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4th Annual CHICAGO ART OPEN 2001
847 West Jackson Boulevard Philosopher Arthur C. Danto once summed the insights of Friedrich Nietzsche: Science makes life possible; art makes life bearable. The more varied and lively the art, the fuller our lives; but to have that art, we must recognize its importance, and nourish it. Organizations and the communities which do so are both important in their own right, and a mentor to pleasure, challenge, a fuller being. The Chicago Artists' Coalition, a 26-year-old non-profit service organization, is one such mentor and its Fourth Annual CHICAGO ART OPEN 2001 offers an opportunity to enjoy, support, and benefit from art. From October 19th through 27th, 2001, three hundred works, each selected for show by the artists themselves, will be on display to the Chicago public. Many of the exhibiting artists and fifty emerging art students will be present. The variety in such an event is daunting and although an individual cannot quite absorb it all, each finds much of great interest. A 16-page catalogue, illustrated with color thumbnail reproductions of the art and listing artists' phone numbers, does help greatly, both during the exhibition and as a future reference. The work presented ranges from abstraction to the figurative and surreal, and encompasses easel paintings, reliefs, mixed media, and sculpture. The Defense of the Status Quo (2001) by Renee McGinnis serves as an excellent example of a figurative approach which alludes to speculations beyond the immediate image. Whether strictly humanist critique or a venture toward transcendent paradox, this painting by McGinnis displays effective technique and a considered ambivalence in content. With so many artists together, one benefit of each year's CAC Chicago Art Open is a chance to survey the range of interpretation in any single genre. Some artists direct a highly refined representational work toward cryptic insights; others interpret specific personalities. Grace Cole's painting, The Truth Teller, is subtle and suggestive: a woman holds a blackbird in her left hand while beckoning to the viewer with her opened right palm. The title itself begs interpretive response: image and caption work in tandem. In James A. Burrell's Stripes, the portrait title conspicuously calls attention from the sitter and to his shirt, which echoes an American flag behind him. Individual, his casual attire, and national symbol, together conspire to elicit speculations from the visitor. For some exhibiting artists, a whimsical, often disturbing irony seems possible only within a realistic approach. Richard Laurent's painting, Awl That Glitters, suggests a sinister heroism: an irregular Union soldier, perhaps even a free-booter, fondles an awl. The subject regards his viewer intently, and -- whether contemplating craft or murder -- is indifferent to the red-stained headdress feather pinned beyond his right shoulder. A history is implied... and left for the viewer to resolve.
Pond in Lincoln Park by Mary King offers a radical contrast. King's abstraction of brightly colored contours, strategically arranged; her strong sense of decorative balance in composition; and her sudden use of outline and three isolated strokes for the central icon of pond all work toward a different, equally valid art. Green Line I, a painting by Salvator J. Ingrassia, would seem a kindred aesthetic were it not for the artist's sensitivity to implied motion -- tracings of dynamic paths captured in contour and composition. Sonia Katz (who also exhibited in the 31st Pilsen East Art Open, September 28-30, 2001) is well-known in Chicago art, and One Sunny Day is her entry at the CAC Chicago Art Open. While Ingrassia's work veers toward a Pop art abbreviation (much like the art of Stuart Davis: flat, schematic, rationalized), Katz's art seems more akin to Klee and Kandinsky: dimensional in its colors and shading, freely abstract in composition, delicately nuanced in the rhythms among its coordinated elements. Barbara Goldsmith's sculpture, Caress works within a Modernist aesthetic of geometric distillation, developing dimensional vocabularies pioneered by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska or Naum Gabo. Jason Messinger's Fame harkens to the Italian Futurists such as Umberto Boccioni, melding both abstraction in form and a lively sense of movement. In contrast, a visitor finds sculpture such as William Alexander's Primitive Found Objects which seems a totem both neolithic and contemporary.
Not all figurative work is allusive. A surrealist touch can focus stark realities. Tim Leeming's print Gangbanger, despite a polished technique, offers a distinct study in human character and socially circumscribed destiny. Here, image becomes a language: social context is made concrete in the multiple faces of pack instinct, the gang, which possess and haunt the handcuffed youth. Leeming pits past against a questioning of personal responsibility. Winter Gothic, by Anne Farley Gaines (who will exhibit at the 31st Pilsen East Art Open) led several viewers to conclude that her title proffered a challenge to the more explicit examination of situation and character found in Grant Wood.
