Lerner, Nathan, 1913-1997
Person
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.
Found in 20 Collections and/or Records:
Light Study, Light in Space, November 15, 1946
Item
Identifier: 2
Content Description
From the Collection:
Photographic prints, including prints made by Nathan Lerner of photographs from his time as an Institute of Design student and faculty member, as well as collaborative photographs with Henry Holmes Smith printed by Smith's son, Theodore R.M. Smith. Also included are 12 oversized reprints from a Chicago Cultural Center exhibit of Lerner's work and a single print of a photograph by Institute of Design alumnus Ishimoto Yasuhiro. Some of the matted prints appear to be part of the protfolio...
Dates:
November 15, 1946
Nathan Lerner photographs, 1935-1980
Collection — Box 1
Identifier: 038.01.44
Content Description
Photographic prints, including prints made by Nathan Lerner of photographs from his time as an Institute of Design student and faculty member, as well as collaborative photographs with Henry Holmes Smith printed by Smith's son, Theodore R.M. Smith. Also included are 12 oversized reprints from a Chicago Cultural Center exhibit of Lerner's work and a single print of a photograph by Institute of Design alumnus Ishimoto Yasuhiro. Some of the matted prints appear to be part of the protfolio...
Dates:
1935-1980; Majority of material found within 1935-1946
Optimo, 1935
Item
Identifier: 1
Content Description
From the Collection:
Photographic prints, including prints made by Nathan Lerner of photographs from his time as an Institute of Design student and faculty member, as well as collaborative photographs with Henry Holmes Smith printed by Smith's son, Theodore R.M. Smith. Also included are 12 oversized reprints from a Chicago Cultural Center exhibit of Lerner's work and a single print of a photograph by Institute of Design alumnus Ishimoto Yasuhiro. Some of the matted prints appear to be part of the protfolio...
Dates:
1935
Planets, 1939
Item
Identifier: 1
Content Description
From the Collection:
Photographic prints, including prints made by Nathan Lerner of photographs from his time as an Institute of Design student and faculty member, as well as collaborative photographs with Henry Holmes Smith printed by Smith's son, Theodore R.M. Smith. Also included are 12 oversized reprints from a Chicago Cultural Center exhibit of Lerner's work and a single print of a photograph by Institute of Design alumnus Ishimoto Yasuhiro. Some of the matted prints appear to be part of the protfolio...
Dates:
1939
Plaster Hand and Screen, 1940
Item
Identifier: 1
Content Description
From the Collection:
Photographic prints, including prints made by Nathan Lerner of photographs from his time as an Institute of Design student and faculty member, as well as collaborative photographs with Henry Holmes Smith printed by Smith's son, Theodore R.M. Smith. Also included are 12 oversized reprints from a Chicago Cultural Center exhibit of Lerner's work and a single print of a photograph by Institute of Design alumnus Ishimoto Yasuhiro. Some of the matted prints appear to be part of the protfolio...
Dates:
1940
Roundhouse, 1936
Item
Identifier: 1
Content Description
From the Collection:
Photographic prints, including prints made by Nathan Lerner of photographs from his time as an Institute of Design student and faculty member, as well as collaborative photographs with Henry Holmes Smith printed by Smith's son, Theodore R.M. Smith. Also included are 12 oversized reprints from a Chicago Cultural Center exhibit of Lerner's work and a single print of a photograph by Institute of Design alumnus Ishimoto Yasuhiro. Some of the matted prints appear to be part of the protfolio...
Dates:
1936
Solarization, 1937
Item
Identifier: 2
Content Description
From the Collection:
Photographic prints, including prints made by Nathan Lerner of photographs from his time as an Institute of Design student and faculty member, as well as collaborative photographs with Henry Holmes Smith printed by Smith's son, Theodore R.M. Smith. Also included are 12 oversized reprints from a Chicago Cultural Center exhibit of Lerner's work and a single print of a photograph by Institute of Design alumnus Ishimoto Yasuhiro. Some of the matted prints appear to be part of the protfolio...
Dates:
1937
Sunday Morning in New York, 1943
Item
Identifier: 1
Content Description
From the Collection:
Photographic prints, including prints made by Nathan Lerner of photographs from his time as an Institute of Design student and faculty member, as well as collaborative photographs with Henry Holmes Smith printed by Smith's son, Theodore R.M. Smith. Also included are 12 oversized reprints from a Chicago Cultural Center exhibit of Lerner's work and a single print of a photograph by Institute of Design alumnus Ishimoto Yasuhiro. Some of the matted prints appear to be part of the protfolio...
Dates:
1943
Swimmers, 1935
Item
Identifier: 1
Content Description
From the Collection:
Photographic prints, including prints made by Nathan Lerner of photographs from his time as an Institute of Design student and faculty member, as well as collaborative photographs with Henry Holmes Smith printed by Smith's son, Theodore R.M. Smith. Also included are 12 oversized reprints from a Chicago Cultural Center exhibit of Lerner's work and a single print of a photograph by Institute of Design alumnus Ishimoto Yasuhiro. Some of the matted prints appear to be part of the protfolio...
Dates:
1935
Wire Eyes, 1937-1941
Item
Identifier: 1
Content Description
From the Collection:
Photographic prints, including prints made by Nathan Lerner of photographs from his time as an Institute of Design student and faculty member, as well as collaborative photographs with Henry Holmes Smith printed by Smith's son, Theodore R.M. Smith. Also included are 12 oversized reprints from a Chicago Cultural Center exhibit of Lerner's work and a single print of a photograph by Institute of Design alumnus Ishimoto Yasuhiro. Some of the matted prints appear to be part of the protfolio...
Dates:
1937-1941
Additional filters:
- Record Type
- Archival Component 17
- Collection 3
- Subject
- Photography, Artistic 2
- Illinois Institute of Technology. Institute of Design -- Faculty 1
- Oral histories 1
- Photographs 1
- Seminars 1