Cloud Rock and Kayo 4 Years Old - - Red Eye, from 1¢ Life

Painting is about the beauty of space and the power of containment. Sam Francis Sam Francis (1923-1994) is known for his abstract expressionist work and the use of bold splashes of color to create movement in his art. He began his education at the University of California Berkeley in the sciences focusing on botany, medicine and psychology. He began painting in 1944 during a three-year hospitalization. His formal art education was at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Through his travels and various studios in the United States, France, and Japan, Sam Francis was influenced by early abstract and color field artists such as Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, the French Impressionists and Zen Buddhism. He also experimented with the written word in his pieces and was influenced by Japanese calligraphy. This work uses the white negative space seen in Asian Art, the method of gestural abstraction with splattered paint, and lyrical passages among the painted bold forms.https://digitalcommons.kettering.edu/selections_archives_humanitiesartcenter/1007/thumbnail.jp

Victor Vasarely Artwork (3 Pieces)

Red Squares, 1968 (Artwork Above) Color Silkscreen on paper Victor Vasarely 1985.27 _____________________________________________ Sirt-MC, 1978 (Artwork Attached Below) Color Silkscreen on paper Victor Vasarely 1993.31 _____________________________________________ Constellations, 1967 (Artwork Attached Below) Color Silkscreen on paper Victor Vasarely 1993.31 _____________________________________________ Victor Vasarely (1906-1997) is considered the founder of Optical Art and is known for his investigational techniques in the use of color and patterns. He began his education at the University of Budapest School of Medicine before entering the field of art in 1927. This formal scientific training is thought to have enhanced his use of methodical compositions. He was also influenced by the Bauhaus School, which theorized that art and architecture be based on the forms of the cube, the rectangle, and the circle. Victor Vasarely advanced artistically using these theories of repetitive geometric arrangements and mathematical grids. He stated, Every form is a base for color, every color is the attribute of a form. He studied the work of Albert Einstein, Niels Henrick David Bohr, Norbert Wiener, and Werner Heisenberg and their concepts of physics, mathematics, and the structure of atoms. Through these studies, he formulated his own method of using a network of forms and a color system with modular relationships to create dimension. He had a fascination with technology, computers, and the geometry found in the natural world. He felt that the visual kinetics of his art relied on the perception of the viewer who was the creator of the experience.https://digitalcommons.kettering.edu/selections_archives_humanitiesartcenter/1011/thumbnail.jp

Spirituals

In recognition of the national holiday Juneteenth, the art work \u27Spirituals\u27 by the African American artist Van Elliott is being featured. On June 19, 1865 in Galveston, Texas, union soldiers led by Major General Gordon Granger delivered the news that all slaves were free and that the war had ended. On June 15, 2021 the Senate approved the bill making June 19th a legal holiday also known as \u27Freedom Day\u27. Van Elliott (1924-2002) was active in Philadelphia and is known as a printmaker, educator, writer, and community activist. This work, \u27Spirituals\u27, featuring three African American women with hymnals is an etching published by the Associated American Artists in New York. This print is also within the collections of the National Gallery of Art and the Whitney Museum. The artist studied at the Samuel Fleisher School of Fine Arts in Philadelphia now known as the Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial. Also at the Institute San Miguel in Mexico furthering his interest in printmaking used to capture the African American experience. He taught workshops and founded educational groups using art as a creative means for cultural and scientific development.https://digitalcommons.kettering.edu/selections_archives_humanitiesartcenter/1003/thumbnail.jp

Ternstedt Division, General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Michigan

Ternshedt Division, General Motors Corporation, Detroit Michigan Outer Door Handle and Trigger or Lever in Stainless Steel (Artwork Above) Pastel and Colored Pencil on paper E.N. Bozeman 95.13.1 _____________________________________________ Ternshedt Division, General Motors Corporation, Detroit Michigan Hardware Styling, Grille Proposal (Artwork Attached Below) Pastel and Colored Pencil on paper Stanley A. Mikolaczk 95.13.3 _____________________________________________ Ternshedt Division, General Motors Corporation, Detroit Michigan Hardware Styling, Outer Door Handle with Push Button (Artwork Attached Below) Pastel and Colored Pencil on paper Robert Brown 95.13.2 _____________________________________________ The Trenstedt Manufacturing Company was founded in 1916 by the Swedish inventor Alvan K. Ternstedt who designed the first practical car window regulator. In 1917, a new factory was erected at Fort and Livernois Streets in Detroit and financed by the Fisher Body Company. After the inventor passed away, the Fisher family purchased the plant, which became a division of the General Motors Corporation. Prior to this merger, the Ternstedt Company did work for the Ford Motor Company, the Chrysler Corporation and other automotive firms producing decorative chrome-plated trim accessories, such as handles and door locks. It became the largest General Motors plant in Detroit and employed the largest group of women in the industry. Many stylists emerged from the Ternstedt design studio and became prominent artisans in the field. Other examples from the Ternstedt designers can be seen in this exhibit.https://digitalcommons.kettering.edu/selections_archives_humanitiesartcenter/1012/thumbnail.jp

