Taken by Design: Photographs from the Institute of Design, Chicago, 1937–1971

December 7, 2002 - March 2, 2003

Charley's Eye, 1940
Nathan Lerner
Gelatin silver print
23.3 x 18.5 cm
The Art Institute of Chicago: Edward Byron Smith and John Bross Fund

Taken by Design: Photographs from the Institute of Design, Chicago, 1937–1971

December 7, 2002 - March 2, 2003

Chicago's legendary Institute of Design began in the 1930s as an outpost of experimental art education based on principles established by Germany's famed Bauhaus school. One of the most important schools of photography in twentieth-century America, the Institute of Design (or ID) was the home to such photographic luminaries as László Moholy-Nagy, Harry Callahan, and Aaron Siskind, and the inspiration to students who would become some of the best fine art photographers in the country. It also educated generations of photographers who would in turn become teachers, thus insuring a lasting legacy of ID principles.

The pictures that were created by the teachers and students there set new standards for photographic exploration, using photography's own means to expand its possibilities. Despite its illustrious past, however, the significant contribution of the Institute of Design to the history of American photography remains largely unexplored and under-recognized. To date, no in-depth, scholarly exhibition or catalogue has examined the contributions the school made to photography in its formative and peak years.

In addition to important works by Moholy-Nagy, Callahan, and Siskind, the exhibition will feature the work of Barbara Crane, Yasuhiro Ishimoto, Joseph Jachna, Kenneth Josephson, Gyorgy Kepes, Nathan Lerner, Ray K. Metzker, Richard Nickel, Arthur Siegel, Art Sinsabaugh, and others.