The Elmhurst Art Museum is pleased to announce a trio of new fall exhibitions opening with strict safety guidelines in accordance with the Restore Illinois Plan. Fall exhibitions include Art in the Post, open September 8 - November 22, 2020 and Wright Before the “Lloyd”, open September 8, 2020 - January 3, 2021. Additionally, A Space Problem is now open in the Museum’s historic McCormick House through November 15, 2020, and an installation by Chicago-duo Luftwerk, Color Code, will be on display September 15 - November 3, 2020 outside the Museum.
“We are thrilled we can welcome back visitors to experience the contemporary art and architecture that defines the Elmhurst Art Museum,” said Executive Director John McKinnon. “Our successful Museum From Home program was a creative lifeline for our community. We are glad to continue a variety of online programming along with enriching visits to see our new inspiring exhibits.”
Art in the Post, September 8 – November 22, 2020
Originally conceived as a collaborative project inviting the public to anonymously submit miniature works of art sharing various stay-at-home experiences during the COVID-19 crisis, the mail art project has broadened to include responses to racial injustice and other current events. The result is a community-created exhibition Art in the Post, a collection of some 100 postcards submitted by all ages, to be displayed in the sunlit-filled Hostetler Gallery lobby just inside the Museum’s entrance. The deadline to submit postcards is August 30, and further instructions and information can be found at elmhurstartmuseum.org.
Wright Before the “Lloyd”, September 8, 2020 – January 3, 2021
Wright Before the “Lloyd” is curated by Chicago’s cultural historian Tim Samuelson, who has been called a Chicago treasure in his own right. Exploring early work by the young architect “Frank L. Wright,” Wright Before the “Lloyd” is a journey via images and artifacts that portray the myriad of ways Wright flirted with styles including modernism, classicism, Tudor, Colonial and Japanese. What followed these eclectic, youthful explorations was the career of one of the world’s greatest architects, which continued to evolve over seventy years until his death at age of 92. In cases where fire and decay left only fragments and shards, cutting-edge technologies have been deployed to make Wright’s home designs whole again. This show complements Elmhurst History Museum’s upcoming exhibition Frank Lloyd Wright: Architecture of the Interior, which opens October 23, 2020 and will explore the interior spaces and objects found inside Wright’s homes.
A Space Problem, through November 15, 2020
The Museum’s first exhibition to open following the coronavirus shutdown was A Space Problem, now on display in Mies van der Rohe’s McCormick House. Organized by Chicago designer David Salkin, the house is reimagined as the home of a design enthusiast featuring iconic mid-century furnishings, ceramics, patterned rugs, photo collages, design objects, and abstract paintings. Featured artists include Marshall Brown (Princeton, New Jersey), Jennefer Hoffmann (Chicago, Illinois), Sterling Lawrence (Chicago, Illinois), David Salkin (Chicago, Illinois), Geoffrey Todd Smith (Westchester, Illinois). A Space Problem complements an adjoining installation dedicated to models, historical photographs, and stories about the House’s uniqueness as a prefab prototype by the famed modernist Mies van der Rohe.
Color Code, September 15 – November 3, 2020
Color Code, a multi-venue installation created by Chicago design duo Luftwerk in collaboration with Renata Graw, transforms the international distress call SOS from Morse code into colored flags. In solidarity and connectedness, several organizations will each display three flags by the artists as a call for humanity and willingness to help one another. As the world adjusts to new norms in challenging times, Color Code helps us reconsider how language, objects and symbols, and even color can help others find stable ground and safety. The outdoor installation of contrasting color flags by Luftwerk investigates color as a system of language and symbols, and a marker of emotion. Color Code is created in collaboration with Renata Graw, founder and creative head of Normal—a small, independent team of designers and creative thinkers in Chicago.
COVID-19 Protocol
The Museum encourages non-members to purchase tickets online in advance of visiting the Museum. Members, children, and students may check-in without an advance ticket purchase. All visitors must wear a face mask and are asked to review the Museum’s COVID-19 protocols before visiting at www.elmhurstartmuseum.org/visit/covid/.
About the McCormick House
In 1952, the renowned modern architect Mies van der Rohe designed a home for Robert Hall McCormick III, a member of Chicago’s most prominent families, and his wife, the poet Isabella Gardner. The home is a rare and important example of Mies van der Rohe’s mature style, incorporating elements of his celebrated designs for the Farnsworth House (1951) and 860-880 Lake Shore Drive (1951). The McCormick House—one of only three single-family homes designed by Mies in the United States—originally served two purposes: it was a home for the McCormick family and a prototype for a proposed group of smaller, affordable mass-produced modular homes in the western Chicago suburbs that McCormick and co-developer Herbert S. Greenwald were hoping to build. However, the cutting-edge, high-end buildings were not met with enough buyers to begin construction.
About the Elmhurst Art Museum
The Museum is located at 150 South Cottage Hill Avenue in Elmhurst (IL), 25 minutes from downtown Chicago by car or public transportation (Metra). The Museum is both an international destination for Mies van der Rohe scholars and fans and a regional center where people from Chicago and the western suburbs learn to see and think differently through the study of the art, architecture and design of our time. The Museum is one block from the Elmhurst Metra station. Admission is $15 ($12 for seniors) and free for students and children under 18.
In September 2019, the Elmhurst Art Museum released a new modern and approachable graphic identity to better highlight the organization's vision for art, education & architecture. The updated look distinguishes the unique art center as a dynamic site to inspire and enrich its community.
For more information, including most up to date summer hours, visit elmhurstartmuseum.org.