Gertrude Abercrombie: Portrait of the Artist as a Landscape by Elmhurst Art Museum

Gertrude Abercrombie: Portrait of the Artist as a Landscape ELMHURST ART MUSEUM January 20 - March 4, 2018

ILLINOIS STATE MUSEUM March 23 - June 15, 2018

Arnold Newman For Gertrude, n.d. gelatin silver print Illinois State Museum, Dinah Abercrombie Livingston Archives.

Introduction John McKinnon, Executive Director Elmhurst Art Museum The late Gertrude Abercrombie presided over a vibrant scene in the Hyde Park neighborhood – from the 1930s until her retrospective in 1977, just before her death. She was immensely complicated, incredibly quotable, and considered herself the “Queen of Chicago”. Abercrombie explained, “It is always myself that I paint” and later added “everything is autobiographical in a sense, but kind of dreamy.” As she writes in this brochure and has expanded on in other texts, the art historian Susan Weininger categorizes Abercrombie’s interiors as “psychic self-portraits.” The artist’s personal emblems appear throughout her spare rooms and nocturnal landscapes within this exhibition, Gertrude Abercrombie: Portrait of the Artist as a Landscape. We are pleased to co-present this exhibition with the Illinois State Museum, the first show of such depth in many years. It is our intent to shed further light on Abercrombie’s artwork, her deep roots in the wider arts scene through archival materials, and provide a contemporary interpretation point through a generous installation by Donna Castellanos. In combination, we hope Abercrombie’s legacy is more widely recognized, which has often been difficult because her work is not easily categorized. She argued that it was her, and not Dizzy Gillespie that first called her paintings “bop”. The same paintings have been widely considered “surrealist” but don’t quite fit that category either. While her artwork can be considered singular, she was regarded as the “queen”

of a lively art scene, and an inspiration for musicians, artists, and writers alike. It has been a pleasure to delve into the rich history that her life and work offer. We are extremely grateful to the many people that contributed to this exhibition, starting with EAM’s former Executive Director Jenny Gibbs who came up with the concept for the show and Lal Bahcecioglu who deftly coordinated it at the Elmhurst Art Museum. Without the incredibly generous loans by Gary and Laura Maurer, the Illinois State Museum, Susan and Michael Weininger, and Elmhurst College, this exhibition would not have been possible. The Maurers began collecting Abercrombie’s work in depth shortly after viewing the 1991 Illinois State Museum exhibition. Their impressive collection is now shown alongside its inspiration. Susan Weininger expertly complemented the show with a scholarly brochure essay, and fielded our many questions. Doug Beach, John Corbett, Donna Seaman, and members of the Elmhurst College Jazz Band were all supportive and accepted invitations to give public presentations during the exhibition. I am grateful for the exceptional kindness of everyone’s time and for lending their expertise. This project—representing the full breadth and reach of Abercrombie’s impact—would not have been possible without everyone’s guidance and goodwill. I am honored to present this exhibition at the Elmhurst Art Museum, and indebted to the team that made it possible.

Gertrude Abercrombie: The Legacy of a Singular Voice Doug Stapleton, Associate Curator of Art Illinois State Museum In 1979, the Illinois State Museum received a collection of artwork from the Gertrude Abercrombie Trust, one of many gifts distributed by the estate to museums around the country. In 1991, the Museum organized a major retrospective of Abercrombie's career under the curatorial guidance of Susan Weininger, then Director of the Art Division at Roosevelt University, and Kent J. Smith, Director of Art at the Illinois State Museum. This was the first critical study of her career and the most recent survey since her Hyde Park Art Center retrospective in 1977. Subsequent acquisitions after the 1991 exhibition expanded the Museum’s holdings to 55 works by the artist. Additionally, Abercrombie's daughter, Dinah Abercrombie Livingston, gifted the museum a trove of archival materials and photographs, many of which were reproduced for this exhibition, thus making the Illinois State Museum’s Abercrombie collection a valued resource for both exhibitions and research. Abercrombie's work and life were intertwined. She was a singular voice— complicated and fiercely independent—with stronger ties to the literary and musical world than with her artist contemporaries. She created her own persona: the hostess of weekly soirees in her Hyde Park home juxtaposed with the lone, haunted figure of her paintings. She parsed out insights about her work as sparingly as her compositions, leaving us beguiled and unsettled, right where she wanted us to be. It is our sincerest wish that future generations of artists, scholars, and admirers will continue to fall under her spell and search for her among the stories, artwork, and music that constitute her remarkable life.

