$400 Show - November 2024

 

Barbara K. Herring

Always the painter of solitary female figures in the urban jungle,

this one is more animated - and strange - than most.

I love her work

Herring appears to be painting a kind of dream world

for no one but herself

yet it fits right into Chicago imagism.

Yalena Potskevich

A transcendent painting of a wonderful view..

I’ve walked across that bridge many times.

Anna Cherkashina

What an ecstatic, celebratory piece.

Both Anna and Yelena were born in Moscow.

Hurray for our Russians!

Stephanie Weidner

Usually a painter of doors, Ms. Weidner has now revealed a magnificent space behind them.

Can’t recall ever seeing a painting of just a big, empty, glowing space.

Errol Jacobson

That fellow seems frozen in time.

An intriguing American scene painting 

done 70 years after that genre was marginalized.

Errol Jacobson

Something ominous here.

The flag is in distress.

How appropriate for last week’s election.

Mark Cleveland

A nicely composed little corner 

Phyllis Brodny

The Palette’s only gourdographer

recording the mysterious private lives of our vegetable friends.

*****

Note: only got to see the large gallery today,

the smaller one was locked.

Muriel Christensen, Priscilla Huang and Jean Yang

 

Art for the sake of social justice ?

No

Art for the sake of  personal angst?

No

Art for the sake of spiritual growth ?

No

Art for the sake of art ?

No

-but-

Art for the sake of an orderly and positive personal and social life ?

For better or worse,

that’s what I think it is.

Kinda reminds me of the old Sears catalogs.

More evidence that Cass Waters once passed through.

This intrepid girl really has her work cut out for her.

Muriel Christensen,

Reminds of the patterns in the Rebecca Morris show that recently closed at the MCA.

Priscilla Huang 

This one’s my favorite in the show.

Jean Yang

Exhibition of early members

 

Wilson Irvine,  1869 -  1936

This piece was found in storage at the academy - though I’d call it one of the better pieces in our collection. It has a strong sense of place and time - as well as an intriguing pattern.

It has a horizontal flow - as well as a flatness - that recalls traditional Chinese landscape painting.  None of his other works online are like it.

Henning Ryden (1869 -1939)

Born in Sweden.

Like many of the pieces in this show,

this comes from the collection of our current President, Stuart Fullerton.

All of the pieces shown on this blog entry are  Stuart’s

except for the Wilson Irvine and this sculpture:

Bruno Beghe

T

Karl Krafft  

Gianni Cilfone, Belmont Harbor

 Frank Raymond 

Walter Parke (1909-1994)

there's much more about him here

This is the kind of  dry, factual, precise study that was required by students of the French academy in the 19th and 18th centuries. Even Cezanne did them as a student  and so did Matisse.

As images  in their own right, however, they sure feel cold, clinical, joyless, awkward, and  boring, 

Curtis Gandy, 1864-1950

Portrait of Rivera-Rigaldo

Arnold Turtle

Arnold Turtle

Gianni Cilfone (1908-1992)

 J. Jeffrey Grant. (1883 - 1960)

Fred Larson

Nat Steinberg

Nat Steinberg

Drawing and Sculpture Show 2024

 

Mark Huddle

The woman appears to be waiting for someone to emerge onto the balcony below.

The setup recalls David and Bathsheba - with positions and genders reversed.

Jean Bourdichon c. 1500

La Paula Herrera

A fine piece for a nightstand.

So quiet and relaxing.

George Clark

She’s lying beside her lover, but she’s staring directly back at you.

I like that idea!

Sculpture: Misha Livshulz

Painting: George Freeman

The one does seem to present the mental state of the other.

 Freeman is retro in both figurative and non-objective painting.

Look him up on Saatchiart.com

Chris Heron

One of my favorite models, D’Eric,

expressing impatience with holding still.

Left: Tom Zamiar

Right: Sondra Pfeffer 

Foreground:

An athletic model with an archaic Greek attitude  meets a sculptor with same.

Background:

One of those tchotchkes that Chicago imagists  love to collect

Deborah Paige-Jackson. City Girl Charm.

A visual world that’s quite different from the Euro-centric Palette and Chisel.

Feels like it comes from Africa or South Asia.

Might be a film poster from Nollywood or Bollywood

The Mulligan in the Library

 

Charles Mulligan, Steel Worker, plaster

Last week, the descendants of Charles Mulligan (1866-1916)  gave this fine piece to the Palette and Chisel - and I’m doubting they even knew he was ever a member  

- except for the attention given him by this blog.

In 2006, I biked down to Hyde Park to see his statue of Lincoln in Oak Woods Cemetery.

Then I researched   his biography and some of his other public sculptures in our area.

What an elegant, finely composed sculpture that sweetly asserts itself into its surrounding space.

As Russian trained Misha has noted, it has "scale",

i.e. the quality of looking large regardless of size.

What a gentle, intelligent face.

What strong, sensitive modeling.

Three of Chicago’s greatest figure sculptors were associated with our organization back in its early years: the other two being Lorado Taft and Albin Polasek.

All three were leading educators as well - and the above piece bears witness to Mulligan’s own thorough training in a tradition that dates back to the Parthenon.  It began  to fade around 1950 and is now practically gone. (at least in our country. I don’t think the SAIC sculpture department even has a regular live figure study class any more)

Urban Sketchers

 

Jim Sweitzer, Ike from Lombard

Most urban sketchers normalize.

Taking whatever weird thing is in front of them,

 they process it, like sausage, into something that might be expected.

The pieces I like do the opposite.

Rachel Grossman, Trailside Museum

Love the irregularity of the railing.

And all those fortuitous triangles. 

Sondra Pfeffer , Salvage Company

A nice spirit of gentle anarchy.

Sandra Beaty, Caldwell Lily Pond

Well - Ok - this is a piece of sausage.

But it’s my favorite brand,  Cezanne.

This would not have been out of place in his recent show on Michigan Ave.

,

Del Hall’s portraits of the Palette

 

This really is a phenomenal event in the history of our organization.

Del Hall, a retired photojournalist, has been attending our events for about fifteen years and taking shots of our  photogenic membership as well as our models.

Not everyone is in this show- but it remains a pretty good record of the past decade - kind of like a high school yearbook - though I would have-referred a collection of selected paintings and sculptures - rather than just our smiling faces.

(The terra cotta bust in the corner of my above photo is a portrait of Del by Misha Livshultz - whose portrait appears in the upper left corner)