20 minute read
SVA CLOSE UP
News and events from around the College
UP CLOSE
Back to the Future
After a year and a half of remote learning, working and socializing, the School of Visual Arts welcomed approximately 4,100 students and 650 faculty to campus for the start of the 2021 – 2022 academic year. Residence halls, kept at a reduced capacity throughout 2020 – 2021, are back to full occupancy. In-person classes—with the exception of most undergraduate liberal arts courses and some continuing-education o erings—have resumed. SVA Destinations, which o ers short-term, travel-based programs, hosted its latest trip, to Los Angeles, in July. SVA Theatre opened its doors for the 2021 After School Special Alumni Film and Animation Festival in September. Exhibitions are once again on view in the College’s galleries. Life at SVA may not yet be “normal,” but it’s getting there.
“Our reopening this fall to in-person instruction at full capacity marked a significant turning point in our recovery from the monumental challenges wrought by the pandemic,” says SVA Provost Dr. Christopher Cyphers. “It’s wonderful to see students and faculty back on campus, along with the sta , chairs and administrators who kept SVA afloat while we were forced online.”
Read on to find out more about the start of this longawaited school year: • The College required COVID-19 vaccinations for all SVA students, faculty and sta who returned to campus, with select medical or religious exemptions, and a mask requirement for indoor spaces. (The latter is subject to change in accordance with the latest CDC guidelines.) • In response to the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes and as part of a continuing e ort to create a safe, supportive community, SVA hosted a virtual bystander intervention training in July and is planning similar events throughout the year. • New studio spaces for drawing and painting foundation classes have opened at
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT Move-in photos by Jacqueline Iannacone (BFA 2012 Photography); SVA in LA photos by Steve Birnbaum (BFA 2004 Film and Video).
220 East 23rd Street and 132 West 21st Street, allowing for greater flexibility in scheduling and availability. • Student Orientation combined introductory online content—a concept carried over from last year’s remote event—with an in-person Welcome Week, at which there were programming tracks for first-year students, second-year students (who are on campus as students for the first time this fall) and new graduate students. The week included information sessions—including a presentation by Dr. Jarvis Watson, director of the College’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion o ce, established last December—facilities tours and neighborhood walks, and social events like comedy night and karaoke. • SVA’s Instagram, @svanyc, introduced “#SVAIRL (#SVAInRealLife),” spotlighting students and their art to engage the community and amplify individuals’ voices. • SVA IT launched a redesigned GoSVA, a mobile app that provides access to all SVA essential systems, as well as Cleared4, a health verification platform. • SVA Career Development, which saw great success with its online events last school year, continues to host its workshops and counseling sessions virtually. [Michelle Mackin] I n May, the American Academy of Arts and Letters added 33 new members to its ranks, which are intended to comprise the country’s most esteemed architects, artists, musicians and writers. Two of the new inductees are SVA alumni: artists Adrian Piper (1969 Fine Arts) and Lorna Simpson (BFA 1982 Photography). (A third, artist Faith Ringgold, once taught at the College.)
The academy, founded in 1898, is dedicated to supporting the arts in the U.S. through grants, events and other activities. Members are elected to lifelong, dues-free terms. Membership, which had previously been limited to 250, is undergoing a gradual expansion to 300 and an e ort to build a more inclusive and representative organization.
Academy membership is just one of several distinctions in recent years for Piper and Simpson. In 2018, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, presented the retrospective “Adrian Piper: A Synthesis of Intuitions, 1965 – 2016,” which The New York Times called “the largest ever for a living artist”; this fall, she will receive the Goslar Kaiserring Award, given each year to an artist of exceptional achievement. In 2019, Simpson received a J. Paul Getty Medal, the highest honor bestowed by the Getty, one of the world’s largest philanthropic arts institutions. [Greg Herbowy]
NOTABLE QUOTES FROM COLLEGE EVENTS
HEARD AT SVA
“It’s sort of a thorn in my paw in that there’s so little described about what the Bay Area was like during the ’70s. There was a lot of creative energy from a lot of different directions, and there were a lot of really interesting, great, emerging women artists.” —Judith Linhares, artist. From a conversation with art historian, curator and writer Jennifer Samet, hosted by BFA Fine Arts.
