Television and art are not often regarded as being remotely in the same league, but the NSU Art Museum in Fort Lauderdale, Florida is proving the influence that avant-garde art had on television in its nascent years. Organised together with the Jewish Museum in New York and the Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, ‘Revolution of the Eye: Modern Art and the Birth of American Television’ pulls together two cherished pillars of American culture.
Spanning the late 1940s to the mid 1970s, the exhibition presents how American television took on a modernist aesthetic as its inspiration. Over 250 fine art objects and examples of graphic design, including works from artists such as Marcel Duchamp, Saul Bass, Roy Lichtenstein and Georgia O’ Keeffe, stand alongside television memorabilia, clips and ephemera from iconic television series and shows, such as The Ernie Kovacs Show, The Ed Sullivan Show, Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In and even The Twilight Zone. From the Pop Art aesthetics reflected in early Batman epsiodes to Op Art-esque commercials for Kodak and sets for The Ed Sullivan Show, the connections are rather unexpected, to say the least.
In addition to a showing of early advertising, which still exude an exciting quality and were revolutionary at the time, the exhibition also highlights the ‘New Advertising’ revolution of the 1950s and 1960s, where Andy Warhol and Ben Shahn created advertising and commercial campaigns for CBS.
And finally, to prove just how entwined television and art were in popular culture, the exhibition also documents how artists like Salvador Dali, Willem de Kooning, Ray Eames and Marcel Duchamp became household names, thanks to television appearances that were broadcast nationwide. A series of rare TV clips forms part of the experience.
Over 250 fine art objects and examples of graphic design stand alongside television memorabilia, clips and ephemera from iconic films and television shows, such as The Ernie Kovacs Show. Pictured: Ernie Kovacs. Image provided by Photofest, New York
Spanning the late 1940s to the mid 1970s, the exhibition presents how American television took on a modernist aesthetic as its inspiration. Pictured: 'Winky Dink and You' game book, c. 1954
The exhibition also includes rare film clips showing how artists, like Salvador Dali, became household names, thanks to television appearances that were broadcast nationwide. Pictured: Salvador Dali on 'What's My Line', CBS, January 1952. Copyright: Fremantle Media
Pictured: Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In bubble-gum wrapper, c. 1968
Pictured: Lifesavers commercial, 1966
The exhibition also includes examples of early advertising, which still exude an exciting quality and were considered revolutionary at the time. Pictured: William Golden, Art Director, 'The Sign of Good Television,' Fortune, December 1951
It also highlights the ‘New Advertising’ revolution of the 1950s and 1960s, where Andy Warhol and Ben Shahn created advertising and commercial campaigns for CBS. Pictured: Designer unknown, The Souper Dress, c. 1967
INFORMATION
‘Revolution of the Eye: Modern Art and the Birth of American Television’ runs until 10 January 2016
ADDRESS
NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale
1 East Las Olas Boulevard
Fort Lauderdale, Florida
-
Discover Eve Arnold’s intimate unseen images of Marilyn Monroe‘Marilyn Monroe by Eve Arnold’, published by ACC Art Books, is a personal portrayal of an icon
-
Mallorca’s ‘chocolate hotel’ celebrates six decades of Mediterranean panacheSixty years after it opened, Hotel de Mar remains a celebrated example of Mediterranean vernacular architecture
-
Cadillac extends its EV portfolio with the new Vistiq, a luxury three-row SUVIf you absolutely have to drive an SUV, the launch of the Cadillac Vistiq means the marque now offers a full suite of electric options
-
‘Gas Tank City’, a new monograph by Andrew Holmes, is a photorealist eye on the American West‘Gas Tank City’ chronicles the artist’s journey across truck-stop America, creating meticulous drawings of fleeting moments
-
Intimacy, violence and the uncanny: Joanna Piotrowska in PhiladelphiaArtist and photographer Joanna Piotrowska stages surreal scenes at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania
-
First look: Sphere’s new exterior artwork draws on a need for human connectionWallpaper* talks to Tom Hingston about his latest large-scale project – designing for the Exosphere
-
Marc Hom reframes traditional portraiture in Cooperstown, NY‘Marc Hom: Re-Framed’ has taken over the grounds of the Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, planting Samuel L Jackson, Gwyneth Paltrow and more ‘personalities of the world’ into the landscape
-
Alexander May, founder of LA studio Sized, on the joys of creative polymathyCreative director Alexander May tells us of the multidisciplinary approach that drives his LA studio Sized and its offspring, a 5,000 sq ft event space and an exhibition series
-
50 of America’s top creatives, photographed by Inez & VinoodhPhotographed exclusively for Wallpaper* by Inez & Vinoodh, we present a portfolio of 50 creatives driving the current discourse on American culture and its dynamic evolution
-
Nona Faustine confronts the past in New YorkArtist Nona Faustine reframes New York's colonial past in an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum
-
How the west won: Ivan McClellan is amplifying the intrepid beauty of Black cowboy cultureIn his new book, 'Eight Seconds: Black Cowboy Culture', Ivan McClellan draws us into the world of Black rodeo. Wallpaper* meets the photographer ahead of his Juneteenth Rodeo
