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ID Show
November 11 - December 3, 2010
Members of the
Oakton Art Department faculty showcase their unique artistic identities
in a show that features paintings, photography, ceramics, and digital
art.
Public Reception: Thursday, November 11, 5 – 8 p.m.
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Mies van der Rohe’s Bruxelles Pavilion: The Building in the Middle
December 9, 2010 – January 21, 2011
“America is all
civilization, Russia all culture; in ideal societies, as in the Germany
of the future, the two would be perfectly balanced.” –
Arthur Moeller van den Bruck
“I have tried to make an architecture for a technological society.”
-- Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, TIME Magazine (1966)
Ludwig Mies van der
Rohe’s design for the Bruxelles Pavilion – Germany’s
never-constructed entry to the Brussels International Exposition of
1935 – has long been overlooked. This is because his project was
not chosen from the six invited entries and the original presentation
was lost. The drawings that survived were returned to Mies in the
mid-1960s, along with other materials left behind when he emigrated
from Berlin in 1938. Required to symbolize Nazi Germany’s
“fighting spirit” and “power,” the Bruxelles
Pavilion instructs in two ways. First it is a hybrid, blending elements
of the Barcelona Pavilion (1929) and Chicago’s Illinois Institute
of Technology campus (1938-1958), two landmarks of his European and
U.S. careers. Richard Pommer, architectural historian, further points
out that it is the nexus where Mies’ conservative revolutionary
worldview, which reconciles high technology with the spirit while
rejecting the rationalism of 18th century Enlightenment, overlaps that
of his client. With unfettered access to surviving documents,
architects William Huchting and Brian DuBois, supported by the Graham
Foundation and the architectural technology department at Oakton
Community College, have recreated Mies’ monument for a
technological age. This exhibition offers an appropriate context to
Mies’ intentions and presents a more cultivated appreciation of
his legacy.
Public Reception: Thursday, December 9, 5 – 8 p.m.
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Clothing and Culture in South Asia
February 3 – March 25, 2011
Clothing may or may not “make the man,” but what we wear
definitely expresses who we think we are. For the 1.6 billion people
living on the Indian subcontinent, getting dressed each day –
whether in traditional handmade, exuberantly-ornamented clothing, or
mass-produced Western garb – affirms and communicates individual
social identity. South Asian dress is as varied as its people, from
Gandhi's simple, handspun cotton dhoti or the lovingly embroidered hem
of a village girl's skirt, to the bejeweled silk turban of a Rajput
prince or the urban chic of a sari made in China and worn by a manager
in Mumbai. Courtesy of the Helen Louise Allen Textile Collection,
University of Wisconsin at Madison, this exhibition explores the
intricate, intimate connections between clothing and culture. Presented
by Oakton’s Global Studies Program with support from the Pathways
to South Asia Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Language
Grant.
Public Reception: Thursday, February 3, 5 – 8 p.m.
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OakArt 2011
March 31 – April 22, 2011
Oakton Community College art students exhibit their talents in painting, drawing, ceramics, digital art, and photography.
Public Reception: Thursday, March 31, 5 – 8 p.m.
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Arient Family Collection: Self-Taught Artists of the 20th Century
May 5 – August 18, 2011
The Arient Family Collection is not only the product of 30 years of
work by passionate and committed collectors, but also a reflection of
their search for and appreciation of the best, wherever it might be
found. The self-taught artists collected by Jim and Beth Arient
never have pursued formal art training, but the passion, commitment,
and intensity attached to their personal visions gives power to their
art. The Arients have pursued “folk” and
“outsider” art they find emotionally satisfying all over
the U.S. – north and south, rural and urban, black and white
neighborhoods. They avoid dealers and other collectors, preferring to
visit and purchase directly from the artists. Their large and varied
collection consists of work in all media – sculpture, painting,
drawings, textiles, metalwork, and ceramics. Strength and beauty are
the underlying qualities of these works, which show how these artists
viewed the people and world around them.
Public Reception: Thursday, May 5, 5 – 8 p.m.
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