Lovely Artifacts

Franklin McMahon, from his family's website

This exhibition comprises many of the gems that I come across in the Chicago Artists' Archive that I want to share simply because they have standalone aesthetic character. Each document is a lovely piece of art all by itself, sitting quietly in the file until someone comes upon it.

Collage by Robert Nickle, from http:www.nickleengineering.com

Included in the exhibition are photographs by Margarete Gross, the previous CPL curator of the CAA, taken of the sculptural work of Gwen Lux on the McGraw-Hill building in Chicago.
 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.

Firsts

Edmonia Lewis

When an artist is the first to do something, I take note. Forging ahead as an artist is an investment, and artists who do so while simultaneously breaking down a color barrier, or setting a new cultural precedent...they are courageous. Included in this exhibit is the story of Edmonia Lewis' Cleopatra, which was found in a mall storeroom in the Chicago suburbs. The story of the man who discovered it and the art historian who wanted to save it is very interesting.

Also included is an article about Jeff Donaldson and the work he was doing at the time in Chicago with AFRI-COBRA. Lucia Lerner was an innovative illustrator and single mother working from Chicago who purportedly designed the Morton Salt girl. Nathan Lerner, who recently passed away, innovated at every turn. Geraldine McCullogh, William McBride, and the first 12x12 show at the MCA round out the show.

Photography

My husband is out of town, and while I remembered almost everything this morning--kids allergy medicine, dimes for the first grade store, check for the 4th grade party, snacks, lunches, walk the dogs, lock the doors--I did forget my notebook with my notes on the archive in it. I was due to install a new mini-exhibition, so when I realized I had forgotten it, I figured I would just wing it.
For the first time since starting to read, I browsed back through the archive, starting at A. I flipped through the files looking for photographs I remembered and found ones I had forgotten. I think I have put together the best show yet.

lots of good photography in a tiny space

There is a proof sheet from Flo-tilla, when artist made boats were floated down the river through the city. I included a haunting infrared photograph by Joan Moss. There are two of my favorites from previous exhibitions, a Jeanne Dunning announcement and two early Kenneth Josephson prints with his annotations. Announcements from shows by Joseph Jachna, Pamela DeMarris, Stephen Albair, Jane Fulton Alt, Pam Frederick and Mary Jo Bangs round out the show.  The show includes work by a photographers with commercial practices as well, including Steven Gross, William Frederking and Sam Hong.

Georgios Katsagelos

It felt like curation on speed! I imagined a museum curator going through flat files and simply pulling his or her favorites (or an emerging theme) without researching it first, without presenting an argument. It was selection as a subjective loving act—finding and showing with only a few constraints. The recent show on Ray Yoshida at SAIC curated by Corbett and Dempsey had this feeling: I think that is why it was such a moving show. So many of the early Yoshida paintings were from his own collection. I imagined them tucked away in corners of his home and studio. The related artists' works had a similar feeling of intimacy and relationship: lets use this one, Ray always loved this one, they might have said at their studio visit with the curators.

As usual I have an immense feeling of joy when I pull these mini-exhibits together: there is so much wealth in this archive. These photographs show the rich experimental honesty of artists taking pictures in Chicago.

Art Worlds

a photograph of Lee Godie by Steven Kagan, from Carl Hammer Gallery

Thousands of ways to live a creative life are represented in the Chicago Artists' Archive, from outsider artists like Lee Godie to Grace Lai, the diminuitive painter of construction sites, to artist Jeff Whitfield, former facilitator of the Creative Arts Program at Statesville Prison in IL.

While not as prevalent a myth now as in years past, the notion of the individual artist working alone is a fallacy in the economy of creative practice. One of my standby art references, recently reissued in a 25th anniversary edition, is Art Worlds. Written by one of my husband's heroes, social scientist Howard Becker, it describes how artists are deeply embedded in distributed networks. Artists never go it alone: they work with clients, organizations, dealers, administrators, technicians and marketers.

