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	Book Reviews

ART SCENE, CHICAGO 2000
By Ivy Sundell
(Book Review)

http://sites.netscape.net/crowwoods1/ Crow Woods Publishing
P.O.Box 7072
Evanston, Illinois 60204

October 2000
Softbound: $29.95
Hardcover: $42.95
160 pages. With illustrations,
biographies, statements.
ISBN 0-9665871-6-2 (pbk.)
ISBN 0-9665871-7-0 (hc.)

Part II

Neither Art Scene, Chicago 2000, nor its earlier companion volume, The Chicago Art Scene, can hope to cover full ground for Chicago art -- Chicago's artistic life is very large and lively -- but Crow Woods Publishing has made a notable contribution. For many excellent artists, this volume is our only readily accessible reference. Its thoroughness offers additional insights into the Chicago art scene -- rewarding insights. Because Art Scene, Chicago 2000 has cast its net widely, and because it makes every effort to be open and non-partisan among Chicago's art circles and practices, it offers a representative sampling. And as any researcher knows, an alert observer always searches for stowaway biases. A truly representative sampling has great value.

Beyond its art, one of the most interesting aspects of Art Scene, Chicago 2000 lies in its concise and informative artist biographies. Here, even a reader who only moderately follows Chicago exhibitions can discern careers which began with group shows and venues receptive to new faces and work, and which expand and reappear with ever more notice and support in 'prime' centers and galleries. Which is not to say that it can serve as a Vade mecum for fresh aspirants, but that to some degree, it does accurately reflect the dynamics of Chicago's artistic life.

The day after receiving this book, I visited the traditional First Friday Artists' Open Studio at Wicker Park's Flat Iron Building. The volume was still in my satchel, and while passing it around, each of the artists gathered around found numerous entries to praise... but everyone chose different selections, and each differed with his or her colleagues. Art Scene, Chicago 2000 must be counted a success: its very content reflects much of the currents in contemporary art -- and their debates.

Art Scene, Chicago 2000 encompasses artists sustaining and innovating within traditions; as well as iconoclasts and experimenters. Novelty is not the same as originality, nor are mere rationalizations of art themselves art, at least not necessarily good art. That may not always be reflected in art journals and reviews, but galleries, collectors, patrons with commissions -- many in art -- know this. Art is a human activity with many potentials and intents. The Crow Woods volume captures that also.

Work such as Thomas H. Kapsalis's oil Prime Space Time (1992) builds upon geometricized abstraction, bright, precise and balanced, and his striking work demonstrates that art experiences varieties of expression -- multiple currents, not just historical stages and fashions. Deeper aesthetic concerns motivate art as much as markets and publics, and no approach ever really comes to a final word.

One has only to examine E. Charles Rolwing III's watercolors, such as Keeping Files at Bay (1998), to observe that Chicago has its own legacies as well. Rolwing received his BFA from the University of Louisville and his MFA in Photography and Printmaking from Ohio University, and yet his art seems very much in the spirit of Chicago Imagists such as Gladys Nilsson or Jim Nutt.

Gosia Koscielak was a theatre designer and a gallery director in Wroclaw, Poland. She later lectured at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and St. John Fisher College, Rochester, N.Y.. Koscielak was exhibit and lighting designer for the 1998 Field Museum Millennium Projects. Her art draws from prehistory, contemporary mass culture such as advertising and television, and synthesizes the abstract and realistic to explore "identity in a multicultural and multimedia world."

In this current book, there is even, not canvas nor linen, but hand-painted quilted fabric as image support. Donna June Katz has often devoted as much as 300 hours to painting on pieces of unbleached muslim, which are then sewn together and quilted. The final result is then again profusely detailed.

An artist such as Bruno A. Surdo unites past and present legacies in an art of "iconic and metaphoric symbolism." I have seen the Re-emergence of Venus (1999) at Ann Nathan Gallery, here in Chicago. Surdo's art is stunning: Mannerist, modern and an enduring encounter. Sundell's book presents three Surdo pieces one may revisit at home. This artist completed a 20' x 30' mural, Where There is Art, There is Life, for the College of Lake County in 1997. The equation implied in that mural's title might serve as subtext for Art Scene, Chicago 2000. The artists of this book are gifted, creating, and offer images from out of that experience.

