The 'Richard Hollis' exhibition, first shown at Gallery Libby Sellers in Spring 2012, toured to ECAL, the University of Art and Design Lausanne, for display in the institution's Gallery l'elac.
Curated by design historian Emily King, the exhibition consisted of over 200 items drawn from Richard Hollis' own archive. This wonderful show is a reflection of the designer's entire professional life, including his travels in the 1950s and 60s to Cuba, Zurich and Paris, his part in founding a new art school in Bristol in 1964, his role in the design of radical politics in the 1960s and 70s and his career-long investigation of the graphic design of culture. Ranging in time and scope from personal collages made in the mid 50s to the graphic framework of Steve McQueen's artwork 'Queen and Country', the exhibition demonstrated Hollis' singular ability to shape thought through the arrangement of word and image.
The exhibition at ECAL was particularly fitting, considering Richard Hollis has focused much of his work on examining the strong tradition of Swiss graphic design - Hollis' own book, Swiss Graphic Design: The Origins and Growth of an International Style, 1920-1965 (Laurence King, 2006) is testament to this admiration, and is featured in the exhibition.
Gallery l'elac (entrance of ECAL)
5 avenue du Temple
1020 Renens
Switzerland