Cutaway of the Chrysler Gas Turbine Engine Model A-249

This preliminary drawing for the Chrysler gas turbine engine model A-249 was executed by the design supervisor Robert F. Pauley (1924-2020) of the Chrysler Corporation. A respected engineer and designer in the Chrysler Research Department to engineers and draftsmen, he worked twenty-seven years at the Chrysler Corporation in Highland Park, Michigan on the Turbine Engine Program. This department was started in 1933 by the design engineer Carl Breer and became instrumental in the creation of airflow cars, the XI-2220 aircraft engine and the engine for the turbine automobile, which later developed into the M1 tank engine. The intricacy of this drawing is representative of the work of Robert F. Pauley who furthered the advancement of gas turbine technology. He was greatly admired for his ability to translate design concepts spontaneously in meetings with Chrysler engineers as they collaborated on projects. A noted author on aviation history, he was a founding member of the Society of Air Racing Historians.https://digitalcommons.kettering.edu/selections_archives_humanitiesartcenter/1004/thumbnail.jp

Consequential Referendum

Consequential Referendum, lithograph, 1992.6 (above) Flower Children 1, lithograph, 1992.5.1 (additional attachment) Flower Children 2, lithograph, 1992.5.2 (additional attachment) John Stockton De Martelly (1903-1979) was an internationally known lithographer, painter and illustrator, who studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia, the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, the Accademia di Belle ArtI in Florence and the Royal College of Design at the Victoria and Albert Museum School in London. In the 1930-1940\u27s, he taught printmaking at the Kansas City Art Institute as the Head of the Graphic Arts Department and became friends with the American Regionalist painter Thomas Hart Benton. His early works were inspired by Thomas Hart Benton and they shared an interest in the depiction of the rural American landscape. When Thomas Hart Benton was fired at the Institute, John De Martelly was offered his position as the head of the painting department, however he refused and severed his association with the school. He then left for New Hampshire to concentrate on producing lithographs for the Associated American Artists Galleries, Inc in New York. By the late 1940\u27s he abandoned the regionalist style for abstract art and was acknowledged as an expert lithographer and teacher of the medium. The three pieces illustrated in the Kettering University Collection are examples from his later period, which he described in his writings as influenced by cubism, surrealism, and expressionism. In 1943, he was asked to join Michigan State University as a Professor of Art and later Artist-In-Residence, a position he held for twenty-six years. A retrospective of his work was held at the university in 1970 honoring his teaching and art career. He also was a Consultant Director in printmaking at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan for over seventeen years and a juror and exhibitor at the General Motors Styling Center in Warren, Michigan, The Flint Institute of Arts, the Detroit Artists Market and the Detroit Institute of Arts. He also published work in Time and Life magazines, created advertising work, as well as created illustrations in fine art books. His work is held in numerous museums throughout the United States.https://digitalcommons.kettering.edu/selections_archives_humanitiesartcenter/1016/thumbnail.jp

Automobile Sketch, Black Sedan

Richard Howard Stout (1920-1996) received a degree in Physics from Williams College and afterwards took a course in the Harley Earl Corporation Detroit Institute of Automotive Styling. Harley Earl was the General Motors Head of Design 1925-1958. The advertisements for the course exclaimed, This course is scientifically tested. It explains the techniques in creating tomorrow\u27s cars for one of the big three. Stout soon began his career in 1947 at General Motors as a designer and from 1950-1966 he worked for Lincoln-Mercury, Studebaker-Packard, and Edsel as a product planner. He is known for his work in the General Motors \u27body interchangeability program\u27, in which basic car bodies were utilized in various models. This study was documented in his article, \u27Body Politics: An Explanation of General Motors 1950-1953 B and C interchangeability program by one of the designers who helped make it work\u27 published in 1977. He was a noted consultant on automotive history and in 1988 published the book \u27Make \u27em Shout Hooray!\u27 which details his career in the industry. These sketches were created during his early styling course period in 1946-1947. They are reflective of the streamlined automotive body concepts designed by Harley Earl. The accentuated white highlights emphasize an interest in aerodynamics through the use of curvilinear glass, the voluminous car body, and highly polished chrome.https://digitalcommons.kettering.edu/selections_archives_humanitiesartcenter/1009/thumbnail.jp

Seven Ages of Man

In recognition of National Library Week, April 2-9, 2022, the artwork \u27The Seven Ages of Man\u27 by Rockwell Kent is being highlighted. The illustrations, \u27Boy with Books\u27 and \u27Embrace\u27, are from a 1918 portfolio inspired by As You Like It by William Shakespeare. Rockwell Kent (1882-1971) began his studies at the Columbia University School of Architecture, however, his summers spent at William Merritt Chase\u27s art school in Long Island shifted his educational focus to the permanent study of art. His scholarship to the Art Students League in New York expanded his network of American artists, which included Robert Henri, George Bellows, Abbott Handerson Thayer and Edward Hopper. His early landscape paintings were first shown at the Society of American Artists in 1904 and his first solo show was held at the Clausen Galleries in 1907 in New York. In the 1920\u27s, Rockwell Kent began experimenting in various forms of printmaking, which included bookplates and illustrations for classic literature limited book editions such as Moby Dick by Herman Melville and Chaucer\u27s Canterbury Tales. His art and writing were inspired by his explorations to rugged terrains as Alaska and St. John\u27s Newfoundland between 1935-1962. His 1930 memoir, N by E, documented his voyage from New York Harbor to Greenland and is an example of his literary work. His work features symbolic motifs from the natural world as mountains and starry landscapes to create a sense of wonder.https://digitalcommons.kettering.edu/selections_archives_humanitiesartcenter/1001/thumbnail.jp