Any one folder of the Chicago Artists' Archive contains tens to hundreds of different approaches to creative practice. (Check the last names to see how far I have gotten in my reading: I am at M--actually Mc!) Artists representing a wide range of art worlds include Barbara Cooper, sculptor and public artist, wallpaper artisans Koessel Studios, art critic CJ Bulliet, painter of war Tom Lea, funder Bertha Masor, restorer Lido Lippi,  Colin McFrangos, poster artist or Bill Lavicka, scavenger writ large. Documents about these artists in the Chicago Artists' Archive reveal the larger network each practitioner builds and participates in while maintaining a high level of individual creativity and craftsmanship.

Print by Roger Brown, Cole Taylor Collection, SAIC

 One entry in the CAA is an article on Sydney Taylor, a director of Cole Taylor Bank. The bank built a large and idiosyncratic art collection and held exhibitions in their downtown bank. Taylor is quoted in an article from the period as saying,

After Martin Luther King was killed, we thought we could use art as a way to calm things down. There had been rioting. Buildings were burned down. It was scary. We started holding exhibitions as a way to help people understand the cultural contributions each group was making because we all were there together in the heart of the city.

This quote reminds me of the gentle power of setting a precedent, of making the creative gesture. The layers of worlds in that simple quotation—nation, city, neighborhood, bank, workers, collectors, artists, citizens—represent the strength of recognizing and utilizing existing networks as contexts for art.

Art Leagues

Art Leagues are spread throughout suburban Chicago and show up frequently in the Chicago Artists' Archive.  The North Shore Art League, which serves the area where I live, seems to have been a vital place for making, seeing and presenting contemporary art by well known national artists from the 50s to the 70s. You can see by this current Google Maps search that the Art Leagues are alive and well:

Art Leagues in the Chicago area

There is very little history online about Art Leagues, but in general they are non-profit community based arts organizations that support, exhibition and teach visual arts. From what I can tell from the archive, local Leagues were inclusive and programming-oriented. An artist I am reminded of in this context is Eleanor King Hookham, an artist who had a dream to open a contemporary art museum in Elmhurst. She started by founding the Elmhurst Artist's Guild. After many years of community effort, she founded the Elmhurst Art Museum, one of our areas fine regional museums. (story from the Chicago Reader in the Chicago Artists' Archive).

Artists and Art Leagues included in this two week exhibition include:
North Shore Art League: for exhibitions and talks in the 1970s including Ben Mahmoud and Kwak Wai Lau
Oak Park Art League: for a 1980s exhibition of work by Ray Martin
Municipal Art League of Chicago: exhibition by Tom Lynch

Open & Free

On this blog I will describe the work I am doing on the Chicago Artists Archive and provide background on my exhibition at the Harold Washington Library Center in the Visual and Performing Arts department during Chicago Artists Month 2010.

Here is the press release information put together for Chicago Artists Month:

Open and Free: the Library as Studio, an Installation by Anne Hayden Stevens

Harold Washington Library Center, 8th Floor North Exhibit Case

Chicago Public Library

400 S. State Street

http://www.chipublib.org/branch/details/library/harold-washington/

For many artists the public library acts as a studio, furnishing material for the eye and the imagination, as well as recording their history. Chicago artist Anne Hayden Stevens reveals her vision of the Chicago Artists' Archive through an installation of unique drawings and artist books inspired by local artists past and present. In the process she becomes archived herself, a living, breathing addition to the library's files.

Visual artist Anne Hayden Stevens creates an installation inspired by the Chicago Artists' Archive, a collection which chronicles the life and art of over 9000 working artists in Chicago from the early 20th century to today. Through drawings and artist books, Stevens will reveal the Library as a critical component of the 'city as studio' - a place that's a free and open archive, as well as a workspace.

One could see the Archive as a long list of artist names, most of them forgotten by history, and feel defeated by the anonymity of that amount of creative work. Instead, the Archive becomes a living source of inspiration, revealing artists, all throughout the city, laboring at their beautiful production and sharing it with their communities.

Artist Talk with Anne Hayden Stevens

Saturday, October 16, 2010 at 3:30pm

Art Reference Room, 8^th Floor