September 14 – November 18, 2012
Anders Oinonen, Island Lake, 2009. Oil on canvas. Collection of Joshua Newcomer and Tejal Shah
Rebecca Shore, 9, 2010. Oil on canvas. Collection of Emmy Kondo and Daniel Rosenthal
Justin Cooper, Untitled (ties), 2010. Pigment print. Courtesy of moniquemeloche, Chicago
Suellen Rocca, Dream Girl, c. 1968. Oil on canvas. Collection of DePaul Art Museum, Art Acquisition Endowment, 2011.6
Richard Hull, Adolescence, 2011. Oil on linen. Collection of Brian Herbstritt
Geoffrey Todd Smith, Feel Harder, 2012. Acrylic, gouache, and ink on panel. Courtesy of Western Exhibitions
Trubble Club, Trubble Corpse, 2012. Acrylic on MDF. Courtesy of the artists
Selina Trepp, The Painter, 2011. Chromogenic print. Courtesy of the artist and Andrew Rafacz Gallery
Zack Wirsum, Good at Scarves, 2010. Acrylic and canvas on panel. Courtesy of Jean Albano Gallery
Nearly four decades ago a group of artists emerged in Chicago whose flamboyant subject matter, meticulous finish, and inventive narrative style that fused abstraction and figuration distinguished them from the prevailing modes of New York School abstract painting. Local critics soon attached the term Imagism to their work.
Like an afterimage that lingers in one’s field of vision, Imagism remains a strong aesthetic influence in work by the artists in this exhibition: the strong color palette, pop-culture references, personal symbolism, and cheeky humor are clearly visible. But they have rebooted the Imagist legacy through the introduction of new content such as race, class, and gender; and new formal strategies including collage, loosely rendered forms, and dripped paint. Some deploy new media such as performance, animation, and photography, and many have adopted the social practices of the Imagists: collaboration, eclectic exhibition installation, and deep engagement with music and other art forms. Sharing visual and ideological affinities, a new generation of artists is reshaping the rich and inventive history of Imagism.
To purchase the catalogue please email artmuseum@depaul.edu.
Afterimage is organized by DePaul Art Museum and curated by Thea Liberty Nichols and Dahlia Tulett-Gross.