Background
Barbara Stauffacher Solomon was born in 1928, in San Francisco, California, United States.
1955
Barbra back in 1955.
Barbara Stauffacher Solomon beside an enamel exit sign at Lawrence Halprin’s house at The Sea Ranch.
800 Chestnut St, San Francisco, CA 94133, United States
Barbara attended San Francisco Art Institute, where she studied Painting and Sculpture.
Vogelsangstrasse 15, 4058 Basel, Switzerland
In 1956, Solomon moved to Basel, Switzerland, in order to study graphic design at Basel School of Design, where her mentor was Armin Hofmann.
University of California, Berkeley, California, United States
Solomon attended the University of California, Berkeley, where she majored in Architecture.
2155 Center St, Berkeley, CA 94720, United States
Nellie King Solomon and her mother, Barbara Stauffacher Solomon during the Art Wall installation at Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Courtesy of Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.
(This work discusses the union of architecture and landsca...)
This work discusses the union of architecture and landscape, looks at historical gardens and analyzes the city plan of San Francisco.
https://www.amazon.com/Architecture-Agrarian-Barbara-Stauffacher-Solomon/dp/0847809072/?tag=2022091-20
1989
architect artist designer writer
Barbara Stauffacher Solomon was born in 1928, in San Francisco, California, United States.
In her early years, Barbara was educated as a dancer. Also, she attended San Francisco Art Institute, where she studied Painting and Sculpture. Later, in 1956, after the death of Barbara's husband Frank Stauffacher, she left for Basel, Switzerland, in order to study graphic design at Basel School of Design, where her mentor was Armin Hofmann. Then, Solomon also attended the University of California, Berkeley, where she majored in Architecture.
At the beginning of her career, Barbara worked as a dancer before studying Painting and Sculpture at the San Francisco Art Institute. Later, Solomon designed the monthly program guides for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. In 1967, Solomon collaborated with an architect Charles Moore at Sea Ranch, a planned unincorporated community and census-designated place. Later, in 1968, Charles Moore invited Barbara to Yale School of Architecture to head a studio on supergraphics there. She also taught at Harvard University.
During the period from 1970 till 1971, she acted as an art director of Scanlan's Monthly magazine. Later in her career, Solomon established an office as a graphic designer in San Francisco. In 1995, she created a large outdoor art installation, titled "Promenade Ribbon" for the city of San Francisco. In 2002, Barbara acted as a member of the San Francisco Art Commission. Some time later, in 2015, she held a post of a landscape architect.
In 2018, Barbara produced the supergraphic installation "Land(e)scape 2018" at the Berkeley Art Museum. In 2019, her work was the subject of a solo exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA).
Now in her 90's and still voraciously working on her craft, Solomon has turned her attention to paper, namely drawing, collage and publishing artist books. Currently, Barbara lives and works in San Francisco.
San Francisco Museum of Art program guide, March 1964
San Francisco Museum of Art program guide, May 1964
The influential Sea Ranch Tennis Club supergraphics
San Francisco Museum of Art program guide, July 1971
San Francisco Museum of Art program guide, October 1969
San Francisco Museum of Art program guide, August 1967
San Francisco Museum of Art program guide, November 1969
(This work discusses the union of architecture and landsca...)
1989Installation view of Barbara Stauffacher Solomon's "Land(e)scape 2018"
Installation view of "Barbara Stauffacher Solomon: Relax into the Invisible", 2019, at LAXART, Los Angeles
Installation view of "Barbara Stauffacher Solomon: Relax into the Invisible", 2019, at LAXART, Los Angeles
Installation view of "Barbara Stauffacher Solomon: Relax into the Invisible", 2019, at LAXART, Los Angeles
Installation view of "Barbara Stauffacher Solomon: Relax into the Invisible", 2019, at LAXART, Los Angeles
Ribbon of Light
An enduring visionary, the style Solomon pioneered came to be known as supergraphics: large graphics, applied with vibrant colors, usually in geometric shapes, to walls or floors and ceilings to make the illusion of altered space.
In her use of supergraphics, Stauffacher Solomon is credited with blending the rigor of Swiss modernism with the color and style of her West Coast sensibility. The result is formal, but fun, modern architecture, reshaped by color and form.
Quotations:
"To this day, the combination of being trained as a ballet dancer, and trained by a Swiss to be a designer: I think that's why I haven't fallen apart!"
"I do what the walls tell me to do."
In 1948, Barbara married Frank Stauffacher, who was an experimental filmmaker, best known for directing the cinema series "Art in Cinema" at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art from 1946 to 1954. Frank died of a brain tumor on July 21, 1955.
In 1971, Barbara gave birth to her daughter, Nellie King Solomon, who is an artist.