Gertrude Abercrombie Self Portrait, 1938 oil on canvas Illinois State Museum, Illinois Legacy Collection, Gift of the Gertrude Abercrombie Trust Photo: Illinois State Museum

Gertrude Abercrombie: Portrait of the Artist as a Landscape Susan Weininger, Professor emerita of art history Roosevelt University, Chicago The forty-three works in this exhibition by Gertrude Abercrombie (1909--1977) not only span her career, but offer examples of all of the materials that she experimented with or used regularly. In painting, printmaking, assemblage, and even jewelry, Abercrombie explores the subjects she favored, giving us the opportunity to see the range and depth of her work together for the first time in more than twenty-five years. Abercrombie was born in 1909 in Austin, Texas, the only child of Lula Janes and Tom Abercrombie, itinerant opera singers. Moving for a short time to the Ravinia area north of Chicago, and then to Berlin (where young Gertrude attained fluency in German), the family returned to the United States at the beginning of World War I, settling for a short time in Aledo, the western Illinois town where her father’s family lived. By 1916, the family had settled in the Hyde Park area of Chicago, where Abercrombie was to spend the rest of her life. Her early experiences—her parents’ commitment to music, her fluency with languages, her love of the small Midwestern town of Aledo, which she visited every summer—became important determinants of her life and work. And for Abercrombie her work and life were one. She said, “It’s always myself that I paint, but not actually, because I don’t look that good or cute.” Each painting is a kind of self-portrait, filled with objects that act as personal emblems: the simple block houses, meaningful trees, rocks, pumps and wells, as well as the Victorian furniture, brooms, stoneware, gloves, shells, bunches of grapes, carnations and the moon in all its phases. With or without the usually solitary figure of Abercrombie herself these objects are repeated in slightly different configurations. All contribute to the portrait of a complex and often contradictory woman: a lonely and isolated figure who is also the center of a lively jazz salon, a witch and a queen, a gifted musician and linguist and smalltown Midwesterner. Her art was inspired by the contradictions, paradoxes and ambiguities of her personality. Abercrombie attended the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, majoring in Romance languages and minoring in art. Although she began to paint and exhibit in the early 1930s, her career path was not clear until she was selected for the Public Works of Art Project (the precursor to the Illinois Art Project of the Works Progress Administration which she later worked on) in 1934. This validated her as an artist and the regular monthly salary allowed her to move out of her parents’ strict home into her own apartment in the Weinstein Building. Here she met many artists and writers and began to live a life free of the stern and exacting rules that were imposed on her by Lula and Tom, who were committed Christian Scientists. She could smoke and drink freely and made many lifelong friends, among them writers James Purdy and Wendell Wilcox; the artist Karl Priebe; and the jazz musicians Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Sonny Rollins. Later, these new friends became regulars at her Saturday night parties and Sunday afternoon jam sessions. She also met Thornton Wilder, who was teaching at the University of Chicago and introduced her to his friend Gertrude Stein who came to speak on campus. According to Abercrombie, Stein commented on her work: “They are very pretty

Gertrude Abercrombie Untitled (Figure on Moonlit Path), n.d. oil on board Collection of Laura and Gary Maurer

but girl you gotta draw better.” Abercrombie substitutes her own vernacular for Stein’s and continues “I knew I could [draw better]. I went right home and painted a painting that won a big prize at the Art Institute.” This was There on the Table, one of the earliest works in this exhibition, which is characterized by the use of Abercrombie’s own possessions (the jacks, tools, the table and the black cat) and a truncated view of her own body. It is destabilized by the partial view of the figure as well as the precarious position of the hammer. Abercrombie was attracted to Surrealism, noting “Surrealism is for me because I am a pretty realistic person but don’t like all I see. So I dream that it is changed.” Her work, often associated with her dreams, is more closely related to her idiosyncratic view of things and her own subconscious than to a movement rooted in theory. Like many artists, Abercrombie did a number of portraits of herself (Self Portrait, 1938) and her friends in the 1930s, allowing her to hone her skills without incurring any debts. In the large Self Portrait of 1938, her idiosyncratic approach is evident in the exaggerated proportions of her inflated body in contrast to her small head and the strong green that dominates the composition. Abercrombie always considered herself unattractive, a quality she sometimes augmented by playing the part of a witch, wearing a peaked hat and surrounding herself with cats; while eliciting fear and perhaps aversion, it created a powerful persona. She also saw herself as a queen (Queen and Owl) and often referred to herself as the “Queen of Chicago”. In the series of paintings she called Marble Top Mystery one sees another kind of magical power exercised by the artist, as Abercrombie presides over the appearance of unusual objects from a hole in a marble top table (a real piece of furniture she owned).

