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Edgar Miller: Anti-Modern, 1917-1967, published in conjunction with DePaul Art Museum's 2024 retrospective of Miller's work, features new research by scholars Marin R. Sullivan, Craig Lee and Jenn Marshall that serve to highlight one of Chicago's most prolific and under-appreciated artists.
Edgar Miller (1899–1993) arrived in Chicago in 1917, and over the next fifty years, established a successful career as a multi-hyphenate creative practitioner. He worked as an architect, artist, craftsperson, curator, designer, and illustrator during a particularly rich period that saw the ascendancy of modernism across the visual culture of the city. Though aware of contemporary developments and debates, Miller’s tremendous body of work, which spanned multiple mediums, materials, and disciplines, speaks to an individual unconcerned with trends, labels, or what became the established tenets of modern art. While developing a signature style, he never embraced the aesthetics of geometric abstraction, “art for art’s sake,” subjective expressionism, or the machine age. He instead remained committed to figurative storytelling and representing the natural world, creating work that was intended to be experienced across the built environment. Miller’s work reflects a bricolage approach to making, often utilizing found or repurposed materials and drawing on a diverse range of cultural, contemporary, and often seemingly anachronistic influences. He also notably embraced a mode of making that was collaborative and collective rather than driven by the vision of a sole artistic “genius.”