October 28 – December 19, 2008

DON REITZ: OUT OF THE ASHES


Don Reitz, Stack Sculpture #6,2008 Anagama Fired

The Natalie and James Thompson Art Gallery is delighted to present an exhibition of new work by ceramic sculptor Don Reitz, one of the most iconic and influential ceramicists working today. Trained at Alfred University in the ealry 1960s, Reitz helped to define the genre of sculptural and expressionsist ceramics, and has worked tirelessly over the past fifty years, exploring different clays, manners of firing, and ceramics traditions. Particularly drawn to wood and salt firing, in which the element of unpredictability complements his experimental innovations and improvisations, he is a master potter who chooses to manipulate his media by pushing and pulling, stabbing,marking and painting.

Reitz served as a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1962 to 1988; in addition his career is particularly noteworthy due to the numbers of workshops and classes he has provided to audiences worldwide. Now Professor Emeritus from UW and living in Arizona, he has received such honors as being named one of the twelve "greatest living ceramic artists worldwide" by Ceramics Monthly (1988 and 2001), is Trustee Emeritus of the American Crafts Council, Fellow of the World Craft Council, recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and more. He has spent significant periods of time studying and working in Japan, and has received the Governor's Award from Himeji City; he has also been honored by the Maori in New Zealand for "distinguished leadership in the dispensing of knowledge to peoples," with his name carved on their totem pole.

An intense man who lives life to the fullest, Reitz has been involved in several accidents and illnesses in which he almost died, yet he has always come back, re-energized and forcefully approaching his art anew, In this exhibitions, curated especially for the Thompson Gallery, Reitz will display some of his newest work, never before seen on the West Coast. This will include wood and salt-fired floor, wall and table-top size pieces, which will reveal the increasing spirituality that he brings to his impressive work in this most elemental of materials.

Job Farb Hernandez, Director
Natalie and James Thompson Art Gallery

August 26 – October 17, 2008

Spiele


Otl Aicher's Olympic Graphic Design

The Natalie and James Thompson Art Gallery is delighted to present an exhibition of graphic design by the office of Otl Aicher for the 1972 Munich Olympics. A major figure in 20th century graphic design’s International Style and co-founder of the historic Ulm School of Design (Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm), graphic designer Otl Aicher (1922–1991) was a man of legendary order and planning. Aicher’s comprehensive work for the 1972 Munich Olympics perfectly embodies his philosophy and is the definitive example for today’s graphic identity and branding programs. Yet despite his importance in the field of graphic design, this will be the first major exhibition of Aicher’s Olympic design work on the West Coast.

Although Aicher based his Olympic posters, tickets, books, brochures, uniforms, signage, and architectural graphics on a strict grid, this exhibit clearly demonstrates the playful humanity and exuberance that simple elements of icon, type, color, and texture are capable of producing when in the mind and hands of a master designer. Included in the exhibit are artifacts from the planning as well as the implementation of the 1972 Olympics, along with many of the sports and informational icons conceived for the Games that later were expanded on for other applications. Also on view are Aicher identity programs for the Munich Airport and other clients.

The works in this special exhibition are drawn from the collection of guest curator Joe Miller, Lecturer in the Graphic Design Program at the School of Art and Design at SJSU, and principal of joe miller’s company, a design office in Santa Clara, California.

For additional information concerning the gallery program and visiting artist lecture series, contact:

Jo Farb Hernandez, Director
Natalie and James Thompson Galleries
San Jose State University
School of Art and Design,
ART 129A
San Jose, CA 95192-0089
telephone: (408) 924 - 4328
fax: (408) 924 - 4326