Monday, March 24, 2025

Daniel Albo


Sometime in the early eighties, before South Asian sculpture filled the central corridor of the Art Institute, a very small gallery was located at its western end - and it was used to display very small sculpture.

Some pieces in this show, like the above, would have qualified to be there. They’re amazing.




An Eskimo ivory?


Daniel’s world is filled with sexy, glamorous, somewhat dissolute young people.
I like them.


Sunday, March 23, 2025

Time machine

 



Around  the turn of the millennium —

back when Chris and Tor were still on the board, Misha was still  “under the board”, Mike had just graduated from high school (just kidding), Yeongchi was sculpting the portrait of the director of R.I.C. (his boss), and Susan had just begun her very popular sculpture class…..  

The above candid snapshot was taken in the coach house studio.

Left to right:

Misha Livshulz (hands only), Chris Miller, Tori Muehl, Mike Vest, Dr. Wu, Susan Clinard,
The model was Jerry Warshaw.

God  knows how this photo survived
pinned to the studio wall all this time, now somewhat worse for wear.







25 years later - by pure chance - all but Susan were reunited one day in the Sunday afternoon sculpture workshop.

( Susan now has a sculpture studio in New Haven where her husband, Thierry, runs a bio research laboratory at Yale )


As I have said many times :
The Palette is a paradise for figurative artists.
Why would anyone ever wish to leave?

So many things can happen over so much time,
calamity can strike at any moment.
We all are are so lucky to have survived,
to still have the Palette, and still have each other.

Though it is troubling that not one new face was there for the photo,
even if a few more recent members did arrive later in the afternoon,



Susan Clinard 


Below, Susan has shared two more photos from that workshop:




And here she is giving a demo back in the day:



….damn, but she was a fine looking woman
(As well as a talented sculptor!)








Sunday, March 09, 2025

Gold Medal Show 2025

 


Julia Sulzen, Evening

Every so often, a really accomplished artist joins our quaint organization- and I feel it’s my duty to vote that person our Gold Medal.  Not to mention that this is a wonderful cityscape— so luminous solid, and brooding. I so much want to enter it.



Sondra Pfeffer ,  Bad Hair Day


I don’t collect sculpture - I make it.  Every shelf and pedestal  in our house is  already taken.

But if I did collect - this is one I’d like to live with.

The bad-hair lady has a joyful presence - and that's what a sculpture will not have unless the sculptor welcomes it into the surrounding space.




Andrew Conklin,  Three Pairs of Shoes  (second place)

Such sharp, elegant , lucid 17th C. Dutch figurative painting is so rare in contemporary art.

Kinky?   Perhaps.

Those tootsies sure look delicious.  No wear and tear on either the feet or shoes.



Helen Oh, Debra Balchen,  Muriel Christensen, Lenin Del Sol




Misha Livshulz

So sweet and peaceful.







Maurise  Thomas,  Chill


Another new member?

Quite distant from the refined technique and ambiance usually found on our walls,
Maybe that’s why I like it.
Hope to see more of his work in future shows.


…though we might note that the wall space  above the radiator is often given to pieces in questionable taste.




Thomas Zamiar,  Letting Go

Imagism remains Chicago’s home team 80 years after the Hairy Who - and, frankly, I wish we would move on.

For many, it's a career choice.
But it came as naturally to Tom as it did to H. C. Westermann.



Tobin Richter, Estate Bar Roof

A strange sense of spatial depth - I like it.
And I’d like to have cocktails up on that airy terrace.
If all the people were black, this would likely have gallery representation.


Jessica Smit Mattingly, Nocturne

Vienna, 1900.
A good place to be.







Errol Jacobson,  Urban Rain


Two things about Errol’s world;

1. It rains every day
2. Everyone is serious about getting to where they’re going 

It’s a tough world out there.  We’ve just got to plug away at it.






Debra Balchen

Related to the cone heads?


Todd Britton, Self Portrait #1

Can’t figure it out.
I suppose that’s the point.


***********

..after the awards were given:



Don Di Santi,  George. (Honorable mention)

I didn’t notice this first time around, but it’s a strong portrait of the strange fellow who often comes to our shows and book sales.

