ELMHURST, IL.- Elmhurst Art Museum is presenting What Came After: Figurative Painting in Chicago 1978-98 on view September 14, 2019 – January 12, 2020. Organized by Chicago-based, internationally exhibited artist Phyllis Bramson, What Came After is a survey of diverse interests in the figure as a subject, the human condition, and an interest in personal iconography.
According to Bramson, “Many have struggled with understanding and processing the term ‘Chicago Imagism’ since it was first used in the early 1970s, including artists that built on the ideas of their peers or sought to break free from expectations of that legacy. What Came After better defines and celebrates this later generation of artists, which have been called third generation Imagists, Post-Imagists, and the Chicago School.”
In addition to Bramson, artists represented in What Came After include Nicholas Africano, Susanne Doremus, Eleanor Spiess-Ferris, Richard Hull, Michiko Itatani, Paul Lamantia, Robert Lostutter, Jim Lutes, Tony Phillips, David Sharpe, Hollis Sigler, Ken Warneke, Margaret Wharton, and Mary Lou Zelazny. The show of 30 paintings serves as an introduction to these 15 artists for a broad audience, while also examining a specific time and place in Chicago’s recent history.
“We are thrilled to work with this group of artists, as well as Elmhurst College again, to dig deeper into Chicago’s rich cultural history. The exhibition builds on an ongoing conversation about Chicago Imagism, which has become broadly and internationally known, but often misunderstood,” said Elmhurst Art Museum Executive Director John McKinnon. “The painters in this exhibition have all been recognized in their own right, yet this period of history has often been overlooked.”
The exhibition’s original scholarship includes a brochure with essays by Bramson, Chicago curator Lynne Warren, and New York curator/critic Deven Golden. In these texts, the wide-ranging term of Chicago Imagism is discussed as valuable yet limiting. Public programs will better define how the well-used term was formed, what it originally meant, and what it has come to mean through time. What Came After is dedicated to the late art critic James Yood, initially involved in early planning of this exhibition, and advocate of Midwest artists from this particular time period.
What Came After is organized in conjunction with a new installation across Elmhurst’s museum campus at Elmhurst College’s A.C. Buehler Library. This new display was organized by Suellen Rocca, one of the original members of the Hairy Who collective and current Curator and Director of Exhibitions at Elmhurst College.
