The collection documents the entire process of Egner winning the Michigan Commission on Art in Public Places competition to design the tile floor for Central Michigan University’s then new Industrial Education and Technology (IET) Building, including Egner creating the design templates for various floor patterns, the laborious installation of the tiles according to the design templates, and, finally, the building’s dedication. The collection is organized alphabetically and mostly dates from 1987 to 1989. A folder of 2021 material about the artist was added by Archivist Marian Matyn to the front of Box 1. The collection includes photographs and slides, publications, Egner’s Artist Statement, contract, notes, correspondence, design templates, financial information, samples and vendor information.
Processing Note: During processing .25 cubic foot of duplicates, mostly photographs, were removed. Acidic clippings were photocopied. Original housing was maintained for slides. Photographs were sleeved.
Biography:
In 1987 artist John D. Egner won a Michigan Commission on Art in Public Places competition with his Artist’s Statement to design a tile floor resembling large "Oriental rugs" for Central Michigan University’s new Industrial Education and Technology (IET) Building. The tiled floors were to be subtle and not detract from the rest of the building's structure.
First, Egner conceptualized and drew the floor design templates. Then he colored them in various ways. He decided which designs he wanted and where each would work best in the building. He used architectural records of the building, blueprints (copies) and slides of a 3-d model of the building, to determine this. Next, he had tile marquettes, or examples of the tiles, made to see how they looked individually and next to each other. Then a specific number of tiles were created according to how many were needed to cover designated floor areas.
The tiling crew found the cement floors required a lot of fixing before they could be tiled. Then a tiling began. Egner's contract stipulated that the work had to be completed by late 1988 so the building could be officially ready for use by January 1989. The IET building was built by Daverman and Associates of Grand Rapids. The building was in use, but not completed, by January 1989. The building was officially dedicated in October 1989. The tiled floors were featured on the dedication program's cover, as seen below. (For more information about the building see https://www.cmich.edu/research/clarke-historical-library/explore-collection/explore-online/cmu-history/buildings-on-cmu-campus/existing-buildings#a26.)
David Black, another nationally known artist, designed a large white outside sculpture for the north entrance of the building. By 1987, Black had taught at Ohio State University since 1954. He traveled to Italy on a Fulbright Fellowship and to Berlin under the Berliner Kunstlerprogram and had been the recipient of major honors and awards. Black earned his BA at Wesleyan University and his MA from Indiana University-Bloomington. (This information is from the collection’s clippings.)
Egner was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1940. In his youth he spent time in the Art Students’ League of New York and the Brooklyn Museum Art School. After earning his MFA at Yale, he arrived in Detroit in 1966. He set up a studio in the old Convention Hall inspiring other artists to do the same. He was an inspirational art teacher to generations of Detroit artists, teaching at Wayne State University for twenty-one years beginning in 1966. Egner was known for his meticulous geometric paintings, drawings, and wooden sculptures. He was a seminal figure in Detroit’s Cass Corridor art scene of the 1960s and 1970s. Gregarious, a person who genuinely enjoyed connecting with other people, Egner was a magnetic personality who was listened to and loved by many who he met. He was a luminary of the burgeoning art, poetry, and music scene of 1960s Detroit. In 1978 he was named as one of ten “Young American Artists” in the Exxon National Exhibition at the Guggenheim. After a 15-month sabbatical from WSU in 1979 he got his first New York City studio, eventually moving to Soho with his wife, Susan. They lived in Soho for thirty years and also maintained a country home in the Catskills. He continued to evolve his artistic interests and creations. Egner died on October 19, 2021 and was survived by his wife, daughters Juliana (Athan) and Nina (Elwood), and five grandchildren. (This information is from his obituary in the collection.)
