Rick Poynor, “Curating ‘Uncanny: Surrealism and Graphic Design’”

Focusing on the exhibition that Rick Poynor devised for the Moravian Gallery in Brno, this lecture will examine curating as an extension of writing and editing practices. What are the crucial similarities and differences between selection for the two-dimensional page and the space of the gallery? Poynor will consider Surrealism as a theme—why explore this topic now?—and place “Uncanny” in the international context of the many other shows on Surrealist art. He will explore how the exhibition relates to the paths of inquiry he has pursued in his critical writing and address its broader polemical purpose.

Rick Poynor was the founding editor of Eye and a co-founder of Design Observer. He has written about design and visual culture for Blueprint, Icon, Creative Review, Frieze, Financial Times, The Guardian, Adbusters, Harvard Design Magazine, Metropolis and Print. His books include the critical studies No More Rules (Yale University Press, 2003) and Jan van Toorn: Critical Practice (010 Publishers, 2008), and the essay collections Design Without Boundaries (Booth-Clibborn Editions, 1998), Obey the Giant (Birkhauser Architecture, 2001) and Designing Pornotopia (Laurence King, 2006). His latest exhibition as curator, “Uncanny: Surrealism and Graphic Design,” is showing at the Moravian Gallery in Brno in the Czech Republic until October 2010.

The Fall 2010 Design Criticism MFA Lecture Series is open to the public. You are warmly invited to attend our lectures, to see our new department and to meet with speakers, faculty members and students over a drink. Space is limited; RSVP to dcrit@sva.edu.

Event Information

When: 14 Sep 2010, 6:00 p.m.
Where: Design Criticism MFA Department, 136 West 21st Street, Second floor
Price: Free and open to the public

Reader Comments

1. scott joseph

   23 Aug 2010

   It appears the derivative “uncanny” is being often confused or replaced or placed next to and with “Surreal.” I would be intrigued to hear further on Poynor’s argument for it’s needed case as a title or root for combining surrealism and graphic design, two genres which here have merely been clustered together for the sake of attention from would be artists and designers. Furthermore, wouldn’t it be more intelligible to forge a distinct or challenging conundrum of analysis between art and graphic design? Any further dialectic on this matter would be greatly appreciated.

   Sincerely,

   Annon.

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