News from Around the Art World: May 22, 2018
Artist Robert Indiana Dies At 89: The Story Behind 'LOVE'
Fifty years after his LOVE painting made Robert Indiana a sensation, the artist has died at age 89. Indiana's two-row rendering of the word, with its tilted "O," became one of the most recognizable works of modern art in the world.
The famous design emerged from deep influences in Indiana's life, from his early exposure to religion to his father's career.
By Bill Chappell, NPR
Painting That Hung in a Chicago Convention Center Brings Unexpected Windfall
A lone painting by a celebrated contemporary artist turned into a windfall on Wednesday night for a small municipal agency in Chicago.
The painting, Kerry James Marshall’s “Past Times,” sold for $21.1 million at Sotheby’s in New York, nearly 900 times the $25,000 that the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority spent on it in 1997, and a record for the artist. In a statement, Lori Healey, the authority’s chief executive, said the M.P.E.A. was “thrilled” by the auction results, adding that the price tag ended up “far exceeding anyone’s expectations.”
By Sopan Deb, The New York Times
1960s Chicago Gave Birth to a Colorful, Frenetic Art Style That Is Still Gathering Steam
The Chicago Imagists of the 1960s and ’70s created colorful, energetic paintings and sculptures that often riffed on vernacular sources (comic books, pinball machines) and the eccentricities of American culture. Barbara Rossi’s colorful, corporeal shapes piled atop each other like jumbles of internal organs. Jim Nutt drew and painted grotesque figures that evoked brightly lit freak shows. Gladys Nilsson rendered overlapping bodies, simultaneously in their own worlds and parts of a larger, chaotic mass. Suellen Rocca created busy, symbol-laden canvases.
By Alina Cohen, Artsy Editorial
A Mighty Mural: Oxbow launches artist-in-residence program to spice up downtown
The corner of Farwell and Galloway is about to get prettified in a big, bold way. Chicago-based artist Molly Z will begin work on a 3,200 square foot mural on the side of the Eau Claire Printing Building on June 3 as part of The Oxbow Hotel’s first artist in residence program. The public is welcome to participate in the process during several events hosted throughout the residency – in addition to watching the image come to life over the roughly two-week project.
By Lauren Fisher, Volume One