Here is a sampling of some of the catalogues we’ve come across from the early 1980s. All are exhibitions that were developed by the University Gallery. (Also see the previous post Looking Back for catalogues from the 1970s.)

Minnesota Pottery: A Potter’s Point of View, 1981
Contact: American Art and Culture, 1919 – 1939, 1981
Martin Finch: 25 Years of Medical Illustration, 1986
Three Women Artists: Gag, Greenman & Mairs, 1980
German Porcelain and the Pictoral Arts, 1980
George Morrison: Entries in an Artist’s Journal, 1983
Images of the American Worker 1930 – 1940, 1983

If you’ve spent much time on the East Bank of the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus, you’ve no doubt seen the large steel sculpture near Williamson Hall. I’ve walked by it many times without knowing the artist or the title of the work — until I found a WAM file called “Process: A Public Sculpture by Stewart Luckman”. The University Gallery had an exhibition in 1981 showcasing images and plans from the making of the sculpture.

Artist Stewart Luckman was commissioned to create the sculpture, called Rokker V, to commemorate the Alumini Assocation’s 75th anniversary in 1981. Luckman also founded the sculpture program at Bethel University in St. Paul. Current images of the sculpture and the location can be found at Start Seeing Art: Your Guide to Public Art in the Twin Cities.

 
Luckman at work, plus the plans for the sculpture

I discovered a stack of Polaroids in the “Loans” file for the 1984 exhibition Southwestern Weaving Traditions: Past and Present. The images feature rugs and blankets being held up by their owners (I can only assume), and views of the items in the homes of the lenders. I’m not sure whether these weavings were loaned for the exhibition, but I find the casualness of the snapshots and the vivid (Polaroid-enhanced) colors of the rugs charming in and of themselves.

Exhibitions come and go quickly, so sometimes it’s nice to look back and remember past accomplishments. These are a few of the catalogues we’ve found from exhibitions developed by the University Gallery in the latter half of the 1970s:

Animals from Legend and Life in Antique and German Porcelain, 1977
The Desert: Indian Art of the Southwest,1976
People of the Plains 1820-1850, 1978
Mimbres Painted Pottery, 1979
Once Upon a Time: Illustrations of Children’s Tales from Around the World, 1979
The Mountains of Marsden Hartley, 1979

In 1959, the University Gallery hosted a Japanese flower-arranging demonstration in conjunction with the exhibition “Japanese Prints”, and I discovered this contact sheet documenting the event in the files. I love contact sheets, since they show every shot the photographer took on that roll, prior to editing.