Art Review Archives:

	V. 11 thru 12 chronological (current)
	V. 9 thru 10 chronological
	V. 7 thru 8 chronological
	V. 5 thru 6 chronological
	V. 3 thru 4 chronological
	V. 1 thru 2 chronological
	Alphabetical Index V. 1 thru 4
	Hotlist Current
	Book Reviews

Chicago Calligraphy Collective
Annual Members Show
March 2 - 31, 1999.

At the Conrad Sulzer Regional Library (CPL)
4455 North Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60625

Chicago Calligraphy Collective
P.O.Box 11333
Chicago, Illinois 60611
Telephone: Peggy Eisen 847/ 446-5918
Don Neruda 630/ 986-0476

"Now these Phoenicians... brought in among the Hellenes many arts... and especially letters, which did not exist, as it appears to me, among the Hellenes before this time; and at first they brought in those which are used by the Phoenician race generally, but afterwards, as time went on, they changed with their speach the form of the letters also." --Herodotus, c.484-425 B.C.

The origin of the alphabet is still debated, but its transmission has been broad and varied, and the very act of inscribing it has often produced unexpected beauty.

The Chicago Calligraphy Collective is currently presenting its Annual Members Show at the Conrad Sulzer Regional Library, 4455 North Lincoln Avenue in Chicago, Illinois.

Twenty-three members of the Chicago Calligraphy Collective and an additional nine student calligraphers from Beth House's courses at Illinois Benedictine University, Lisle, Illinois, have installed over sixty items: books, framed broadsides and even wood and ceramic pieces. The exhibition at this Chicago Public Library regional center runs from March second through the thirty-first.

The CCC exhibition is arrayed among two front vestibule wall displays and, in the north wing, along the west and east walls as well as in the mid-room flat display table.

It is an impressive showing and the Conrad Sulzer Library, which regularly hosts interesting exhibitions, is an appropriate setting. The Chicago Calligraphy Collective show may have even sparked the checkout of many circulating volumes on calligraphy there. A show is always good that spurs active interest.

This exhibition's range of media is creative. The south vestibule wall display presents several excellent, representative pieces. Particularly eye-catching is "Gentle Wood," a piece by John Reynolds. It is a small tree stump into which a relief inscription of free form lettering is carved. Kalligraphia is Greek for 'beautiful writing,' but here Reynolds touches upon the origin of writing, for -graph- earlier denoted 'to grave, scratch, incise.'

Among the excellent calligraphic works in this case, Cleo Hanzlik's "Strawberries" reminds one that illumination art is often a partner to calligraphy. The exhibition offers many fine examples of that union.

Jim Chin displays here his "Copper Book." The title explains the object. Bessie Pavell has a kindred calligraphic offering on display in the mid-room case of he North wing, "Alphabet Book," as does Carla Hoeft, "Pearls of Wisdom." These are copper relief, with metal hinges at the page fold. These items are intriguing and remind one of the metal book bindings of past church and monastic use. But in this exhibition the artists have created works of art that are very contemporary.

The north vestibule wall display features another unconventional approach to calligraphy by John Reynolds. It is "From Stone To Stone (In darkness from Stone to Stone I seek the Sun)" and here the inscription jumps from stone to stone, each of which is set in an ensemble mount. The entirety forms something of a metaphysical poem.

Among other items in this display is John Weber's "Rosette," a circular, wooden plaque. Within its center focus carved calligraphic letters form an almost chain-mail texturing, recalling some of the best of Islamic calligraphy. This wall display also offers Bessie Pavell's "ABC Delicious," a large coffee bowl-mug with alphabet side-lettering. Also in this case, John Avila's "Leaf," a calligraphic interpretation of a Soseki quote upon a mottled ground, forms an homage to oriental influence in current Western work.

In the north wing, the art is arrayed on the west and east walls and mid-room case, but a printed exhibition leaflet gathers the artists alphabetically, each with the titles of their pieces. An asterisk in the listings marks items which can be purchased.

With the great variety and creative invention offered in the exhibit, one tends to gravitate to personal selections.

On the west wall, Gerald Moscato has "Silent Snowflakes" and "Peace Illusion." His work, "Peace Illusion," is particularly striking; three calligraphic renderings of Chinese characters precede the final English text below them. The uppermost is a character delineated as outline; the second rendering is in black; and the third proceeds as a golden nebulus from which the same character is deleted revealing the painted background in its form. The ultimate effect is a visual illusion of writing form advancing and receding from within the ground. This is an impressive vacillation when the original is viewed.

"Listen to the Exhortation of the Dawn," by Sharon Wallace, allies its calligraphic expression with the English School of illustration, which Ralph Steadman and Ronald Searle typify, and this is always a deceptively casual performance. What seems so spontaneous requires skill and sound instinct.