“Is it a time of peace that’s more propitious to thinking, or is it a time of war?” —Samir Gandesha, director of the Institute of Humanities, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver. From a talk hosted by BFA Visual & Critical Studies and the Honors Program.
Academy Honorees
Lorna Simpson photo by James Wang. Adrian Piper in Second Wave Feminism: Unfinished Business, 2014. Lecture/ discussion delivered at the National Academy of Art, Oslo, open access. DVD. 01:49:41. Collection of the Adrian Piper Research Archive (APRA) Foundation Berlin. © APRA Foundation Berlin
CLOSE UP
News and events from around the College
Art Is . . . City Life
At the end of August—just as students arrived at the SVA campus and New York entered its second autumn since the COVID-19 pandemic began—the latest installment in the College’s long-running series of posters went up in the city’s subway stations, where it will be on view through later this fall.
Created by MFA Illustration as Visual Essay faculty member and alumnus Hyesu Lee (2011), the poster depicts a lively and surreal urban scene, with six buildings spelling out the phrase “ART IS!” An artist’s hand, holding a pencil, appears on the left, giving the impression of the composition—and city life—being a work forever in-progress. “The idea is to show how embedded art is in our lives,” Lee says.
August was a busy month for Lee. In addition to her poster’s debut, sparkling
water company Topo Chico introduced Lee-designed merchandise, and her first authored children’s book had its South Korean publication. (The title was not available at press time; look for it in the spring/summer 2022 Visual Arts Journal.) She has also regularly been publishing comics on The Lily, an online publication of The Washington Post. For more information, visit heyheysu.com. [GH]
LEFT MFA Illustration as Visual Essay faculty member and alumnus Hyesu Lee created the latest SVA “subway series” poster.
RIGHT, FROM TOP 2016, 2015 and 2012 SVA posters created by new BFA Illustration and BFA Cartooning Chair (and SVA alumnus) Viktor Koen, in collaboration with MFA Design Co-Chair Steven Heller.
Making an Appointment
Longtime SVA faculty member and alumnus Viktor Koen (MFA 1992 Illustration as Visual Essay) took the helm as chair of SVA’s BFA Cartooning and BFA Illustration programs this summer, succeeding Thomas Woodru , who retired this year after 39 years at the College, 20 of them as a department chair. (Woodru is now chair emeritus.)
A native of Greece and the creative director of Attic Child Press, Inc., Koen is known in the design and illustration fields for his imagery for the branding of conferences and large cultural events, as well as his prints and posters. His work has been widely commissioned, and his clients include The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time, Newsweek, Esquire, National Geographic, Rolling Stone, Penguin Random House, Doubleday, Harper Collins, Rizzoli, Houghton Mi in and many other national and international media outlets. He has exhibited his work in solo shows in Los Angeles; New York City; Athens, Greece; and London, and regularly lectures at academic conferences. A recipient of the American Illustration Award, the Graphis Gold Award and the Communication Arts Magazine Award of Excellence, Koen serves on the Adobe Photoshop Advisory Council and the Photoville Board of Directors. He has been a TED speaker and named 3x3 Magazine Educator of the Year.
Koen joined the SVA faculty in 2004; three years later, he founded the Summer Illustration Residency Program. He has also created six posters for the College’s long-running “subway series” campaign, all of them in collaboration with friend and colleague Steven Heller, co-chair of MFA Design and SVA faculty member in several programs.
Of his new role, Koen says, “I am thrilled for the opportunity to become a more integral part of SVA, an institution whose faculty and graduates are some of the most influential cultural forces I know.” [Maeri Ferguson]
CLOSE UP
News and events from around the College
CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT Photo by SVA faculty member Elizabeth Bick; SVA alumnus and small store owner Diana Ho; homepage of the online Journal; art by SVA alumnus Ryan J. Brady.
ICYMI
The Visual Arts Journal experiments with the possibilities of online publication . . .
