Ivan Chermayeff

Chine Colle Photo Collage Assemblage Art Jockey, President Clinton Invitation

Ivan Chermayeff (1932-2017): Butterfly Mouth Mixed media collage, 2002, hand signed 'Ivan Chermayeff' and dated lower right, titled lower left. Bears label from David Findlay Jr. Gallery, NY. 22 1/2 x 15 in. (sheet), 25 3/4 x 18 1/4 in. (frame). Provenance: The estate of the artist. Ivan Chermayeff born London, United Kingdom, 1932 Chermayeff was one of the greatest American graphic designers, the son of the Russian born, British architect Serge Chermayeff. Ivan Chermayeff Graduated from the Phillips Academy of Andover, Massachusetts in 1950. He studied at Harvard until 1952, and the Institute of Design (New Bauhaus) until 1954. Graduated from the Yale School of Arts and Architecture in 1955 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. The same year he did a short apprenticeship with Alvin Lustig—a pioneer of American graphic design—and then moved on to CBS as Assistant Art Director in record cover design. In 1956 he co-founded Brownjohn, Chermayeff & Geismar Associate, with Robert Brownjohn and his former schoolmate Tom Geismar. In 1959 Brownjohn left and the studio changed to Chermayeff & Geismar Inc. It soon became one of the best-known design firms worldwide. The firm produced over six-hundred marks, and they were among the very first to develop an abstract trademark (Chase Bank, 1960), still in use today. In 1964 they designed the outstanding corporate identity of Mobil Oil, that is one of the most recognizable identities ever. From its foundation, the studio served major companies including Giorgio Armani, Barneys, Hearst, MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), National Geographic, NBC (National Broadcasting Company), PBS (Public Broadcasting Service), Rockefeller, and others. Recently, Serge Haviv joined as a new partner and the firm changed to Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv. Besides his design profession, Chermayeff is a talented illustrator artist and collagist. Many graphic pieces he made show a perfect balance of rational logics with imagination, featuring both abstract geometric shapes and figurative images. His collage works require a same sense of witty assemblage, where gathered information, like scraps of paper, stamps, and Polaroid photograph pictures combine as fragmented clues to a greater message. The Surrealist collages often take the shape of people, whose facial features are born of scraps and daily ephemera. They are amusing and infinitely thought-provoking; as Chermayeff has said, “Collages make it possible for everything to be something else.” Board overseers at Parsons School of Design and trustee at New School University from 1988 to 2002. Visiting professor at Cooper Union, University of California, and Kansas City Art Institute. He started making collages at the age of 17 to overcome his fear of not being able to draw. They are mostly made from day-to-day ephemera: envelopes, stamps, cigarette packs, train tickets, strips of coloured paper, found images, stones from the beach or squashed rusty cans. Inspired by Surrealism and organised by the artist’s hand and complemented with strong lines, they make faces, figures, fragmented narratives. Like all great designs, they evoke surprise and the pleasure of recognition. As he put it: “Design is all about seeing and making connections which are not so obvious.”President of AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) from 1963 to 1966. Trustee of MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) from 1965 to 1986. Member of the board of directors of IDCA (International Design Conference in Aspen) from 1968 to 1999. Board Director at Municipal Art Society of New York in 1972-76. Member of AGI (Alliance Graphique Internationale) since 1978. Board Director at Smithsonian Institution from 1988 to 1996. He was elected to the Hall of Fame of ADC New York (Art Directors Club) in 1982. Trustee of the Archives of America Art in 1987-90. Royal Designer for Industry since 1992. He was awarded numerous prizes including the Industrial Art Medal from AIA (American Institute of Architects) in 1967, the Philadelphia College of Art Gold Medal in 1971, AIGA Gold Medal (American Institute of Graphic Arts) in 1979, the President’s Fellow Award from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1981, the First International Design Award from Japan Design Foundation in 1983, the Yale Arts Medal in 1985, the Distinguished Service Award from New School University in 1999, the Society of Illustrators Gold Medal in 2002, the Tokyo Type Directors Club Award in 2004, and the National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2014. He also received a honorary doctorate in law from the Portland School of Art in 1981, and two honorary doctorates in fine arts from the Philadelphia University of Arts and the Corcoran Museum of Art, Washington in 1991. Along with Seymour Chwast, Sid Chafetz, Saul Bass, Milton Glaser, Paul Rand, Ikko Tanaka...

