The publication Up is Down: Mid-Century Experiments in Advertising and Film at the Goldsholl Studio has received a 2019 Award for Excellence from the Association of Art Museum Curators (AAMC). Corinne Granof, The Block’s curator of academic programs and co-editor of Up is Down, attended the 2019 AAMC conference and accepted the award. Co-editor Amy Beste, director of public programs in the departments of film, video, new media & animation, sound, art & technology studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago was also honored for her work on the publication. The catalogue, published by The Block Museum of Art, expands upon the 2018 Block Museum exhibition of the same name.

Honorees gathered at the Rubin Museum in New York on May 6 for an awards ceremony. The annual, peer-juried award recognizes curators from around the country for groundbreaking projects that have advanced new methodologies, scholarship, and inclusion and access within the arts.

“Up is Down, edited by Amy Beste and Corinne Granof, is the first publication to consider the innovative and precedent-setting Chicago design firm Goldsholl Design Associates,” said associate director of curatorial affairs Kathleen Bickford Berzock. “We are proud to see their work recognized by the AAMC.”

“For fifteen years, curators have recognized the trailblazing achievements of their peers through our annual Awards for Excellence,” said Judith Pineiro, executive director of the AAMC and AAMC Foundation in a statement released Monday. “It is a privilege to celebrate this year’s awardees who, through their work, have fostered dynamic dialogue and broader engagement in the arts.”

About the Catalogue

Up Is Down: Mid-Century Experiments in Advertising and Film at the Goldsholl Studio

Amy Beste and Corinne Granof, ed.

Headed by Morton and Millie Goldsholl, the Goldsholl Studio worked at the intersection of art, design, and media, producing trademarks, corporate identities, print advertisements, television commercials, and films for such clients as Motorola, Kimberly-Clark, Revlon, 7-Up, and the National Football League. Although they have been compared to some of the most celebrated design firms of their day, the Goldsholls and their designers are relatively unknown today. Inspired by the ideas and ideals of artist Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, with whom they had studied at Chicago’s School of Design, Morton and Millie Goldsholl fostered a culture of exploration and collaboration in their studio. The firm became known for its imaginative “designs-in-film,” applying avant-garde techniques to commercial productions. Its groundbreaking work in the new media of television helped redefine the look of everyday visual culture in mid-century America. The trailblazing work of Goldsholl Design Associates remains an unexplored contribution within American design and advertising. Published in conjunction with the exhibition of the same name at The Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, this volume’s research explores how a new visual language emerged from Chicago’s cross-fertilization of avant-garde aesthetics, business, and cutting-edge media.

Softcover | 2018 | $25 | ISBN 9781732568402 | 210 p.p. | 137 color illustrations

Available for purchase on Amazon