Portrait Show - 2014
Leonid Ossening
This is my favorite P&C portrait - in a long time - as I feel the presence of a very strong, though not especially pleasant, personality. Like the early portraits by Kokoshka, the hands are very expressive -- but in the realistic tradition of the club, Leonid has given them the full five fingers each.
Oskar Kokoshka, Rudolf Blumner, 1910
I don't want to sit down for coffee with this man - except as a viewer of the painting.
As the images to the right attest, he is an architect.
Andrew Conklin
It looks like this poor girl is as addicted to her computer (or game console?) as the cat is to absinth.
What a strange and beautiful world, evidently in a high-rise with light pouring in from high, unobstructed windows.
Love the chandelier - and the window's reflection on the picture frame
Roger Akers
A self portrait from another century - back before Roger's hair turned white.
More often seen doing sculpture now, Roger used to spend a lot of time in the painting studio
George Clark
As inscribed at the lower left, this was done at the Figurative Art League, Evanston.
Like myself, George might be found anywhere a model is posing. I first met him in a storefront studio in Lincoln Park, about 35 years ago. But the Palette and Chisel now has more than enough model workshops for my needs.
A Botticelli face.
Helen Oh
This girl probably lives in the same high rise that Andrew Conklin depicted above.
Linda White
(portrait of Zhiwei Tu)
A good portrait of the only P&C member who currently has a museum dedicated to his work.
Misha Livshultz
Abby, the subject of this fine portrait, is not Russian, but Misha has made her feel like she grew up in Minsk.
Frank Chung
On the other hand, this portrait of Misha seems to place him in the autonomous tribal areas of Pakistan.
Nancie King Mertz
Reminds me of a newspaper illustration - the frequent occupation of many early club members.
Richard Bloomfield
Another good illustration - though this one seems better fit for a magazine.
Stuart Fullerton
This one caught my eye when Stuart was working on it in the Wednesday night painting workshop, a week before this exhibit.
It really carries the force of the model's personality
Stuart Fullerton
This woman -- and this style -- seems to belong to another century -- maybe even the 18th.
She could be a character in "Pride and Prejudice"
Robert Tati
Robert has captured Lenin as the quiet, sensitive, dedicated English gentleman that he is.
Val Yachik
Such a haunting, spectral visage is rather unusual for our galleries
Michael Van Zeyl
This is the first time that I've liked Michael's taste for the flamboyant. This quiet, flat and thinly painted beautiful girl is wonderfully complemented by the rambunctious flowers.
George Zaremba
I doubt that this girl is a peasant -- or that George is a Communist -- but he could have been a successful revolutionary artist in some kind of people's republic.
George Zaremba
.... while this view of a face from below reminds me of this famous painting at the Art Institute:
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Unlike the now dominant academic art, P&C artists do not query, they express.
Unlike Chicago Imagists, they do not express a freakish world that's gone horribly wrong.
But other than that --- they really don't have much in common with each other.
posted by chris miller at 12:44 PM
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