DePaul Art Museum explores influence of Chicago Imagism in new exhibition

August 29, 2012
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The DePaul Art Museum will explore work by contemporary artists who draw inspiration from an earlier generation of Chicago artists known as Imagists in “Afterimage,” which opens Sept. 14. Free and open to the public, the exhibition runs through Nov. 18.

Also opening Sept. 14 is an exhibition featuring the work of artist Ellen Lanyon, whose richly detailed paintings create an alternative visual universe, joining aspects of the natural world and manmade objects in a surreal and provocative relation.

An opening reception for the exhibitions will be held from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Sept. 14 at the museum, located at 935 W. Fullerton Ave., just east of the CTA’s Fullerton “L” stop.

Emerging in the 1970s, Imagist artists favored flamboyant subject matter and an inventive, comics-infused narrative style that distinguished them from the prevailing modes of abstraction and pop art. Imagism remains a strong aesthetic influence in work by the 24 young artists in this exhibition. They utilize various themes and techniques from Imagism, including the strong color palette, pop-culture references and brash humor. But as the range and diversity of works clearly demonstrate, these contemporary artists have moved beyond Imagism in both visual and ideological ways.

“This exhibition is about sources and influences and also about generation—both in the sense of bringing into being and that of age, cohorts and lifespans,” said Louise Lincoln, director of the DePaul Art Museum. “The contemporary artists whose work forms the core of the show are young, and their work manifests a fitting sense of exuberance and experimentation.”

Exhibitions mark the beginning of the DePaul Art Museum’s second year
The Afterimage project was conceived and organized by Thea Liberty Nichols and Dahlia Tulett-Gross, independent curators whose research interests in the history of Imagism have provided a foundation for their exploration of its more contemporary approaches and iterations. The exhibition features the work of 24 artists, including Lilli Carré, David Leggett, Amy Lockhart, Ellen Nielsen, Anders Oinonen, John Parot as well as pieces by Imagist artists such as Roger Brown, Jim Nutt, Ed Paschke and Christina Ramberg.

A series of programs and performances are scheduled, and related exhibitions will take place concurrently at the Roger Brown Study Collection, the Center for Book and Paper Arts and the Joan Flasch Artists’ Book Collection.

The Ellen Lanyon exhibition explores the career of the distinguished artist, whose work reflects an experimental approach to painting and pleasure in its ability to re-present the world. The exhibition brings paintings from 1969 to the present together with a selection of the found objects that fill her studio and often populate her canvases.

The Afterimage and Ellen Lanyon exhibitions mark the beginning of the DePaul Art Museum’s second year in its new $7.8 million home, which opened in September 2011. The museum is open Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. For more information, please call 773-325-7506 or visit the museum website.