Lenin Del Sol. — Gold Medal Winner

Lenin is in the long line of  distinguished illustrators who joined the Palette and Chisel over the past 120 years.  Hats off to them all - but I look for something else.
Apparently I am in the minority here.













Thursday, February 13, 2025

The Feminine in Focus: Photographic works by Bunny Yeager from the M.S. Collection

 

Bunny Yeager / Bettie Page


Apparently I'm not the only one who doesn't want our gallery to be limited to the work of members.

But this wasn't really what I had in mind.




"M.S." is Michelle Strassburger - an interior designer who collects art 

- including plein air paintings by some of our members.

I would love to see that part of her collection on the walls of our gallery 

- whether the artists are PNC or not.

I'm less interested in her collection of photography - but OK 

- that might be interesting as well.


This is a show, however, of what she is trying to sell - not what she likes to own.  

She bought a large collection of pinup girl photos - these are the ones she does not want.


Maybe the alternative to her show would have been an empty gallery,

Maybe somebody here really likes this kind of stuff.

Maybe somebody here knows Michelle and wants to help her out.

Perhaps the PNC will make several thousand dollars in commission.


 These are  all good reasons,


But if we are serious about the public  mission of our gallery

this is the kind of issue that should go before an exhibition committee - 

if we ever get around to having one.





Monday, January 27, 2025

Scholarship Winners - 2025

 


Bailey Katz

Hard to  believe I’ve never seen her sculptures before - Bailey was in Audrey’s class way back when. It  certainly is a delight to discover her now.  Our aesthetics are pretty much on the same page:  power, elegance, sweetness, freshness.




This figure feels familiar. 
Was it derived from Eve on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel  ???



This piece feels even more familiar.  
Gallery signage does not identify it as such - but I was told that Bailey said it was taken from Camille Claudel.





Camille Claudel

This piece was in the special Claudel exhibit at the Art Institute early last year.
(Gallery signage asserted it was more of a woman’s POV than the crouching Rodin figure shown nearby)

And I prefer Bailey’s rendition !
Less about anatomy - more about expressive form.

Bailey should quit her day job!







Lucy Ellen Smith



Lucy Ellen Smith

Someday I hope we get an exhibit that only shows coffee cups,



Arturo Aldama

He getting awfully close to crossing over from cartoon to classical.




Emilie Varlet



Matthew Braun, "Augury"

Makes no sense to me -
but then he does call himself a "maker of weird nattative"




Veronica Severini



Adam Holzrichter

Saw the above wrap-around mural a few years ago in a Chicago gallery.
Wonderful!
You enter a land of enchantment every time nature calls.
He has a few drawings in this show, but could not photograph them through the reflections on the glass.

Possibly our only member to have studied with Odd Nerdrum in Norway.











Sunday, December 22, 2024

Portraits of the Palette

 

Tom Zavala. "Honey, I broke the Mirror"

A wonderfully assertive portrait of a manly man 
owning up to the damage he’s done.


Chris Heron

A fine, noble piece that makes me think of Paris, 1860


Tor Muehl, Pascale

Our mansion’s beloved French governess brought to life.
What a smile!

Clayton Beck III

Could be a study for Joseph in a Nativity scene.

Sondra Pfeffer

I don’t really see Mark here -
but it’s a strong head.
Possibly made millennia ago and recently unearthed.

Helen Oh

Infringing on the territory of Watteau.



Helen Oh

Such a noble visage  - straight from the 18th Century



Andy Conklin, self portrait

Some anxiety here - he’s feeling cornered and boxed in.


Val Yachik, Last Day of Princess Cat

Our resident master of the macabre.

Poor little Princess.

Chicago Plein Air Painters





Yelena Patskevich

camping by a river and waking up with a hangover?




Is it just wishful thinking 
or are the PAPC shows really getting better?



Arun Dabholkar







Hugh Nicholson

Hugh Nicholson


Mark Cleveland


Elizabeth Buckley-Geer



Barbara Herring

Not just any city - it’s "my city"
Safe, cozy, beloved.


Anna Cherkashina


Anna Cherkashina

Richard Laurent




Richard Laurent

Laura Camunas