Lerner, Nathan, 1913-1997

Biography

Nathan Lerner (1913-1997) was one of the first scholarship students of the New Bauhuas in Chicago, enrolling in 1936. Before attending the New Bauhaus he studied painting at the National Academy of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago. There he turned to photography, creating Constructivist images involving photograms and other methods. In 1939 he became assistant to Gyorgy Kepes, the head of the school's light workshop. After serving in the Navy in WWII, he returned to the school and became Education Director in 1946 after Moholy-Nagy's death. Kepes left the Institute of Design in 1949 to open a design firm. Lerner was a professor of design philosophy at the University of Illinois from 1966-1977.

Lerner areas of focus included Chicago immigrant neighborhoods circa 1930, Maxwell Street (Chicago), and photographs. He invented the Lerner Photograph Machine, the Smoke Chamber, and the Light Box. He was the co-author of The Creative Mind with Gyorgy Kepes. A restrospective exhibit of Lerner's work was held at the Illinois Art Gallery in 1997.

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