Independent 20th Century Before and After Imagism
September 8 - 11, 2022
Battery Maritime Building at Cipriani South Street
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Installation view of Corbett vs. Dempsey: Before and After Imagism at Independent 20th Century, New York, September 8 - 11, 2022. Courtesy of the artists and Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago. Photo: Silvia Ros.
Installation view of Corbett vs. Dempsey: Before and After Imagism at Independent 20th Century, New York, September 8 - 11, 2022. Courtesy of the artists and Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago. Photo: Silvia Ros.
Installation view of Corbett vs. Dempsey: Before and After Imagism at Independent 20th Century, New York, September 8 - 11, 2022. Courtesy of the artists and Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago. Photo: Silvia Ros.
Installation view of Corbett vs. Dempsey: Before and After Imagism at Independent 20th Century, New York, September 8 - 11, 2022. Courtesy of the artists and Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago. Photo: Silvia Ros.
Installation view of Corbett vs. Dempsey: Before and After Imagism at Independent 20th Century, New York, September 8 - 11, 2022. Courtesy of the artists and Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago. Photo: Silvia Ros.
Ed Flood, Mystic Lagoon, 1969, acrylic, Plexiglass, and wood, 13 x 13 x 1 3/4 inches.
Richard Loving, Landscape Making, 1973, oil and pencil on canvas, 24 x 30 inches. Photo: Robert Chase Heishman.
Gertrude Abercrombie, Trees of Life Parts 1 & 2, 1949-50, oil on board, 5 x 7 inches; 9 x 11 inches, framed. Photo: Robert Chase Heishman.
Gertrude Abercrombie, Trees of Life Parts 1 & 2, 1949-50, oil on board, 5 x 7 inches; 9 x 11 inches, framed. Photo: Robert Chase Heishman.
Richard Wetzel, Flesh and Blood, 1985, oil and varnish on canvas, 72 x 44 inches. Photo: Robert Chase Heishman.
Miyoko Ito, The Kite Day, c. 1955, oil on linen, 48 1/2 x 33 1/2 inches. Photo: Robert Chase Heishman.
Roger Brown, Purple Passion in the South Sea, 1968, etching on paper, 5 3/4 x 7 1/2 inches; 10 3/8 x 12 1/8 inches, framed. Photo: Robert Chase Heishman.
Diane Simpson, Folding Forms IV B, 1977, collograph print (unique), 27 x 20 inches; 33 1/2 x 26 1/4 x 1 1/2 inches, framed. Photo: Robert Chase Heishman.
Rebecca Shore, 27, 1997, egg tempera on panel, 6 x 6 inches.
Rebecca Shore, 48, 1997, egg tempera on panel, 6 x 6 inches.
Brian Calvin, Untitled, 1993, acrylic on paper, 11 x 10 inches; 14 x 13 inches, framed.
Robert Lostutter, Untitled, 1970, watercolor and graphite on paper, 7 x 6 inches; 19 1/2 x 18 1/2 inches, framed.
Thomas Kapsalis, Lake and Wabash, 1960, oil on canvas, 24 x 22 inches. Photo: Robert Chase Heishman.
Dominick Di Meo, Cluster, 1962, acrylic, polymer, and sculpted elements on canvas, 20 x 14 inches. Photo: Robert Chase Heishman.
Christina Ramberg, Untitled, c. 1981, pencil, colored pencil, and date stamp on graph paper, 11 x 8 inches; 15 x 12 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches, framed. Photo: Robert Chase Heishman.
Christina Ramberg, Untitled, n.d., blue felt-tip pen on paper, 10 x 8 inches; 14 x 12 x 1/2 inches, framed. Photo: Nathan Keay.
Art Green, Protective Coloration, 1969, mixed media on canvas, 72 x 50 inches.
Jimmy Wright, Reclining Figure, 1970, watercolor and graphite on paper, 22 1/2 x 30 inches; 25 x 33 inches, framed.
Phillip Hanson, Mirrored Entrance, 1968, oil on canvas with painted frame,
19 1/2 x 19 1/2 inches.
Robert Lostutter, Untitled, 1971, oil on canvas, 66 1/2 x 45 1/2 inches.
Press Release
In 1966, six young Chicago artists began showcasing their work as Hairy Who, mounting the first in a series of group exhibitions at the Hyde Park Art Center. Now recognized as a wildly inventive independent art phenomenon, the Chicago Imagists were both preceded and followed by a range of fascinating artists, some of whom, like Gertrude Abercrombie and Miyoko Ito, have garnered international attention long after their deaths. Included in the booth are outstanding works from before, during, and after the Imagist epoch. Ranging from 1949 to 1997, the selection features rarely seen paintings by Abercrombie and Ito, works by precursors Dominick Di Meo and Thomas H. Kapsalis, and classic Imagist work by Christina Ramberg, Karl Wirsum, Art Green, Phil Hanson, Richard Wetzel, Ed Flood, Robert Lostutter, and Roger Brown. The booth, which emphasizes both the continuities and the disjunctions between this historical continuum of artists, will also include contemporaneous figures such as Jimmy Wright and Richard Loving as well as later practitioners who came directly out of the Imagist milieu, including Diane Simpson, Brian Calvin, and Rebecca Shore. What emerges is a vibrant and diverse artistic ecosystem that nourished and inspired itself – what musician and producer Brian Eno has called a "scenius," combining the inherently communitarian "scene" with the lonesome "genius." In Chicago, hyper-individualistic eccentrism and an overall shared sensibility co-existed. The city's peculiar scenius bridged the two halves of the 20th century; in later work you can feel the deep ties to an indigenous midwestern mode of abstraction at play in even the most clearly representational works, and the sort of weirdo figuration that is one of Chicago's hallmarks is rarely rooted in naturalism or realism, but instead explores the architecture of images as forms, the meanings and allusions and emotional connotations of their electric horseplay.