From Julie Mellby, Curator of Works on Paper at the Toledo Museum of Art:

Dear Friends,

At the risk of filling your mailbox with unwanted announcements, I am sending a press release for the exhibition and catalogue of the Bareiss Collection of Modern Illustrated Books.  There is a symposium being presented in conjunction with this exhibition, and I wanted to try to spread the word early in the school year, in case any of you can come.

Best wishes,

 

Julie Mellby

Curator of Works on Paper

Toledo Museum of Art

PO Box 1013

Toledo, Ohio  43697

800-644-6862 x 7372

419-244-2217 fax

 

News Release

 

For Immediate Release                                                                                                    August 2002

Contact/Information                                                                                                          Chris Peiffer

                                                                                                                        419-255-8000 x7408

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Elizabeth Sudheimer

419-255-8000 x7301

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Illustrated Book Collection Focus of Exhibition at

Toledo Museum of Art

 

Splendid Pages: The Molly and Walter Bareiss Collection of Modern Illustrated Books

February 14 – May 11, 2003

 

(Toledo, OH) – The Toledo Museum of Art holds one of the finest and most comprehensive collections devoted to modern illustrated books.   Thanks to forty years of collecting by Molly and Walter Bareiss, this collection holds over 1,400 volumes dating from the 1850s through 2000.  Mr. and Mrs. Bareiss, who divide their time between Germany and Connecticut, generously donated the entire collection to the Toledo Museum of Art in 1984.  As a special Valentine to the Bareiss family, the Toledo Museum will open a major exhibition of these books entitled Splendid Pages: The Molly and Walter Bareiss Collection of Modern Illustrated Books on February 14, 2003. 

Splendid Pages, the exhibition, will feature seven sections, highlighting the diverse strengths of the Bareiss Collection: “The Book Beautiful,” features classic livres d’artistes; “A Publisher’s Vision” is a selection of books by Vollard, P.A.B., and other key publishers; “Artist as Author” includes many contemporary artists’ book; “Inside/Outside” examines books of different shapes, sizes, and bindings; “The Authors” highlights important works of literature; “Scripts, Scores, and Costumes” features the many illustrated works for theater and dance; and “Visual Poetry” looks at the artistry of type design.

The list of artists represented in this exhibition reads like a who’s who of late 19th- and 20th-century art, including such luminaries as Marc Chagall, Aristide Maillol, Henri Matisse,

Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Robert Motherwell, and Robert Rauschenberg.  Significant volumes include Parallèlement by Paul Verlaine and Pierre Bonnard, Die Gesänge des Maldoror by Georg Baselitz and comte de Lautréamont [Isadore Ducasse], and Dlia Golosa (For the Voice) by El Lissitzky and Vladimir Vladimirovich Maiakovsky.

 

A Commitment to the Book as Art

            The Toledo Museum of Art has long been a center for the history of the written and printed word.  A commitment to the collecting of rare books and manuscripts began with George W. Stevens, the Museum’s first director.  Shortly after the founding of the Museum in 1901, Stevens established a noteworthy collection of inscriptions, manuscripts, incunabula, rare printed editions, and historic bindings.  In the 1970s, the Museum significantly expanded its collection with the acquisition of a portion of George Wittenborn’s art book collection.  In December 1984, Molly and Walter Bareiss donated their magnificent collection of modern illustrated books, propelling the Museum into national and international status as a resource for scholars, students, and visitors.  Today, the Museum maintains a serious commitment to pursuing and collecting modern illustrated books by 20th- and 21st-century artists.

 

About Molly and Walter Bareiss

The life-long passion of Mr. and Mrs. Bareiss to collect works of art from numerous periods and countries is well known to the American and European art community.  Portions of their diverse collections have been donated to museums and universities around the world.  Major exhibitions of their collections include Greek vases at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu; European master drawings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; African art at the Neuberger Museum, Purchase, New York; and contemporary German and Austrian art at the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven and the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich.

