DETROIT--Wayne State University's College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts presents the art exhibit BERG / BRONER, Sculpture and Prints by WSU Mid-Century Modernists Sept. 22-27 at WSU's McGregor Memorial Conference Center. The exhibit runs in cooperation with the 2014 Mid-America Print Council Conference hosted by Wayne State, Sept. 24-27.

Irving Berg (1921-2009), Wayne State 1943 and '50, was a head of the art department at Detroit's Cass Technical High School and a supervisor of student art teachers at WSU.

"Two major happenings during the early 1940s, the death of my mother in an automobile accident and the beginning of World War II, turned my interest from commercial art to sculpture," Berg once wrote. "In the solid forms of sculpture, I found some measure of relief from death in the present and from the ominous rumbling of the future."

Berg's artistic achievements as a sculptor, ceramist, jewelry designer and photographer are well recognized. His work is in the collections of the Detroit Institute of Arts and Wayne State's Reuther Library. He created the sculpture garden at Camp Maas in Lake Orion, Mich., devoted to large, outdoor pieces with biblical themes, achieved with the assistance of student campers. Berg was honored with awards from the Michigan Council for the Arts and the Detroit Institute of Arts. He also received Wayne State's Arts Achievement Award.

Robert Broner (1922-2010), Wayne State 1945 and '46, was a professor of art at WSU, at Haifa University in Israel and at Cooper Union of Art in New York. He was president and founder of the Michigan Association of Printmakers. Broner introduced techniques central to the growth of 20th century printing; fabric texture imprint, found objects flattened, Xerox, and wood collage assembled prints. And he was first to use circuit boards as the plate.

"I have to work from my own integrity and my own sense of experience, and I don't approach my work within a predetermined style or 'look' for the prints," Broner once told Detroit Artists Monthly. "It's being willing to change an experience from out there into something personal. That is, to turn something around and make the same image mean something totally different."

Broner exhibited work at Israel Museum, Jerusalem; the British International Print Bienniale; Musee d'Art Moderne, Paris; and Museum of Modern Art, New York. His work is in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; Detroit Institute of Arts; Guggenheim Museum, NY; Museum of Modern Art, NY; and National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.

Both Berg and Broner were longtime friends, involved in art education and the community of Modernist artists in Detroit. Berg used found objects to comprise his collage sculptures, called Assemblages, and Broner utilized found objects as both printing devices and subjects.

"In contrast to the avid materialism of their era, Irving and Robert represented a generation of artists that believed in the prime importance of art in the community," said Harriet Berg, wife of the sculptor.

In effect these men transformed objects into art.

BERG / BRONER: Sculpture and Prints by WSU Mid-Century Modernists is open daily, Monday through Thursday, Sept. 22-25, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Friday, Sept. 26, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday, Sept. 27, 9 a.m. to noon. McGregor Memorial Conference Center is on Wayne State's Midtown Detroit campus at 495 Gilmour Mall, Detroit, MI 48202. Self-parking is available in nearby Wayne State Structure 1 (Palmer St. at Cass Ave.) and Structure 5 (southbound Anthony Wayne Dr. just south of Palmer St.), as well as at meters on surrounding streets.

Guests with unique mobility needs are recommended to consider Wayne State Lot 31 (northbound Anthony Wayne Dr. just south of Palmer St.) or the Detroit Historical Museum's lot (Kirby St. between Woodward and Cass), as they are nearest to the conference center. The exhibit is presented through the generous support of Harriet Berg and Nahama Broner and is co-curated by Douglas Haller (Berg) and Janet Hamrick (Broner).

Wayne State University's College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts serves 2,200 students majoring in 16 undergraduate and 11 graduate programs in art and art history, communication, music, theatre and dance. Wayne State University, located in the heart of Detroit's Midtown Cultural Center, is a premier urban research institution offering more than 370 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to nearly 28,000 students.