Craig Kiefer's deeply Expressionist American Eagle No. 3 conveys both a sense of brute force and glory, blood and unthinking bravery. Kiefer's painting grasps a basic creaturely core which men rely upon for their basest urges and greatest inspirations. Some artists choose a more overt target. Grant Wood's American Gothic (1930) concealed from the less perceptive its own covert scepticism and irony, made all the more powerful by an certain empathy of the artist with his subject. Anna Weeg's The Pitch Fork plays a further irony with Grant's prototype, although viewer and artist may debate where its boundaries end. Here Bill and Hillary Clinton stand with taciturn reserve; the White House stands as backdrop; but the balance between public image, self-deception and true innocence vacillates.
Irish Brooke's Hubbub seems almost a Northern Renaissance altar panel, but the idiom much more recalls such artists of the Russian avant-garde as Pavel Filonov (1882-1941), or France's Section d'Or: Albert Gleizes, Jean Metzinger.... Dannielle Woods's painting, Decisions, renders a female form through grace of balanced contours with a dream-state glow of soft edge and modeling: a synthesis of gentle Cubist approach with a somewhat Heavy Metal sensibility. Over 300 works in the CAC Chicago Art Open confirm that despite names, labels or comparisons, the strengths of art emerge from individual vision. The benefits of art accrue to all. A visitor, no matter what his or her taste and interests, will find much that delights, perhaps amuses, at times provokes. For artists and general public, this event offers a wide view of what is being done, a chance to meet, enjoy oneself, and come away enlivened and refreshed. This annual event, however, offers something we need much more than that. Many often relegate art to a luxury, an acquired taste, a thing apart from our daily lives. To that degree, our daily lives are visually impoverished; or perfunctory; or aggressive, shrill, even mercenary. But no one goes on living just to work, eat, and sleep. Life should be more. Mara Tapp, host of her own program on National Public Radio, in the New Art Examiner (Feb:2001) observed:
Tapp commented further:
Art isn't ever going to save the world. But, if it comes to that, neither will any army. In the past, Chicago artists lamented a lack of a coherent art community in a city where art didn't seem important; at least, not important enough. (The same was earlier said of theater. That has changed immensely. It still holds true for literature.) No East Bank; no Greenwich Village; no Soho.... Moreover, no community or environment, cultural soil, to give something like that birth, much less enduring life. The CAC Chicago Art Open grows with each year. Crowds arrive, and a number of visitors buy art; on site or later. The Chicago Artists' Coalition, and the Chicago Art Open, draws a public; cultivates interest and knowledge about Chicago's artists; develops future growth. As that growth matures and becomes a fuller part of daily lives, the climate for art -- the quality of art -- improves. It becomes possible for some artists to produce work which can be appreciated only when others have prepared the ground before them; indeed, some work might never be produced without such community. Art, and its makers, need not be in full accord. It suffices that what art offers -- if life is to be anything more than bare existence -- be recognized, talked about, lived with, and nurtured. Today, Nietzsche's insight rings even truer: Science makes life possible; art makes life bearable. Each of us needs a life which offers more than work, eating, sleep. The Fourth Annual CHICAGO ART OPEN 2001 is an opportunity to explore. It is organized by The Chicago Artists' Coalition in cooperation with the City of Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. This year it runs from October 19th through 27th, 2001. Three hundred works of art await the visitor. A 16-page catalogue, illustrated with color thumbnail reproductions of the art, and listing artists' phone numbers, accompanies this exhibition. --G. Jurek Polanski Jurek Polanski has previously written or art edited for American Spectator, Anonym, Artful Dodge, Nit&Wit:Chicago's Art Magazine, Strong Coffee, and numerous others. Graphic artist and designer, he's also well known and respected among the Chicago museums and galleries. Jurek Polanski is also Visual Arts Correspondent for ArtScope.net. Editorial Note: Books mentioned in www.artscope.net are often in print and may be purchased through this site's Amazon.com link. Mara Tapp is quoted from her essay, "Why We Hate Art," in New Art Examiner (Feb. 2001). Arthur C. Danto's Madonna of the Future was reviewed earlier in www.artscope.net (Aug. 2000), as were Pavel Nikolaevich Filonov (1882-1941) ("Painting Revolution," Aug. 2000) and Barbara Goldsmith ("The World of the Spiritual," Feb. 1999). |
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