Building the World of Tomorrow: Gordon Gilkey’s 1939 New York World’s Fair
In 1939, Oregon printmaker Gordon Gilkey created the book Officially Approved Etchings: New York World’s Fair: “Building the World of Tomorrow.” Created after he completed his MFA at the University of Oregon with a visual study of the UO library and its construction, Gilkey’s new project was an artistic record of the 1939 New York World’s Fair and its temporary buildings, including its pavilions dedicated to industries such as maritime transportation, natural gas, glass, and fashion.
Running from April 1939 to October 1940, the Fair brought more than 45 million visitors to its spectacular, futuristic pavilions and displays, which depended on modern design theories rooted in abstraction. Nearly 60 countries, 33 states and US territories, and numerous American businesses and industries participated, creating exhibits on art, culture, and industrial manufacturing that aligned with its theme, “Building the World of Tomorrow.” In the context of the Great Depression, the Fair envisioned a new modern world where a romanticized form of corporate capitalism would create not only economic stability but prosperity. Responding to rising fascism and the looming threat of war, the Fair also embraced themes of peace and international cooperation, arguing that peace was essential to progress. Gilkey’s etchings not only record this idealized capitalist future through further abstraction of its architecture but also record the labor by which it was built.
“Building the World of Tomorrow:” Gordon Gilkey’s 1939 New York World’s Fair brings together a selection of Gilkey’s etchings from the JSMA’s collection, in the form of fine art prints Gilkey made from the series as gifts for prominent individuals and collecting institutions, alongside preliminary watercolors on loan from the Portland Art Museum. Thus, the exhibition invites visitors to consider both the Fair’s vision of an unrealized future and Gilkey’s early work and process, especially as they relate to architectural drawing, printmaking, and abstraction.
This exhibition was curated by Katie Loney, Ph.D., Post-Graduate Fellow in European and American Art.