: it was a home for the McCormick family and a prototype for a proposed group of smaller, affordable mass-produced modular homes in the western Chicago suburbs that McCormick and co-developer Herbert S. Greenwald were hoping to build. However, the cutting-edge, high-end buildings were not met with enough buyers to begin construction.
About the Elmhurst Art Museum
The museum is both an international destination for Mies van der Rohe scholars and fans and a regional center where people from Chicago and the western suburbs learn to see and think differently through the study of the art, architecture and design of our time. The museum is one block from the Elmhurst Metra station.
New fall exhibits
At Elmhurst Art Museum, 150 S. Cottage Hill Ave.
"Art in the Post": Sept. 8 to Nov. 22
"Wright Before the 'Lloyd'": Sept. 8 to Jan. 3
"Color Code": Sept. 15 to Nov. 3
At McCormick House on the museum campus:
"A Space Problem" through Nov. 15
Admission: $15, $12 for seniors, free for students or children under 18. Masks required.
Advance tickets: <a href="https://www.elmhurstartmuseum.org/">elmhurstartmuseum.org</a>