Drawings of the Chicago Imagists

An exhibition featuring sketchbooks, studies and finished works by Chicago Imagists: Roger Brown, Art Green, Philip Hanson, Gladys Nilsson, Jim Nutt, Ed Paschke, Christina Ramberg, Suellen Rocca, Barbara Rossi, and Karl Wirsum.

The Chicago Imagists emerged in the late 1960’s in a series of exhibitions at the Hyde Park Art Center that either shocked or excitied their audiences, but were never ignored. Shows like “The Hairy Who,” “The Non-Plussed Some,” and “False Image,” included works as irreverent as their names. These artists avoided mainstream sources for their art in favor of cartoons, cheap advertising, and naive art, and they emphasized personal and emotional responses. Imagism became known as “The Chicago Style” and it was this group of artists that put Chicago on the map for national and international art audiences.

While drawing has been integral to the endeavors of this group of artists because of the immediacy and spontanaeity it allows, the drawings are rarely exhibited. Drawings of the Chicago Imagists will present a body of work that has been largely overlooked to date.