Making Place for the Arts at Home: Performance and Midcentury Modern Architecture is an exhibit currently open for viewing at Krannert Art Museum that showcases modernist architecture in Champaign-Urbana and the local modernist artistic movement surrounding these spaces.
Modernism is an artistic movement that emerged in response to the cultural shifts that took place after World War I as well as other societal factors such as industrialization and urbanization. Artists sought new ways of contextualizing the drastically changing world before them, defining modernism as a movement marked by experimentation, rejection of traditional aesthetics and forms, and a focus on subjective experience and self-expression. Modernism moved across art forms, containing genres such as abstract visual art, musical atonality, and modernist architecture, which emphasized simple geometric forms, the use of materials like steel, glass, and concrete, and an overall minimalist aesthetic.
This exhibit encompasses the ways modernism existed in the unique cultural context of Champaign-Urbana and the University of Illinois, with an emphasis on modernist architecture and its role in fostering artistic experimentation in C-U. Specifically, Making Place for the Arts at Home details the designs and community roles of architect Dick Williams’ house and studio, Margaret Erlanger’s house, architect Jack Baker’s loft and studio, and Dot and John Replinger’s homes.
The show is split into two rooms, the first one serving as a sort of introduction to modernism in C-U and the second one housing information, pictures, and models of the four architectural case studies. Upon walking into room one, the first thing the viewer is likely to notice is the large home theater-like setup showing footage of the interiors of the case study homes. This all black section of the exhibition includes several lounge chairs and headphones that visitors can wear to immerse themselves in the home footage. The rest of the room, however, follows a traditional white-walled exhibition format and features photos, architectural plans, and news clippings about various mid-century artistic venues in C-U. These venues include the first Japan House, designed by Professor Shozo Sato (may he rest in peace), the Stiven House Experimental Music Studio (owned by the U of I School of Music), and the New Verbal Workshop, which specialized in experimentation with “speechmusic.” The New Verbal Workshop’s section is even complete with a speaker hanging down from the ceiling, from which visitors can hear recordings of the vocalized patterns generated in the studio’s collaborative speechmusic workshops.
Walking into the second room, the viewer is greeted by a modernist style living room arranged in the middle of the gallery, featuring four sleek chairs arranged around a glass-top table. On the table, one can find a series of books on modernism and mid-century arts. This display also features a tall, metal sculpture by Shozo Sato, titled Dancer.
The first case study I came across was that of Dick Williams House and Studio. Williams’ home is recognizable for its brick façade, only interrupted by a narrow, bright-red door. Once inside the home, any visitor would be likely to notice the comparably simplistic interior design. The downstairs is composed of one large room, the back wall of which is not a wall at all, but rather floor-to-ceiling windows with views of an even larger courtyard, also enclosed by brick walls. What is particularly special about the first floor, however, is that most of its center is elevated to serve as a stage, embodying Williams’ architectural philosophy of built environments as an intersection for theater, anthropology, and design, in addition to modernist architectural theory.
To the right of Dick Williams’ display is one about Margaret Erlanger House. Erlanger was a professor at U of I and the driving force behind the creation of the Department of Dance within the College of Fine and Applied Arts in 1968. Four years prior to this accomplishment, she commissioned her home from architect Jack Baker. Erlanger opted for a distinctly avant-garde modernist design and requested that it capture aspects of Japanese architecture as well as provide privacy. The result was a home that showcases a similarly plain and unrevealing brick exterior that obscures even the front door. Erlanger used her home as a meeting space for students, university faculty, and artists to engage in conversation and interdisciplinary collaboration. Her home was even visited by experimental artists-in-residence John Cage and Merce Cunningham. Eventually, Erlanger gave her home to the Department of Dance as a venue for special events and visiting artists, though it is now maintained by the School of Architecture and functions as an educational example of modernist design. I, myself, took a tour there in one of my Architecture courses.
Jack Baker’s own Loft and Studio is also included in the exhibition and stands out as an artistic venue with a particularly unique history. The house was originally part of a larger complex and was purchased by Baker’s father for his kitchen supply business, as well as to provide Baker with an apartment and architectural office. Over the course of decades, Baker transformed the space, adding businesses and apartments to the ground floor, turning the loft into a semi-public performance space, and adding his own private studio. The complex became a dense network of interwoven spaces and functions, aligning strongly with Baker’s own belief in architecture as a collaborative art form.
Dot and John Replinger have two of their houses featured in Making Place for the Arts at Home, both designed by John. Their first home featured a typical boxy modernist design and was built to house them and their children. John designed the couple’s second home after he retired from U of I’s School of Architecture, this time with only his and his wife’s preferences in mind, their kids having all left the nest. This second house has an H-shaped footprint, with one wing in the front and one in the back. The back wing housed Dot’s textile studio and John’s architecture studio and also served as a social space where Dot mentored young artists. Where the couple’s first home conformed to post-World War II ideals of mid-century stylings and family housing, the second was instead more suited to their own motivation to bring their artistic and collaborative work into a domestic setting.
Making Place for the Arts at Home: Performance and Midcentury Modern Architecture brings to light Champaign-Urbana’s unique response to the shifting culture of the mid-twentieth century and our resulting hidden architectural gems. Though C-U was not by any means alone as a hub of artistic experimentation and modernist architecture in post-WWII America, I personally feel a heightened sense of pride for where I live having learned more about our own trailblazing architects and experimental artists.
