UC Clermont exhibit explores historic angles of modern architecture

Modernist architecture is on full display at UC Clermont College now through Dec. 13 as part of “Collecting Space and Form: Ideas of the Modern,” featuring exhibits from the Robert A. Deshon and Karl J. Schlachter Library for Design, Art, Architecture and Planning at the University of Cincinnati’s Uptown campus.

In the mid-20th century, Cincinnati architects created buildings and planning of local, national and international importance. Cincinnati played a significant, but largely unrecognized, role in the introduction of International Style Modernist architecture to the United States.

The DAAP library has been collecting and archiving drawings, photographs and other materials related to Cincinnati Modernist architecture since 2008. This exhibit focuses specifically on Cincinnati Modernist architect Woodie Garber, who had an important though sometimes tense relationship with the University. In the late 1960s-70s, Garber created a master plan and designed several buildings for UC. Two of his buildings were built: the Sander Hall dormitory complex and Procter Hall for the College of Nursing and Health. Sander Hall dormitory was demolished (though its adjacent cafeteria building survives, repurposed for new uses) and Procter Hall has been re-clad and remodeled. Garber also interacted with UC by employing many DAAP architecture students as cooperative education interns in his office and hiring some after their graduation.

“Woodie Garber was the city’s most talented Modernist architect. Sadly, many of Garber’s buildings have been destroyed, demolished or unsympathetically modified,” says Elizabeth Meyer, associate senior librarian at DAAP. “Modernist architecture plays a vital role in our cultural history. This exhibit serves to bring awareness of the importance of preserving the modern built environment of our city.”

Further emphasizing the breadth of UC’s collection are artists’ books from the DAAP Library focusing on the link between art and language. This selection of modern works from UC’s vast collection links the ideas of space and form, from the archival aspects of architecture, to the collecting of the three-dimensional as it meets in the two-dimensional within artists’ books.

The show was curated by Patrick Snadon, UC professor emeritus, design and architectural historian; Elizabeth Meyer, DAAP librarian; and Carla Cesare, assistant professor of art history. A reception will be held in the UC Clermont Art Gallery 3-5 p.m., Oct. 16.

The Park National Bank Art Gallery is located in the Snyder Building on the UC Clermont College campus in Batavia at 4200 Clermont College Drive. Gallery summer hours are 8 a.m.–5 p.m., Monday-Friday. For more than 20 years, the spacious 1,000-square-foot gallery has offered visual art exhibits open to UC Clermont students, faculty, staff and the general public.