If you missed the last issue of the Visual Arts Journal, you may have been looking in the wrong place. This past spring, rather than arriving in alumni and campus mailboxes, the Journal published its first-ever all-digital edition, on the SVA website.
The spring/summer 2021 Journal contains much of the content regular readers may be familiar with, as well as some only-on-the-Internet extras like videos, pop-up footnotes and slideshows. Stories include: •a look at three alumni-owned, community-minded shops; • money-management tips for independent creative workers; • photography about and inspired by dance; • lessons learned from a year of remote education at SVA; • and much more.
To read the spring/summer 2021 issue, visit sva.edu/S21journal; for the online Visual Arts Journal archive, visit sva.edu/journal. [GH]
Branding Extension
. . . and the MPS Branding program commits to the possibilities of online education. T his fall, MPS Branding at SVA launched a permanent, synchronous online track to run simultaneously with its in-person courses. On the heels of its successful transition to remote learning last year, the one-year master’s degree program is now accessible to a wider range of students, who have the option of studying on campus or from home. The two tracks are not interchangeable, and students are committed to their chosen track once the academic year begins, though all students will have the opportunity to present their thesis in person if they choose.
Co-founded in 2010 by design leaders Debbie Millman, who serves as department chair, and Steven Heller, MFA Design co-chair, MPS Branding examines the intersection of design and business strategy, the ubiquity of brands and branding concepts in modern life and the research, creative skills and problem-solving integral to brand development. More than 300 students have graduated from the program since its inception, and Millman is excited about the opportunities for intercultural exchange and expanding global influence made possible by this new online track.
“Our school is about opening doors, not closing them,” she says. “We want to continue to evolve that legacy, allowing more voices a platform to take a role in global conversations.” [MF]
Art and Sol
The work of minimalist conceptual artist and SVA alumnus Sol LeWitt (1953 Illustration) can now be explored in a whole new way, thanks to a recently released app from Microsoft. In partnership with the tech giant and close collaboration with the late artist’s estate, New York–based curator and LeWitt expert Lindsay Aveilhé and experience- design agency Ada have created an immersive virtual experience of LeWitt’s singular works that allows users to take a deeper dive than ever before.
Users of the app can tour LeWitt’s home studio in Chester, Connecticut; explore his career milestones and archival audio and photos; see the process behind his large-scale wall drawings and other pieces; and learn about his landmark installations around the world. In the spirit of LeWitt’s legacy as a collaborative artist—he famously used many assistants to execute his bigger works— the interactive platform makes his work accessible to art lovers anywhere, just as he intended.
The Sol LeWitt app is available for free download on Apple and Android devices. [MF]
Screenshots of the free interactive app celebrating the art of SVA alumnus Sol LeWitt. Courtesy Ada.
CLOSE UP
News and events from around the College
“To design is to communicate clearly by whatever means you can control or master.” —MILTON GLASER (SEE NEXT PAGE)
NOTABLE QUOTES FROM COLLEGE
EVENTS HEARD
AT SVA
“The [National Museum of African American History and Culture], they have an exhibit [on the Tulsa Race Massacre], and it’s pennies. . . . Because everything was burnt down to the ground, but the pennies lasted. So, how do you tell the story of something that’s just gone?” —Dr. Georgette Grier-Key, executive director of the Eastville Community Historical Society. From Diversity in 3D, the SVA Diversity, Equity and Inclusion podcast.
“I feel like we can learn so much from how nature treats [itself]. . . . Even as an artist I think in terms of an ecosystem. I don’t necessarily need to benefit, but how am I serving the ecosystem? Even if I have nothing to contribute, how am I present to witness and to lessen a burden for someone else?” —Jean Shin, artist. From a talk hosted by MFA Art Practice.
