Objects and Logotypes: Relationships Between Minimal Art and Corporate Design

In April 1964, an exhibit of 193 trademartks, symbols, and logotypes opened at the National Design Center in Chicago. Entitled, TRADEMARKS/USA, it was the first national retrospective exhibition of the symbology of post-war corporate graphic design. In December of that same year Robert Morris’s first exhibit of what has come to be called “Minimalist” sculpture opened at Richard Bellamy’s Green Gallery in New york.

This exhibit will show that these two events, apparently unrelated in terms of place and intent, can nevertheless be interpreted as parallel responses to an emerging sert of values at play in American society of the 1950s annd 1960s, and in the case of Morris and other Minimalist artists, to represent their adoption of a set of formal design principles whose prior public presentation had been within the context of corporate identity programs.

The importance of this context as a reflector of social values is that it is seen by both the corporate designers and the artists involved as the manifestation of distinct and clearly defined principles of belief in what art is, and through its definition to point towards the restructuring of society through the public exposure of works within its constraints.

This exhibition was curated by Buzz Spector