Franklin McMahon, from his family's website |
Collage by Robert Nickle, from http:www.nickleengineering.com |
There are a pair of lovely postcards by Heather McAdams for the infamous Record Roundup. An anonymous artist's portrait from the Lill Street Art Center stood out as I read through all the very carefully identified pieces. There are a couple lovely spare black and white drawings on announcements for show by John Obuck. See announcements for Miracle Pennies and Stories by Nate Larson.
I include an article on the brilliant collages of Robert Nickle: where can I see these in person? I love them, and love the story of his process. A kinetic sculpture by Roger Machin (do I have the right guy?). There is a lovely proof sheet from Mickey Pallas of a shoot for Hula Hoop.
Included is a vintage promo piece for the illustrator Franklin McMahon, who also did hand drawn films of 1960's political events. There is a (now vintage!) black and white 8x10 from Rhona Hoffman of a Barbara Kruger installation. Kids, do you know why we used black and white 8x10 photos back in the day? Oh my. I had to include an announcement from a posthumous exhibition of work by the critical activist Richard Nickel. His work was among the first I studied when I got to Chicago. Don't miss it.
I have both flat cases this month, so the mini-exhibitions are reaching blockbuster status. Hand drawn Christmas cards from John Draves and Marcella Lewin are included, as well as charming dioramas by illustrator Jill Meyerhoff (her own photographs). An 80s show announcement from Alan Neider is beautiful on its own: check out the actual sculpture in the MoMA studio visit linked above.
The tiny annotated photograph of Electra Papadopoulos is so moving. It is at the core of the archive's special role in history. Here is an early woman artist with work archived in the Art Institute's collection. This photo represents the entirety of her file in the Chicago Artists' Archive, but because of it, I could hunt for her and discover her work. LeRoy Nieman's bio sheet for an early exhibition at CPL is included, with his unmistakeable handwriting.
It was a pleasure to arrive at P and finally read about Ed Paschke. I included a vintage Chicago Magazine cover with Ed Paschke, Roger Brown and Henry Pope. A piece of mail art from Aron Packer shows whimsy, and a beautiful offset takeaway piece shows sculpture by David Packard. Rounding out the collection is a set of personal photographs of paintings taken by elderly painter Brar Lindberg.
I have concluded with P and am into R. The end is near! I think I would like to attempt adding all these links and more to the Archive's website. There is no online replacement for all the press, photographs and announcements that fill the Chicago Artists' Archives, but searching for these lesser known artists online reveals a number of stable sites--archived by local institutions, the Smithsonian, the artists families, and wonderful local historian gallerists Corbett vs. Dempsey--that make excellent resources for future research on these artists.