In the previous post, I mentioned that certain works of art take up residency in our minds so that years later, we still experience the same emotions we felt when we first encountered them.Well, decades ago, I was excited by an exhibit with the unlikely name, "Who Chicago?" at the Institute for Contemporary Art in Boston, when that museum was on Boylston Street. The works in the show were by innovative painters labeled Chicago Imagists. I couldn't afford to buy the show's catalog at the time, but over the years I kept looking for a used copy of it.
A couple of months ago, I learned that Alibris, the online used and rare book store, had a hard cover book on the Chicago group. I ordered it and waited. It didn't come. I nervously contacted Alibris again, worried that the lost one had been their only copy. But a replacement eventually arrived.
The art was as I had remembered it--colorful, emphatic, dreamlike, and like dreams, a little insane. My favorite of the Imagist is Roger Brown, who died in 1997. Take a look at his work atÃÂ www.bowmanart.com/bowman_info/artists_pages/roger_brown_prints.html.
Examples of the work of Art Green, another Chicago Imagist, is atÂ
http://www.kwag.on.ca/user_files/images/File/Forms/ag_cat_4web.pdf. In this 68-page catalog, his paintings are interspersed in the text.
Paintings by the Imagists usually are representational, though often cartoonish; comics were a source of inspiration to these painters. Much of the art seems to spring from surrealism, a movement that began in France at the end of World War I. (Many art historians give the date as 1924.)
Surrealism is characterized by personal symbolism and images that depict the artists' fantasies, dreams, and nightmares. It can be disturbing. Some are busy with lively, floating, violent images, while others convey an unsettling stillness and emptiness, as if a quiet disaster had removed all life from the scene. Some famous practitioners of the movement were Giogio De Chirico, Rene Magritte, Freida Kahlo, and Salvador Dali Â(http://www.eyeconart.net/history/surrealism.htm). The treatment and juxtaposition of objects in surrealistic art make the individual works seem nonsensical--remember the melting watches in Dali's famous painting, The Persistence of Memory?
Although she does not describe herself as a surrealist, contemporary artist Cher Landry, created the beautifully drawn Funky Fork (above). To me, it feels surrealistic, because of the pairing of a realistic hand with a distortion of a common item, rather in the way that Dali distorted the then-common pocket watches.
Surrealism, like other popular genres (impressionism, expressionism, pop art), shows no signs of losing the interest of artists or art lovers. While visiting museums and galleries you'll probably notice other recently created surrealistic art.
Keep your eyes open for the next affordable art post here: Simmons alum artists!
And, as in my last post, please ignore the persistent "A" symbols.
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Funky Fork, ink wash on paper, by Cher Landry, 18" x 24," $250.00 Â cheryllandryart.blogspot.com.
Your words have me thinking about art that has made an impression on me. There are many examples, but I wish I had noted one particular artist that was exhibited at Phillips Andover Prep Gallery probably about 7 or 8 years ago. I believe the gallery is closed for a while as they renovate.
There are some artists that stop me in my tracks. This was one. How silly of my not to write down his name. I can't remember it!
The paintings were large. They had a lot of white, texture and bold strokes. I believe the artist was a native American, thus his paintings depicted themes from native American philosophy.
There were words in some of the paintings (maybe all of them). I happen to like when words are somehow incorporated into paintings.
I remember wanting to just stare at these paintings for hours. I wanted to touch them (but didn't).
I wish I could find out who that artist was.
Thanks for your ideas and thoughts.