[caption id="attachment_8314" align="alignnone" width="560" caption="Rene Gonzalez, Pace."][/caption]
The Wolfsonian, an art collection, library, and research center that founder Mitchell Wolfson prefers not to call a “museum,” celebrates its 15th anniversary this year. Located in the Art Deco District of Miami, the Wolfsonian has an extensive collection of art, books, archives, and cultural artifacts. It has affiliated itself with a number of institutions over the years, most notably Florida International University, and has hosted a number of scholars. Its past exhibits include “Culinary Culture” in 1996 and “Weapons of the Mass Dissemination: The Propaganda of War,” in 2003.
So what will the Wolfsonian put on in 2010, its 15-year anniversary? A collaborative exhibit with the Canadian Centre for Architecture that examines just how time flies: “Speed Limits” uses posters, books, drawings, clocks, paintings, and videos to look at the ways in which speed has influenced modernity and culture. Italian Futurism, which also celebrates an anniversary this year (its 100th), provides “Speed Limits” with its conceptual foundation, which curator Jeffrey T. Schnapp put as, “there is no beauty without speed.”
The exhibit will be divided into five sections, each focusing on a different application of speed. For instance, “Circulation and Transit” takes a literal look at speed, focusing on traffic and urban space, while “Construction and the Built Environment” examines architecture and the increasing efficiency in not only building structures, but also demolishing them. “Speed Limits” is “not a commorative show,” Schnapp stated, “it’s a critical show.”
“Speed Limits” will be exhibited at the Wolfsonian from September 17, 2010 to February 20, 2011. If you’re in Miami for Art Basel Miami Beach this year, be sure to check it out.
Print, People Work–Evening, 1937, Benton Spruance (American, 1904–1967), Philadelphia, Lithograph, The Wolfsonian–Florida International University, Miami Beach, Florida, The Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection.
Advertisement, Insomnia – Neurinase – Alepsal, c. 1935, Published by Laboratoires A. Genevrier, Paris, The Wolfsonian–Florida International University, Miami Beach, Florida, The Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection.
Drawing, Cityscape, c. 1920, Edmond van Dooren (Belgian, 1896–1965), Antwerp, Graphite and mixed media on paper, The Wolfsonian–Florida International University, Miami Beach, Florida, The Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. Collection.
[caption id="attachment_8315" align="alignnone" width="560" caption="The Wolfsonian"][/caption]