American Artist 1922 – 2012 Served his country as a Sergeant in World War II, both stateside and in the Philippines. After the war, native Chicagoan Ronald Ahlström graduated from the School of the Art Institute, He became a prominent Abstract Expressionist collage assemblage maker working in a style similar to some of the New York school assemblage artists such as Robert Goodnough. Utilizing cutout letters in a concrete poetry style. He frequently exhibited his collages and paintings in the Chicago and Vicinity exhibits of the 1950s and 1960s. He worked as the curator of the Tacoma Art Museum in Tacoma WA during the early 1960s. He showed at Exhibition Momentum in the ’60s, and was selected for the Corcoran Biennial. Together with his colleagues and fellow-abstractionists Robert Nickle, Morris Barazani, Harry Bouras, George Kokines, and George Waite, he exhibited at McCormick Place in an independently produced survey of contemporary Chicagoans, circa 1962, under the banner 12 Chicago Artists. An adept and sensitive painter, Ahlström’s most personal work is as an abstract expressionist collage maker. Using strips of paper, sometimes weathered and beaten into rough hewn surfaces, he creates immaculately layered, lively, gestural compositions. He was the recipient of many art awards and prizes throughout his long career. His works are part of numerous private, corporate and museum collections. His work was published in many national and international art publications including Who's Who in America and Who's Who in American Art. he taught art at both high school and college level. His other passions included history, literature and music. He was an accomplished base fiddle and guitar player and often played professionally in clubs during the late 1940s and 1950s. In 1958, he was awarded the William H. Bartels Prize of five hundred dollars at the Art Institute of Chicago. Education: Art Institute of Chicago University of Chicago DePaul University Exhibitions: Art Institute of Chicago Annuals, Corcoran Biennial in Washington DC, 12 Chicago Artists 50 Chicago Artists European Exhibit at the US Information Agency Collage and Construction, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago Tacoma Art Museum, Washington Henry Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle 50th Northwestern Annual, Seattle Art Museum, Chicago Invitational, University of Illinois One Man Exhibits: Rockford College, Rockford Il. Barat College, Lake Forest Il. Rodger Wilson Gallery, Chicago, Il. Touchstone Gallery, New York, NY. Joseph Faulkner, Main Street Galleries, Chicago, Il. Zriny Galleries, Chicago Il. Awards: Clyde Carr Prize, Art Institute of Chicago William H. Bartels Prize, Art Institute of Chicago James Broadus Clark Prize, Art Institute of Chicago Alumni of Art Institute Prize Singer and Sons Prize, Navy Pier, Chicago Abel Fagan Prize, Festival of Fine Arts, Lake Forest, Il. Ford Foundation Purchase Prize, Seattle, Wa. Collections: Art Institute of Chicago Barat College Tacoma Art Museum, Wa. Phibrook Art Center, Tulsa, Ok. Blue-Cross Collection, Chicago, Il. Atlantic Richfield Collection Illinois Bell Telephone Collection Container Corporation of...

World renowbed Graphic Designer Ivan Chermayeff creates whimsical abstract collage characters in bold colors . Here we have Brno Mechanic. Mixed media collage on paper, 1998, signed 'Ivan Chermayeff', titled and dated lower right. on heavy Arches paper. Framed under plexi 33.5 x 25.5 Slight Staining near glove and minor scattered surface soiling. Otherwise apparently in good condition. Chermayeff & Geismar It was founded in 1957 by the two Yale graduates Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar as well as Robert Brownjohn, a protégé of László Moholy-Nagy and Chermayeff's father, industrial designer Serge Chermayeff, at the New Bauhaus in Chicago.[2] Brownjohn, who struggled with heroin addiction for most of his adult life, left the partnership to join J. Walter Thompson's London branch in 1959. The firm has designed logos for such companies as Pan Am, Mobil Oil...

Mixed media on paper, 1990, signed 'Ivan Chermayeff' and dated lower right, titled lower left. 30 x 22 in. (sheet), 36 x 28 in. (frame). Provenance:The artist, Art Planning Consult...