Corbett vs. Dempsey

works by Linda Kramer

Born in New York City, raised in California, Linda Kramer has been an important figure in Chicago's art scene since the late '60s, when her work was selected for the Art Institute's Chicago & Vicinity Show. By the time of her 1999 retrospective at the Hyde Park Art Center, she had assembled a large and extremely varied oeuvre that included drawings, oils, watercolors, photo-collages, installations, assemblages and ceramics. James Yood wrote: "Playful and profound, openhanded and generous, with reservoirs of meaning that extend far beyond the tyranny of a signature style, Linda Kramer's work provides a conduit from material to imagination that never fails to stimulate and propel, and invites a welcome and refreshing opportunity to wonder and dream."

In the mid '60s, Kramer began work on a group of drawings and works on paper, many of them nudes and figures, that culminated in 1971 in an astonishing series she called "Chicago Plateboy." These harsh satirical images function on one hand as her entries in the early phase of Chicago imagism, and have clear connections to Karl Wirsum and Jim Nutt. But where sexuality in their paintings tends towards exaggerated stereotypes, some of Kramer's are directly feminist in nature - vicious critiques of bimbo or airhead culture.