CalArts Faculty Works in LACMA’s West of Modernism: California Graphic Design, 1975-1995

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Jeffery Keedy, Calendar for Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), December 1988/January 1989, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Decorative Arts and Design Council Acquisition Fund, © Jeffery Keedy

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Caryn Aono, CalArts Spring Music Festival, 1996, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, gift of the designer, © Caryn Aono

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April Greiman and John Coy with Michael Cronan, Linda Hinrichs, Michael Manwaring, Michael Vanderbyl, and Eric Martin, AIGA California Design 2, 1985, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Marc Treib Collection, © April Greiman and John Coy

The pioneering design work of CalArts’ Graphic Design faculty are on grand display in West of Modernism: California Graphic Design, 1975-1995 at LACMA.

Focusing on a transformational couple of decades for graphic design, the exhibition explores how California became a haven for forward-thinking designers eager for freedom from the established East Coast design world and the rigid rules of modernism.

Featuring 31 posters and publications, West of Modernism demonstrates how these avant-garde California designers asserted their autonomy through bold colors, innovative typography, layered images, and experimentation with three-dimensional space, traditional design vernacular and newly introduced technology, including the Apple Macintosh computer.

As LACMA’s Unframed blog explains:

California’s progressive design schools provided havens for experimentation, fostering dialogue and debate within the profession. Freed from the commercial imperatives, institutions like the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and the Art Center College of Design even served as clients for some of the most radical work.

Curated by Staci Steinberger, LACMA’s associate curator of decorative arts and design, the show features the work of numerous CalArtians: artists and Graphic Design faculty Caryn Aono, Jeff Keedy and Lorraine Wild, faculty emeritus Ed Fella, former director of the visual arts communication program April Greiman and Eric Martin, former dean of the School of Art.

West of Modernism closes on April 21, 2019.