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[previous article] [next article]Paul Gauguin, Georgia O'Keeffe, Eliot Porter, and Robert Rashenberg are four artists whose work grace the walls of the MSEE building. Other famous names also represented from the art world are Agum, Christo, Noel, Chenakau, and Wright. Art posters of these artist's work can be seen in three rooms in the Materials and Electrical Engineering building.
Support for this first-of-its-type project came from Purdue's Visual Arts Committee and department heads, Dr. G. L. Liedl and Dr. R. J. Schwartz. These posters are but a few of the more than 500 posters making up the University's Lending Collection that is managed by Barbara Pinzelik, professor in the HSSE Library. It is very probable that you have seen part of this collection hanging in various offices around campus (maybe even your own). It is from this collection that once each year new posters will replace those hanging in our terminal rooms.
Last August, Leslie Beetley, Barb Pinzelik, and I went to Chicago to select posters for this project. Lucky for us two major events were taking place; the US was gearing up for the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul, Korea, and the Art Institute of Chicago was hosting a major showing of Paul Gauguin's work. What this meant was that we had the opportunity to purchase poster sets. This is unusual. Art posters tend to be printed for special events and when the supply is sold, they are gone.
This year the Olympic Committee commissioned artists throughout the world to create art commemorating the games. Posters were then printed and sold. We were able to purchase six Seoul Olympic posters. The Art Institute celebrated the Gauguin show by making available a collection of posters of his work. Seven Gauguin's are on display, as well as, three posters depicting household furnishings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and four posters by Georgia O'Keeffe. Materials Engineering chose to place three scenic posters of Eliot Porter's American Landscapes series in their terminal room -- MSEE 159.
The terminal room art poster project is having a rippling effect across campus. At various meetings, photographs of drab campus rooms with plain cinder block walls are being compared with our "artified" terminal rooms. The difference is dramatic! Seeing the positive difference poster art can make, other schools are being encouraged to place poster art in nontraditional locations including classrooms, terminal rooms and student study areas.
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