"Milton Glaser: Art is Work"
2000-11-09 until 2000-12-27
AIGA National Design Center Gallery
New York, NY, USA United States of America

Art is Work: Milton Glaser Retrospective is the largest retrospective show ever held in New York of the work of the American graphic designer Milton Glaser. The show coincides with the publication of Glasers eponymous book, Art is Work, a comprehensive survey of his work in the 25 years since the publication of his classic Milton Glaser Graphic Design.

One of the most influential and unusual figures in the history of graphic design, Glaser has been producing memorable images and objects for more than four decades. From the famous Bob Dylan poster of 1967 and the universally imitated I Love NY logo up to the cutting-edge design of his new websites and his masterful illustrations for Dante’s Purgatory, Glaser has created some of the most powerful and enduring visual art of our time.

The extraordinary variety of subject matter and style in the show demonstrates why Glaser has been called the Picasso of the graphic arts field. It includes his posters, magazine and newspaper designs, interior designs, corporate logos, record albums, magazine illustrations and typography, as well as watercolors, drawings, prints and illustrated books, toys, textiles, jewelry and home furnishings.

Among the more unusual pieces in the show are the erotic drawings the designer created for a French edition of Boris Vians novels, a wood-and-glass sculptural tribute to Glasers teacher, Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964) and a set of ingeniously modular childrens building blocks.

The show will also feature rare examples of illustrated books Glaser conceived for European publishers that have never been shown in this country, including versions of Charles Baudelaires Les Fleurs du Mal and Guillaume Appolinaires Oeuvres Poetiques and Oeuvres en Prose.

Born in 1929, Milton Glaser was educated at the High School of Music and Art and the Cooper Union in New York, and via a Fulbright Scholarship, the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, Italy. He co-founded the seminal Pushpin Studios in 1954, founded New York magazine with Clay Felker in 1968, established Milton Glaser, Inc. in 1974, and teamed with Walter Bernard in 1983 to form the publication design firm WBMG. Milton Glaser, Inc. is a multidisciplinary design company, specializing in corporate identity, logos and trademarks, brochures, packaging, interiors, exhibitions, posters and websites.

Glaser was the 1972 recipient of the AIGA medal, the highest honor given to a graphic designer in this country, and is the only graphic artist ever to have had one-man shows at both the Centre Gorges Pompidou in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Related Links:

Indepth Arts Resources for the State of New York

Other Important Exhibitions in New York