This program is free and open to the public thanks to a generous donation from Houck and K.B. Medford.
Dr. Margret Kentgens-Craig will talk about Frank Lee Craig, one of the featured artists in the exhibition Pulp & Bind, who was also an architect, musician, and writer. She will address her late husband’s challenging transition from being a principal in a major architecture firm to a new calling as a visual artist, after a devastating diagnosis with terminal brain cancer. This was facilitated by his education and training at the Bauhaus-inspired NC State University’s School of Design which had provided him with the fundamental and universal principles and skills of art production. Although he had made small pieces on occasion for years, now he dove into art-making with a passion, producing a massive collection of works that ranged from multi-media collages and photography to paintings, drawings, jewelry, and found-object sculptures, amazingly ending up with success, both in Germany and NC.
The impact of the Bauhaus in this process will be another aspect of her presentation as well as her unusual dual role as Craig’s wife but also trained academic professional to preserve his legacy.
About the Speaker
Dr. Margret Kentgens-Craig is an art historian, curator, author, and Professor of Practice at the NC State University’s College of Design. As former head of the art collection and museum at the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation in Germany she has served on the German UNESCO Commission and the faculty of the Magdeburg-Stendal University of Applied Sciences. Her books include The Bauhaus and America, First Contacts, 1919-1936, and she has made numerous contributions to other professional publications such as Dezeen and Architectural Record.
About the Artist
Architect, artist, and musician Frank Lee Craig (1952-2009) was born and raised in Raleigh, NC. He attended NC State’s School (now College) of Design, graduating in 1977 with a bachelor’s degree in architecture. In the years that followed, he worked as a builder, project manager and designer, with local architecture firms, earning his professional license and eventually becoming a principal of Cline Design Associates, one of the largest firms in the state.
At the same time, Craig pursued a parallel interest in music as lead guitar in Spot, a popular Raleigh blues-rock band he had initiated and co-founded with several musician friends, arranged their gigs, and wrote his own original songs.
In 1980 he met Margret Kentgens who had come from Germany to Raleigh to visit a friend. A year later, she returned to teach at NCSU on a grant program. They reconnected and he began studying German. At the end of the exchange year, he went to Germany with her and was hired by a German architecture firm, as an artist and designer.
However, it soon became evident to both of them, that his professional future was in the United States. When he received a middle-of-the night transatlantic telephone call and job offer from a reputable NC developer, a decision was made to return to Raleigh and at the same time, keep a base in Germany and spend time there as often as possible. They got married and soon after, Reg Namour Architects (later regrouped as Cline Davis Architects and finally Cline Design), hired Craig. His wife, by then on her path to becoming an art historian, came along.
In 2003, life stopped. Craig was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor, initiating a grueling year of aggressive treatments following major surgery. Among other, this meant professional disability. During his ordeal, he discovered a new calling as a visual artist. His education and training at the Bauhaus-inspired NC State University’s School of Design had provided him with the fundamental and universal principles and skills of art production, and he started digging into this rich arsenal. Although he had made small pieces on occasion for years, now he dove into art-making with a passion, producing a massive collection of works that ranged from multi-media collages and photography to paintings, drawings, jewelry**,** and found-object sculptures. He continued to rehearse and play music as well.
Frank Lee Craig succeeded to maintain a prolific outpouring of artworks and have gallery shows until the cancer returned in 2008. He passed away at home**,** in mid-August, 2009. Since his death, his wife, a Professor of Practice at NCSU, has kept his work in the public light. Craig’s work has been exhibited in Germany at the Städtische Galerie (City Gallery) in Bottrop and the Kunstverein Hattingen (Art Association/City Gallery), and at galleries in North Carolina. Two CDs of his music, The Distance is so Near and Crack in the Sky and Other Jam Sessions, have been released internationally. In 2022, the Gregg Museum of Art and Design devoted a solo exhibition to his work – the first museum exhibition of Frank Lee Craig’s visual art in his home state.
A catalogue of this exhibition is available at the Gregg Museum
https://gregg.arts.ncsu.edu/frank-lee-craig-near-distance/
MEDIA (selection)
The artist has been recognized in publications here and abroad, and was featured repeatedly on WRAL-TV.
https://www.wral.com/video/lifestyles/travel/video/10506547/
https://www.wral.com/video/late-raleigh-architect-honored-by-wife-nc-state/20221850/
PRINT (selection)
Monique Delage, Design that lives on. NCSU College of Design, 12 September 2016.
https://design.ncsu.edu/blog/2016/09/12/design-that-lives-on/
https://academics.design.ncsu.edu/departments/design-that-lives-on/
Hans-Jörg Loskill, Der Riss am Himmel. Ein deutsch-amerikanischer Kulturdialogum Multimedia Künstler Frank Lee Craig. Westdeutsche Allgemeine (WAZ), 27 July 2013.
Hans-Jörg Loskill, Überzeugendes Beispiel für intensive Südstaaten-Farben. Westdeutsche Allgemeine (WAZ), 27 July 2013.