Four WPA Muralists in Their Studios 1925-1945 Simon, Spears, Bennett, Siporin

October 22 - November 26, 2005

Main Gallery

View

Mitchell Siporin

Dispossessed
1941
casein on illustration board

Henry Simon

War Mask
1942
gouache and pastel on paper

Rainey Bennett

Diamond Alkali, Houston, Texas
1949
watercolor on paper

Henry Simon

Chicago River
1939
gouache on paper

Henry Simon

P.T. Barnum
no date
pencil on tracing paper mounted on card

Henry Simon

Untitled
1939
oil on canvas

Rainey Bennett

Tin #2
c.1956
watercolor on paper

Rainey Bennett

Scrap Yard Towers, Marietta, Ohio
c.1956
watercolor on paper

Press Release

These four artists were all well known as Chicago muralists, contributing paintings to public buildings across the Midwest and elsewhere during the period of the Works Progress Administration. But Simon, Spears, Bennett and Siporin were all accomplished studio artists before and after the period of the WPA, and this exhibition presents a selection of works they produced – canvases, works on paper, prints – when they weren’t making murals. A new view of some of our city’s most acclaimed artists.