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A weekly series focused on Bloomington-Normal's arts community and other major events. Made possible with support from PNC Financial Services.

The 'last great regional style of art' was in 1970s Chicago. And it's on display now at University Galleries

Six colorful paintings are hung on two stark white walls. Aligned with where the two wall meet, there is a single tufted, black leather bench.
Jade Nguyen
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University Galleries
Items from the "Wolf's Clothing" exhibit on display now at University Galleries. With a shared aesthetic of squiggly lines and playful dimensions, these works by the so-called Chicago Imagists are pulled from University Galleries' permanent collection.

There is quite a lot packed into a little space at University Galleries right now.

In the shoebox-sized center gallery is “Wolf’s Clothing: Imagism from the Collection.” This smattering of wacky and wonderful works created in mid-century Chicago’s vibrant visual arts scene is on view through April 2.

And this week, University Gallery guests can see the equally punchy documentary, “Hairy Who and the Chicago Imagists,” Leslie Buchbinder’s documentary film about this informal artists collective.

University Galleries will host screenings “Hairy Who and the Chicago Imagists” on Thursday and Saturday in the main gallery space next door to the exhibit.

Curator Troy Sherman culled “Wolf’s Clothing” from University Gallery’s permanent collection, which meant parsing through items held in storage — and pulling a few down that were hung in the staff’s offices.

“It was a really organic exhibition in terms of how it came together,” Sherman said. “I was working on a project that wasn’t necessarily curatorial and recognized a really interesting set of connections between a lot of work in the collection that materialized as a show.”

“Wolf’s Clothing” presents works by Robert Donley, Miyoko Ito, Ed Paschke and Joseph Yoakum, to name a few.

Kendra Paitz, director and chief curator at University Galleries, said works come into a gallery’s collection in a variety of ways.

“There used to be a University museum, so some works transitioned into our holdings,” she said. “There used to be a requirement for graduating MFA students to donate one of their works to the collection. That’s part of how we have so much ISU-related work. There are donors who have works in their own collections or they purchase works for the collection.”

Muted yellow and green entrails foreground black  etchings of geometric figures
Jade Nguyen
/
University Galleries
Krys Hendren, Untitled, 1972. Watercolor, pen, and ink on paper. Collection of University Galleries, Wonsook Kim School of Art, Illinois State University

And occasionally, artists presented by University Galleries will donate something to them after a show, though Paitz said they never ask or expect this.

“Sometimes these really beautiful things happen,” she said.

If “Wolf’s Clothing” is an exhibition of convenience, what, specifically drew Sherman to the imagists?

“…Which, side note, is a label of convenience,” he said.

The imagists were not an official cooperative; they did not subscribe to a school of thought other than rejecting the en vogue New York School of Painting.

“The thing that draws me to this work, apart from the fact that it’s a really robust and interesting area of our collection, is that I’ve taken to calling the Chicago Imagists the last great, American, regional style of art," Sherman said. "There was no one else making stuff quite like these people were.”

Demarcated by squiggly lines and bright, bold flat colors, imagism also plays with dimension by painting on the frame, for example, expanding a work off its canvas.

“Those are all, like, technical things,” Sherman said. “But the real meat of it, for me—the substrate of what connects these folks—is a common sensibility of trying to get at convincing, cohesive, abstract-feeling pictorial effects by means of representation.”

Wolf's Clothing: Imagism from the Collection” runs through April 2 at University Galleries, 11 Uptown Circle, Normal. “Hairy Who and the Chicago Imagists” screens at 6:30 p.m. Thursday and 2 p.m. Saturday. All events are free.

Lauren Warnecke is a reporter at WGLT. You can reach Lauren at lewarne@ilstu.edu.
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