Palette and Chisel at Re:Chicago

Carl Hoeckner "Cold Steel"



To celebrate the opening of it's facility,
(conveniently located so close to the Fullerton station
on the Red Line,
you can look through it's window from the platform),
the DePaul University Art Museum
is running a show called "Re:Chicago"
that



"shows work by 40 artists, each chosen by a member of the Chicago art world, and invites viewers to join in a conversation about who’s famous, who used to be, and who ought to be."





Of course,
as with all exhibitions,
that "conversation" is exclusively one-way,
but still
it's more engaging
than usual museum exhibits
where an anonymous voice
has posted authoritative text up on the wall.



With no attempt to cover
the prominent names and styles,
there are many significant omissions.
(not a single landscape is being shown!)


But happily,
Esther Sparks,
an experienced curator and art historian
who has worked at the A.I.C. and many
area universities in her 40 year career,
has picked one of our members,
Carl Hoeckner.

Hoeckner was one of the rebellious
P&C modernists
who stormed out in a huff around 1920.

But, contentious character that he was,
he never belonged to any organization
for a great length of time,
even if he founded them.




As Sparks wrote in the text
that accompanied the above print,
Hoeckner was
"Dedicated to the bitter truth"


***********

BTW, the above print
appears on several sites on the internet,
most curiously
on this one that features homoerotic art.