From the Kenneth Franzheim II Rare Books Room at the University of Houston’s William R. Jenkins Architecture and Art Library comes Moderner Volkskunst Zierat (Modern Folk Art Ornaments).

This undated German volume features 18 vivid color plates.

Designed for use as templates in the decoration of household items (furniture, ceramic ware, and the like), these bold, ornamental motifs offer a unique glimpse of the vernacular aesthetic found in early twentieth-century German home décor.

This exhibit was juried by Susan Sutton, Curatorial Assistant at the Menil Collection, Katherine Veneman, Curator of Education at UH’s Blaffer Art Museum, and Dena Woodall, Assistant Curator, Prints & Drawings at Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The exhibit is curated by the Architecture and Art Library’s Evening Supervisor, Christopher Conway.

The following students’ work was accepted into the exhibit and the Houston-based performance art group Continuum will recreate UH sculptor Hilary Scullane’s work, The Green Blob, a photographic documentation of which is included in the exhibition.

The Kenneth Franzheim Collection is now available in the UH Digital Library!

Significant to the architectural history of Houston was the work of architect Kenneth Franzheim (1890–1959).

The Kenneth Franzheim Collection is comprised of photographs and architectural drawings and models of Franzheim’s work. In addition to Houston landmarks such as the Foley’s Building and the Gulf Building, the collection surveys a broad range of works; included are corporate offices, high-rise apartments, theaters, private residences, airport facilities and others. Beyond Houston, the works contained herein were built and/or proposed for a variety of locales within and outside Texas.

Represented are Franzheim’s contributions to the architectural landscapes of New York, Boston, Chicago and elsewhere. The collection’s images comprise the collected works of Franzheim as they appear in three self-published volumes: Kenneth Franzheim, Architect, New York City (1940), Drawings and Models of Some of the Recent Work of Kenneth Franzheim, Architect, Together with Sketches of a Few Proposed Buildings (1952ca) and Drawings and Models of Some of the Recent Work of Kenneth Franzheim, Architect, Together with Sketches of a Few Proposed Buildings (1960).  The original texts are available in the Kenneth Franzheim II Rare Books Room.

Student artwork from the 2011 Student Art Exhibit held annually in the UH Libraries is now available in the UH Digital Library!  If you missed your chance to see the 2011 Student Art Exhibit in person, you can now browse the works in the UH Digital Library.

The student art exhibit features artists from a variety of majors and concentrations across campus.

The exhibit also features a variety of media.

It is a juried competition that features prominent members of the Houston art scene as jurors.  Works from the 2010 Student Art Exhibit are also available for viewing.

The SEM Collection (1914-1925) is now available in the UH Digital Library.

SEM (1863–1934), né Georges Goursat, was a French illustrator and caricaturist who rose to fame during the Belle Époque. The Digital Library’s SEM Collection is comprised of four volumes from the UH Architecture and Art Library’s Kenneth Franzheim II Rare Books Room.

Le Vrai & le Faux Chic (1914),

White Bottoms (ca. 1920),

the self-titled SEM (ca. 1920),

and Le Nouveau Monde (1925)

Each volume affectionately and mercilessly documents the Parisian high society of a bygone era, and showcase the wild and whimsical work of SEM.  The books are available in the Kenneth Franzheim II Rare Books Room.

The exhibit is open to all UH students enrolled spring 2012 – any classification or major. Students are welcome to submit multiple entries. Requirements of submissions: 2D in any medium, ready to hang with wires/brackets or on foam core, not to exceed 5’x5’, 5 pounds, or extend more than 4” from the wall. Sculpture with pedestals, no more than 20 pounds total and must fit inside a library elevator.

Students should submit their work to the Architecture and Art Library, located in the College of Architecture. Deadline for submissions is February 3, 2012. Artists must complete a waiver form, as well as an exhibition agreement for each work submitted.

Copies of Pym are available through the Libraries’ fabulous and free Interlibrary Loan service.  The Interlibrary Loan department will borrow an extra copy of the book from another library for you.  You can retrieve your copy at the M.D. Anderson Library’s service desk when it arrives.  Visit their website to set up an account.

Join us for the fun!

From 1923, La Ferronnerie Moderne, by Gabriel Henriot, documents the fanciful, exquisite metalwork of the late Art Nouveau style.  La Sculpture Décorative à l’Exposition des Arts Décoratifs de 1925, by Henri Rapin, features the work of designers exhibited in the titular event. With its focus squarely on the decorative arts and its singular preoccupation with pure decoration, the 1925 exposition boldly explored and employed myriad, unrelated impulses and inspirations. The juxtaposition of these two, rare volumes tantalizingly suggests the ultimate transition of late Nouveau to a burgeoning new and fresh “modern” style, a style borne of l’Exposition des Arts Décoratifs de 1925 – Art Deco.

The library’s display, assembled by Evening Supervisor Chris Conway, is further enhanced by the inclusion of text from the Victoria and Albert Museum’s website and by reproductions of postcards from l’Exposition des Arts Décoratifs de 1925.

Come have a look; when did you last have the opportunity to admire some rare, French, heliogravure (photogravure) printed plates?

If you don’t have the books and don’t wish to purchase them, you can pick up a copy from the M.D. Anderson Library’s Service Desk, while supplies last.