NEW YORK, NY.- Forum Gallery will present, Artists by Artists: The Artist as Subject, at EXPO Chicago 2018, an exhibition of over 40 works by artists featuring other artists as their subjects, i.e. poets, actors, writers and visual artists. From the earliest work in the show, a 1905 portrait by John Singer Sargent of socialite and writer Lady Alice Lowther, to Alyssa Monks’ recent painting of contemporary painter Betsy Eby, this exhibition reminds us that portraiture is as compelling and vital a discipline today as it has been throughout history.

Friendship, comradery, fascination and respect are united in many of the works on display as the creators portray the sometimes conflicting emotional and aesthetic connections they feel to the subjects they have chosen. The intense, abstract expressionist portrait of art critic and writer Harold Rosenberg by Elaine de Kooning is matched by the serenity of Pablo Picasso’s 1942 drawing of his muse, painter and photographer Dora Maar; while the lighthearted satire of Philip Evergood’s 1946 Cup of Tea, a painting of the artist Lily Harmon, contrasts with the elegant reverence of Bo Bartlett’s 2017 painting of Andrew Wyeth. Prominently on view will be a large-scale installation by Lesley Dill, inspired by her long-time muse, the poet Emily Dickinson, and Wedding on the Seine, the second of twelve painted story quilts from “The French Collection” by Faith Ringgold, featuring hand-written text and imagery of the fictitious aspiring artist Willia Marie Simone, set in 1920s Paris. Also included will be exceptionally humorous works by David Levine and Jane Lund, a serious portrait of scholar Lincoln Kirstein by Michael Leonard, and a clever painting by Raphael Soyer, whose Imaginary Wall in my Studio (1947) depicts five prominent American artists of the period.

The exhibition will feature a brand new work, created especially for the show, by Forum Gallery artist Brian Rutenberg, and recent works by Chicago-based artists Kim Piotrowski and Maria Tomasula. Additional portraits will be presented by Benny Andrews, Steven Assael, Milton Avery, Robert Bauer, William Beckman, Aleah Chapin, Miguel Covarrubias, Lesley Dill, Philip Evergood, Gregory Gillespie, John Graham, Jules Kirschenbaum, Norman Lewis, Alan Magee, Alyssa Monks, Guillermo Muñoz Vera, Odd Nerdrum, Mark Podwal, Fairfield Porter and Wade Schuman.