In addition to classic livres d’artistes, Molly and Walter Bareiss sought out the most avant-garde of contemporary artists. There are books by artists from France, the United States, and Germany—and also from Austria, Belgium, Chile, Cuba, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Great Britain, Hungary Iceland, Italy, Japan Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Spain, and Switzerland. Seventy-four books with original prints by Pablo Picasso form an extraordinary strength, but the collection also includes unique book-objects, mass-produced artists’ books from the 1960s, visual poetry, altered novels, and portfolios of prints.

 

Illustrated Publication

In conjunction with the exhibition, a comprehensive catalogue of the Bareiss Collection will be published.  The catalogue, designed by Katy Homans and co-published by Hudson Hills Press, is planned to serve not only as a research tool documenting the Bareiss collection, but also to preserve the history of 20th-century book arts in general by capturing the lives and memories of some of its major participants.  Splendid Pages: The Molly and Walter Bareiss Collection of Modern Illustrated Books includes a complete listing of the collection, copiously illustrated with full-color reproductions and accompanied by seven essays.  The essays were written by artists, writers, publishers, and historians active in the field of artists illustrated books, beginning with a contribution by Walter Bareiss himself. 

In the catalogue, Mr. Bareiss talks about the joy he has had researching, finding, and acquiring the books he chose over the years.  Riva Castleman, chief curator emerita of prints and printed books at The Museum of Modern Art, narrates the story of a trip through Germany with Walter Bareiss, where they visited German artists, scholars, and collections.  Eleanor M. Garvey, curator emerita of the Department of Printing and Graphic Arts at Harvard University’s Houghton Library, writes about Philip Hofer as a pioneer scholar of book arts and compares the Hofer and Bareiss collections.  May Castleberry recalls her career from 1982 to 2000 as editor of the Artists and Writers Series of the Whitney Museum of American Art.  Michael Semff, director of the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung in Munich, examines the crossover work of sculptors who also make illustrated books.  Johanna Drucker, Robertson Professor of Media Studies at the University of Virginia, examines the collaborative projects of the Russian book artist and designer Iliazd.  Finally, artist Kiki Smith and poet Mei-mei Berssenbrugge tell of their 1997 collaboration, Endocrinology. In addition, Ms. Smith and Berssenbrugge collaborated with the book’s designer to create a unique presentation for their project.

 

Related Programming

The opening of Splendid Pages will also initiate a three-month celebration of the book arts in the mid-west.  These months will be filled with lectures, workshops, and extraordinary events in keeping with the importance of this magnificent collection and Mr. and Mrs. Bareiss’ magnificent donation.  One highlight will be a symposium organized with the University of Toledo entitled “Beyond Boundaries: A Weekend with the Bareiss Collection.”  Panels will focus on both the artists and the authors who collaborate in word/text projects.  Among the participants will be contemporary artist Joseph Kosuth, New York Times art critic Holland Cotter, and historian Mary Ann Caws.  Jonathan Fineberg, Xu Bing, Buzz Spector, Frédéric Canovas, Friederike Emonds, Günter Klabes, Todd Sanders, and Pamela Genova are included.  The symposium has received the support of the Ohio Humanities Council, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for Humanities, and the UT Foundation’s Program for Academic Excellence.

Satellite exhibitions are planned for spring 2003, both by the Toledo Museum and other area institutions.  The Toledo Museum presents Magical Miró: Prints and Books from the Bareiss Collection and Motherwell’s “El Negro” which will exhibit each individual page of Rafael Alberti’s epic poem printed with Robert Motherwell’s stirring black and white images.  The University of Toledo’s Canaday Center will draw on their rare book collection to present, History of Fine Print.  Detroit’s College for Creative Studies, has organized the exhibition, Building the Book: An Exhibition of Artists’ Books curated by Lynne Avadenka, February 22, 2003 – March 22, 2003.  In Ann Arbor, The University of Michigan’s Special Collections Library will present, Suave Mechanicals:  Early to Modern Binding Styles and Materials, April 1, 2003 - July 15, 2003.  UMAA’s opening reception will be Friday, April 4 and book artist, Pam Spitzmueller, will be the featured speaker.  Finally, The Toledo-Lucas County Public Library, will hang Art of the Yearbook: Retrospective Century 1890-1990.