Coming Attractions
For more information on SVA events, visit sva.edu/events.
i3: Images, Ideas, Inspiration 10th Anniversary Lectures
MPS Digital Photography celebrates a decade of its popular i3 lectures with a series of talks curated and hosted by the program’s founding chair, Katrin Eismann (MFA 2002 Design). Online Every Tuesday through December 14, 7:00pm ET
Art and Activism
SVA Continuing Education hosts its fifth annual Art and Activism panel. SVA Theatre, 333 West 23rd Street, and online November 3, 6:00pm ET
A selection of work by alumni from the program’s latest graduating class. SVA Chelsea Gallery, 601 West 26th Street, and online November 18 – December 11
SVA @ Untitled, Art Miami
Featuring work by nine Class of 2021 alumni from six undergraduate and graduate SVA programs. Ocean Drive and 12th Street Miami Beach, Florida November 30 – December 4
Mentors
An exhibition of work by BFA Photography and Video students, made as part of their mentorships with industry professionals. SVA Chelsea Gallery, 601 West 26th Street, and online March 3 – 21, 2022
2
1 3
Glaser’s Great Gems
The sheer magnitude of Milton Glaser’s brilliant output is hard to fathom. You’re probably familiar with Glaser’s Dylan poster or his I NY logo, but he’s also responsible for thousands more works you may never have laid eyes on. The Milton Glaser Design Study Center and Archives at SVA contains all of it: unseen book jackets and album covers, rare posters and original art for unproduced projects. These are just a few hard-to-find and mostly unknown pieces from our collection:
8 | GLASER GAZETTE
4
5
BOOK JACKET
1. The Magic Barrel
Glaser’s 1958 book jacket for Bernard Malamud’s The Magic Barrel contains a lovely homage to Henri Matisse’s cutouts.
PORTRAIT
2. Jimi Hendrix
It’s unknown of this Jimi Hendrix portrait was ultimately published anywhere. The original drawing confidently conveys detail through minimal line and contrast.
POSTER
3. Art Love Time & Money
“Art Love Time & Money” was a 1968 poster for the 13th Annual Communications Conference sponsored by the Art Directors Club. Glaser’s fascination with 3D design resulted in a sort of mathematical diagram exploring the four things that animate most human activity.
COVER
4. Smash Magazine
Smash magazine, “the magazine that comes with two free staples,” was a wonderful and short-lived children’s magazine of the mid-1970s edited and published by Jenette Kahn. Glaser was the design director, and the graphics were playful in the manner of Push Pin Graphic. Much like other groundbreaking children’s media of the era (Sesame Street, The Electric Company, Zoom) Smash’s tone was fun, smart and curious.
POSTER
5. Lillian Roxon
Lillian Roxon was a trailblazing rock writer of the 1960s and ’70s. Her syndicated radio program, Lillian Roxon’s Diskotique, was pressed to vinyl and sent to radio stations. Glaser’s psychedelic poster from 1972 is both elegant and silly.
SVA s Milton Glaser
This summer, SVA began what will be a year-long initiative to celebrate the singular life and work of designer Milton Glaser, longtime faculty member and former acting chairman of the SVA Board, who died last year.
In September, a banner featuring a black-and-white portrait of Glaser by photographer Michael Somoro —who had worked with designer at New York, the weekly magazine co-founded by Glaser and editor Clay Felker in 1968— went up on an exterior wall of 209 East 23rd Street. (In 2014, the same space displayed Glaser’s climate-change PSA, “It’s Not Warming, It’s Dying.”)
Soon after, the first issue of the Glaser Gazette—a newsletter dedicated to Glaser’s multifaceted career, his mentorship of countless creative talents and his dedication to the greater good—appeared around campus as a free publication for the College community and its visitors. Copies have also been made available at the Poster House museum in Manhattan to coincide with “The Push Pin Legacy,” its exhibition on the legendary design studio, which counted Glaser as an early and integral member. “The Push Pin Legacy” is on view through February 6, 2022.
