Upcoming Exhibitions

please note: all upcoming exhibitions are subject to change

Fall 2008

Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury

September 19, 2008 to January 5, 2009
College of Art Gallery
Barney A. Ebsworth Gallery

Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture At Midcentury takes a look at the broad cultural zeitgeist of "cool" that influenced the visual, graphic, and decorative arts, furniture, architecture, music, and film produced in California in the 1950s and early 1960s. The exhibition, organized by the Orange County Museum of Art, includes a jazz lounge; a media bar with film, animation, and television programming; a period art gallery of hard-edge abstract paintings; selections of art, architectural, and documentary photography; and an interactive timeline that highlights examples of California, national, and international culture and history in the 1950s. Birth of the Cool examines the dynamic community of artists who overlapped and interacted in Southern California at midcentury--Chet Baker, Gerry Mulligan, Charles and Ray Eames, John Lautner, Richard Neutra, Helen Lundeberg, and others who played a seminal role in the development of the iconic high modernist style.

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Spring 2009

Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future

January 30 to April 27, 2009
College of Art Gallery
Barney A. Ebsworth Gallery

Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future is the first retrospective to explore the complete career of the acclaimed Finnish architect, one of the 20th century's most prolific, unorthodox and controversial practitioners. Drawn largely from the archives of Saarinen's office, this exhibition surveys more than 50 built and proposed projects -- including St. Louis' monumental Gateway Arch (1947-1965) -- emphasizing both the stylistic plurality of his output and the collaborative nature of his practice. Included are full-scale building mock-ups, never-before-seen drawings, models, photographs, films and other documentary materials.

Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future is organized by the Finnish Cultural Institute, New York; the Museum of Finnish Architecture, Helsinki; and the National Building Museum, Washington D.C.; with support from the Yale University School of Architecture. The exhibition is curated by Donald Albrecht in conjunction with an international consortium of Finnish and American scholars.