In some of the exhibit's works, the letters, quite literally, 'stand out and above' their backgrounds. "Peace/Shalom," by Cheryl Pocus, is composed of cutout letters mounted upon a pleated cloth ground, which a frame accommodates. And June Malin's "Ancients (What if the Ancients Were Lazy Like Us...)" superimposes its text as a raised overlay of geometric letters, which recall the posters of David Lance Goines. The letters are mounted a distance over a drag-patterned background. Malin also displays, in the mid-room case, "Mathematical Musicology," a book of quotes about music in which her calligraphy matches the mood and feel of the musical genre that forms the quotation's theme.

Rita Capes Foltz intimates some intriguing anecdote in her "For Anna Lisa (Had I Learned to Fiddle I Should Have Learned Nothing Else)." Here a palette of rich purples and maroons in wash is punctuated by wide-brush forms which echo both musical clefts and fiddleheads. The calligraphy, part in gold and part in white, stands in glowing contrast.

Carol Ostrow has two items in this show. Her "Angel" is a particularly fine example of calligraphy which incorporates allied object. The text block is divided by a feather, which implies a passing of some angelic presence in the work's creation.

Valerie Weilmuenster's "Time" and "Wisdom" present a free, gossamer pen-line which seems almost breeze-blown in its spontaneity and subtle skill. Here, calligraphy and textual context harmonize fully.

There are several works by Carla Hoeft, and on the west wall she displays "Rainbow," which assimilates and furthers some of the futurist and Russian modernist experimentation, but its bright color points in a more gentle and joyful direction.

In near proximity, on the west wall, is "Outside a Shinto Shrine" by Catherine Keebler, and this seems an experimental, if not expressionist, oriental abstraction in monoprint. To a western viewer, it constitutes a somewhat enigmatic work, but enters into the best of artistic experience.

An extremely impressive achievement is "Take a Lump of Clay" by Beth House who is an instructor of calligraphy at Illinois Benedictine University, Lisle. This work rests within a large circular frame wound about by decorated paper. The center round gilt bead-line forms the focus for a large size text which balances, mobile-like, against its smaller companion.

Several of the works exhibited in this show play against the confines of frame or mat and the artwork contained in them. Mary Zabrin, in her "Ultimate Mystery," starts with a marbled pastel background and composes her text within a upper left area of the art paper, but then echoes a very free, almost flying quasi-script block which crosses over mat and matted art. It creates the impression that a con-text surmounts the calligraphic text -- an echoing flourish beyond the overt and obvious text.

In the mid-room case, an item in John Weber's "Experimental and Practice Pieces" includes a matted initial, but Weber places his main text of Roman cursive with flourish on the mat itself. Several of Weber's pieces in this particular collection show his personal interpretations of that legacy given by the great Italian Renaissance masters of Chancery cursive, Ludovico Arrighi, Giovanantonio Tagliente and Giovanbattista Palatino. Weber delights with a flourish.

I have noted some of the unconventional or less common formats for calligraphy on view in this exhibition, and here it is worth noting Kathy Pomranky's "Words Endure in Writing," a low-slung ceramic bowl with calligraphic exterior.

Ellen Mott-Jablonski's "A Burning Light" is one of the calligraphic books in the mid-room and her contribution takes a format of six conjugate leaves which form an accordion-style volume. Her "A Burning Light" comes with its own book sleeve.

The showing also includes fine quality calligraphy by Duane Palmer, Debbie Reelitz-Bell and Maryla Ziecik. Ziecik's "My Day," based on a quote by David Starr Jordan, and "A Shining Light," based on a Rudyard Kipling text, are in the mid-room case, north wing.

The calligraphers from Illinois Benedictine University, who join in this exhibit, display quality book and broadside work, and many examples of their work are in the mid-room case. Among these artists under the instruction of Beth House, Kirsten Robertson's "After a While..." is well done and offers an A decorated after the white-vine pattern so perfected during the Renaissance. It accords well in this exhibit with Weber's collection.

Other calligraphers from Illinois Benedictine are: Fatima Buonicore, Katie Giancaterino, Kevin Herward, Tracy Kania, Jennifer Norbut, Joe Senese, Roshni Shah and Veronica Szavay.

The Chicago Calligraphy Collective's Annual Members Show allows the general public to view high quality calligraphic art. This show presents an art form which transmits an extended and varied legacy, and which continues to innovate and reapply that art. And ever since Edward Johnston in nineteenth century England began his serious artistic renewal of calligraphy as art, fine artists and groups such as the Chicago Calligraphy Collective have never failed to please and gratify, nor ceased to develop new expressions and outlets for this art.

The Chicago Calligraphy Collective was founded in 1976, and information about membership or the purchase of items may be had from Peggy Eisen 847/446-5918 or Don Neruda 630/ 986-0476. John Christensen at the Sulzer Library assisted in coordinating the exhibition space.

The Annual Members Show runs until March thirty-first and information about the Sulzer Library may be obtained by phoning 312/744-7616. The library hours are: Mon.-Thurs. 9-9 PM; Fri, and Sa, 9-5 PM; and Sun, 1-5 PM.

--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.