In December and early January, a multimedia exhibition showcasing Glaser’s work will be on view in the SVA Flatiron and Gramercy gallery spaces. Designed by 3D Design Chair Kevin O’Callaghan (BFA 1980 Media Arts), the show draws from the extensive holdings of the Milton Glaser Design Study Center and Archives, established at the College in 2006. A second issue of the Gazette, a book commemorating Glaser’s legacy as a teacher and mentor, and more events will follow in 2022. [GH]
MILTON’S ROAD TO Hell
Glaser’s caution to designers in his famous essay
Afew years ago I had the pleasure of illustrating Dante’s
Purgatory for an Italian publisher. I was impressed by the fact that the difference between those unfortunates in Hell and those in
Purgatory was that the former had no idea how they had sinned. Those in Hell were there forever. Those in
Purgatory knew what they had done and were waiting it out with at least the possibility of redemption, thus establishing the difference between despair and hope. In regard to professional ethics, acknowledging what it is we do is a beginning. It is clear that in the profession of graphic design the question of misrepresenting the truth arises almost immediately. So much of what we do can be seen as a distortion of the truth.
Put another way, “He who enters the bath sweats.” Finally, all questions of ethics become personal. To establish your own level of discomfort with bending the truth, read the following chart: 12 Steps on the Graphic Designer’s Road to Hell. I personally have taken a number of them.
1. Designing a package to look bigger on the shelf.
2. Designing an ad for a slow, boring film to make it seem like a lighthearted comedy.
3. Designing a crest for a new vineyard to suggest that it has been in business for a long time.
4. Designing a jacket for a book whose sexual content you find personally repellent.
5. Designing a medal using steel from the World Trade Center to be sold as a profit-making souvenir of September 11.
6. Designing an advertising campaign for a company with a history of known discrimination in minority hiring.
7. Designing a package aimed at children for a cereal whose contents you know are low in nutritional value and high in sugar.
8. Designing a line of T-shirts for a manufacturer that employs child labor.
9. Designing a promotion for a diet product that you know doesn’t work.
10. Designing an ad for a political candidate whose policies you believe would be harmful to the general public.
11. Designing a brochure for an SUV that flips over frequently in emergency conditions and is known to have killed 150 people.
12. Designing an ad for a product whose frequent use could result in the user’s death.
P22 Reissues Glaser Fonts
This year, P22 Type Foundry, a Rochester, New York–based studio specializing in historic lettering styles, introduced four digital font families based on typefaces created by Milton Glaser in the 1960s and ’70s: Babyfat, Babyteeth, Houdini and Kitchen.
P22 BEGAN WORK ON
the project in 2019, after principal Richard Kegler heard through a mutual acquaintance that Glaser was unhappy with the subpar knocko s of his fonts that were circulating online. Collaborating with Glaser and his studio, the foundry worked from the designer’s original drawings and phototype proofs while adding characters and styling options to make the typefaces functional, versatile and fun. The Houdini family, for example, includes a fully invisible option, in the spirit of Glaser’s stated goal, “to produce a letterform that would gradually disappear.” For more information, visit p22.com.
ABCDEFGHIJKLM NOPQRSTUVWx YZ !#%&?*$12345
Designer’s Journey
(Continued)
1975–1977 Centre Pompidou and MoMA
Glaser’s artwork has been featured in exhibits worldwide, including solo shows at both the Centre Pompidou in Paris (1977) , above, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York (1975).
1977 I Love New York
The original taxi sketch, now in the Museum of Modern Art archive, for the ubiquitous and much-copied logo.
I NY
1982 The Conversation
Glaser and the French artist Jean-Michel Folon were great friends over a long period of time. They decided to recognize that friendship by creating a book where one would start a drawing and the other would finish it. It’s an accordion fold that celebrates an a ectionate relationship.
Photo: Cosmos Sarchiapone.
1983 WBMG
In 1983, Glaser teamed with SVA alumnus Walter Bernard to form WBMG, a publication design firm located in New York City. WBMG was responsible for the complete redesigns of three major newspapers including The Washington Post. It consulted on design projects for The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe and New York Daily News, among others. Magazine clients include Time, U.S. News & World Report, Adweek and The Nation.
MORE
SCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS | 9
OPPOSITE AND ABOVE Select pages from the fall issue of the Glaser Gazette, one of several projects comprising a year-long SVA initiative celebrating the late designer and SVA faculty member Milton Glaser.
