Faculty Show: 2012

Bo Zhang

As the memorial
in one corner of this exhibit
reminds us,
several of our most popular teachers
are no longer with us.

But incredibly enough,
this is the most exciting
faculty exhibit that I can remember.

Bo Zhang

I doubt that even the sitters themseles
could be any more present in the room
than Bo's depictions
of their poignant selves

(photo by Del Hall)

Errol Jacobson

And Errol's city views
continue to amaze me.

He is so committed to living inside his pictorial worlds, I fear that one day he will step into one of the taxicabs he's painted, drive off, and never return

(photo by Del Hall)

Michael Van Zeyl

This is not my favorite painting,
and I don't really want to meet this girl,
but I badly want to know
what she's up to.

There is something so personal
about this painting.

You can cut its sadness with a knife.

(note: Mary removed it on Sunday,
saying that the face was not finished)

It's exciting to see Helen
step back a little bit
from the sea shells she loves to paint.

Clayton J. Beck III



Audrey Cramblitt

(photo by Del Hall)

Don Yang

James Hajicek

David Leffel
(portrait of Val Yachik)

Marci Oleskiewicz

(photo by Del Hall)

Tim Rees

William Schneider

Ed Wentz

Remembering Moissei

(drawing by Bo Zhang)

Misha Livshulz has just sent me
these pictures
from his last visit to Moissei Liangleben
who passed away yesterday

Some details about his career
can be found in the post
about his retrospective
held last year.

As you can see,
his ability
did not diminish
with age.

Since he loved to paint from the model,
I'm guessing that the P&C
helped make his final years some good ones.

And he made it a better place, too.

He first became a member in June, 1998.

His funeral will be tomorrow
at Winstein Funeral Home
in Wilmette at 11AM.

(photo by Del Hall)

Stuart's History

Stuart Fullerton has just published
his Powerpoint presentation of the
History of the Palette and Chisel to 1921
which he delivered as a lecture
in the main gallery
in 2008.


It can be found
here


He has also begun his own
excellent
P&C history blog
which can be found
here

Palette and Chisel at the Illinois State Museum

David Hunter



According to Wikipedia,

Figurism was an intellectual movement of Jesuit missionaries at the end of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th century, whose participants viewed the I Ching as a prophetic book containing the mysteries of Christianity, and prioritized working with the Qing Emperor (rather than with the Chinese literati) as a way of promoting Christianity in China.

All of which is quite fascinating!


But according to a curator
at the Illinois State Museum
(in the Thompson Center):

Figurism brings together historical and contemporary body-based art from the Museum collection. The exhibition emphasizes the power and the range of the narrative and expressive uses of the figure in Midwest art. It does not try to define a regional figurative tradition but to show how ‘figurism’ has endured and evolved into pluralistic, eclectic, and highly individualized expressions."

Three of our former members
are included.

Most exciting of all
was the first piece
I have ever seen by David Hunter.

Hardly any information
can be discovered about him.

The dates of his birth and death
remain unknown.

The above piece came to the museum
from a collector of WPA sculpture,
though its origins are mostly conjectural,
based upon a stylistic resemblance
to pieces from the thirties.

Was it made by the same "David Hunter"
who was a founding father of the P&C
in 1896?

We may never know for sure.


Here is the only other piece
by Hunter
that I have ever seen in reproduction.





Carl Hoeckner

Also included
was Carl Hoeckner
whose "Cleopatra" is shown above.

It was painted in 1915
while he was still a member
of the Palette and Chisel
and had not yet stomped off
with the other modernists
in high dudgeon.


Fred Berger, untitled head, 1963

I'm not sure that Fred Berger ever actually painted or drew at the Palette and Chisel, but a few of his admirers had him voted in as an honorary member.

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A press release for the show can be found here