Art Scene, Chicago 2000 provokes one final observation; and it is both a note of hope, and a regard for artists. Many mourned the demise of Les Krantz's serial editions of the hardbound Chicago Art Review years ago. This is the second book on Chicago artists from Crow Woods Publishing. One wishes, hopes, that the effort will continue. At the reception for the artists of Art Scene, Chicago 2000, there was an opportunity to view the publisher's proofsheets, at times with three or more states of correction and re-correction. Intense efforts were devoted to color reproduction. It is a lot of hard work invested in a fine book. And not just the general public, but collectors and artlovers as well should deeply welcome it.

Chicago artists and art institutions should regard it well; and regard it beyond the immediate interests of who's doing what, or its direct visual pleasure. Artist and sociologist Henry C. Finney, in a very intelligent essay, "Art production and artistic careers," analyzed the realities of art scenes, and towards a conclusion commented:

Various social factors that emerged included the following: the sheer volume of work produced by the artist; good catalogue records by the artist of his oeuvre; self-conscious efforts by artist and friends to arrange for "custodianship" of works by museums and galleries; having friends or relatives who survived the artist who would promote their work posthumously; having created some news or sensation regarding one's work that was picked up by journals of the day; "ideological congruence" of the work with dominant cultural and political themes of the time; and association with some other famous artist or artist's group. Talent may be necessary for enduring reputation; but alone it is often not enough.

Art Scene, Chicago 2000 is a quality record for present and future, well done and with authority, to be returned to often and with enjoyment. Artists often do neglect the service performed by books such as this, just as they often fail to order and document, or overlook allies such as The Chicago Artists Archives at the Harold Washington Library Center. Galleries, collectors, historians, even reviewers treasure such sources.

Ultimately, a book like Art Scene, Chicago 2000 buoys one's spirits. This book presents 71 artists of the 279 who originally submitted over 1,400 slides. Normally one sees exhibitions, show by show, and even with a reasonable familiarity with the over 400 places in our area which regularly display art, a certain complacency that the art is and always will be there is perhaps unavoidable. Art Scene, Chicago 2000 focuses attention on how much is actually happening 'out in the field,' so to speak. In West Berlin, prior to the fall of The Wall, every art person knew that the great former capital was an artificial showcase -- the exhibited art came from elsewhere, after it had 'made it' -- elsewhere. Beyond and below the prominent and official sites, there was little art community or culture; little to cultivate an art following and collectors; little 'living, surrounding present process.' That full environment is vital to the arts, and this book demonstrates that Chicago does enjoy it.

As a reviewer, one really gets to study only about 20 to 25 shows a month (sometimes more if travel time permits). And there are always one or two shows where one wishes more time would allow a review. Art Scene, Chicago 2000 offers 71 mini-exhibitions, quality art, and with all the time a reader cares to take to enjoy and re-visit.

There are book signings scheduled during the release of Art Scene, Chicago 2000. Some of the confirmed events are:
Sunday, October 29, 3-4 PM Barnes & Noble, 55 Old Orchard Center, Skokie;
Saturday, November 4, 4-6 PM Borders, 101 Rice Lake Square, Wheaton;
Saturday, November 11, 3-4 PM Borders, 336 S.Route 59, Naperville;
Sunday, November 12, 2-4 PM Barnes & Noble, 1701 Sherman Ave., Evanston;
and Saturday, January 13 2-3 PM Borders, 49 S.Waukegan Rd., Deerfield.
For further information call 847/ 864-9147. http://sites.netscape.net/crowwoods1/

Finis Part II
Go To PART I

--G. Jurek Polanski

Jurek Polanski has previously written and art edited for Strong Coffee in Chicago. He's also well known and respected among the Chicago museums and galleries. Jurek is currently a Visual Arts Correspondent for ArtScope.net.

Editorial Note: Henry C. Finney's essay appears in Outsider Art: Contesting Boundaries in Contemporary Culture, Eds. V.L.Zolberg & J.M.Cherbo (Cambridge [U.K.]: 1997). The Chicago Art Scene (1998) was reviewed in www.artscope.net (June 1999) during its exhibition of work at Belloc Lowndes Gallery, Chicago. Several artists of Art Scene, Chicago 2000 may be found in past www.artscope.net reviews: Marion Kryczka (May 1999); Deborah Maris Lader ("Chicago Printmakers Dec. 1999; Wood Street Gallery Apr. 2000); Nancy Plotkin ("Union Images 2000" Oct. 2000); Eric Semelroth (Oct. 1998).