Type designer Kent Lew will present “Theme and Variations: Typeface Design as a Dialogue with History” at the final lecture of the Narrative and History of Art Lecture Series. The presentation, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 14, at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, 1011 Washington Ave. S., Minneapolis.
Kent Lew
What does it mean to be innovative in the realm of typeface design – where the essential forms (the shapes of our alphabet's letters) have been more or less fixed for centuries? As a creative professional engaged in such a circumscribed craft, Lew will examine his field's self-referential proclivities within a broader historical and cultural context, drawing parallels with other artistic disciplines, including music and painting. Reflecting on notions such as allusion, citation, transcription, revival, and homage, he will weave a narrative of type history's recurrent efforts to marry past and present convincingly and to infuse old forms with new life.
For more information visit the Department of Art History.