Top: Gertrude Abercrombie There on the Table, 1935 oil on masonite Illinois State Museum, Illinois Legacy Collection, Gift of the Gertrude Abercrombie Trust Photo: Illinois State Museum Bottom: Gertrude Abercrombie Landscape with Church, 1939 oil on canvas Collection of Laura and Gary Maurer

By the late 1930s Abercrombie had already established most of the other subjects that would dominate her career. The only interaction this thoroughly urban woman had with the countryside was the landscape around Aledo. Her love for this town and its surroundings, where she spent happy days with her cousins during childhood summers inspired her, and dovetailed nicely with the demand for painting of the American Scene—on the part of the WPA and the general public--during the 1930s. The many examples in the exhibition include Horse and Blue House, Landscape with Church, Visit at Midnite, The Parachutist, Dinah Enters the Landscape and Solitude, which extol the Midwestern landscape as the essence of America at the same time as it reflects Abercrombie’s idiosyncratic view. Many of her landscapes are night scenes, lit by the moon (for which she had a special affinity), sometimes with a long winding road, a small boxy house or church, a dark cloud, her characteristic spikey trees, and often the solitary figure accompanied by a cat or an owl (the familiars of the witch). These range from somewhat lush (Visit at Midnite with its leafy trees) to profoundly austere (Solitude, where the trees appear dead and a dark cloud descends on the figure) depending on her mood. Aledo landmarks appear again and again in her work: a ruined slaughterhouse and The Tree at Aledo (there are two examples in the exhibition), convey the less positive view of the Midwest, devastated and decaying. And her family home (House at Aledo) which she told her daughter she couldn’t finish because she couldn’t do justice to it represents the warmth and happiness Abercrombie felt when she was surrounded by family. She did finish a smaller version of the House in 1955, while the larger version was left unfinished at her death. Another recurring subject, the empty or near-empty room, follow a similar pattern, ranging from relatively warm to completely austere. The two rooms (Screen, Shadow and Cats; Untitled [Blue Screen, Black Cat, Print of Same]) in the exhibition, both sparse and unadorned, are psychic self-portraits, conveying the hollow and lonely woman that Abercrombie often felt she was. In both cases the scene is dominated by a blue screen—both have a picture on the back wall, a device Abercrombie often used to augment the meaning of the work—in the

second painting the room is otherwise bare. Compared to that work, the first painting is relatively rich—a cat/s behind the screen, a glove and carnation on the floor and the shadow of Abercrombie herself occupying the room. The glove (Abercrombie began her career as a “glove artist” doing advertising illustration) and the carnation (Abercrombie’s personal flower) are seen frequently in her work. Examples of the numerous still lifes that Abercrombie painted include familiar objects of personal significance in Leaf, Shell and Jack, Shell and Drape, Compote and Purple Yarn, Eggs and Carnation, and in the beautiful three dimensional experiment My Second Best Box. Like the tiny Self Portrait of 1954, the Compote and Grapes, which includes a moonlit landscape on the back wall of the scene, was probably made to be mounted as a pin. Abercrombie created many of these small, but complete, paintings to generate income, beginning in the 1940s. Inspired by the urban renewal in Hyde Park in the 1950s, where demolition sites were surrounded with doors taken from the destroyed buildings, Abercrombie did many versions of doors (Demolition Doors, Untitled [Four Doors, Cat]), her only urban subject matter. But like all of her other work, Abercrombie magically transforms reality into something strange and memorable. Doors had been an important part of her work, connoting enclosures, imprisonment, and confinement, whether seen in a room or in isolation (see The Door and the Rock). By the late 1950s, Abercrombie’s decline had commenced as she was beset with personal, financial and physical problems. By the time her second marriage ended in 1964, her world had become as limited as it appeared in her art, her parties had ceased and she was confined to one room of the row house on Dorchester Avenue that she had lived in since her first marriage in 1940. Feeling unloved and unlovely all of her life, Abercrombie was able to transmute these feelings into potent and compelling creations. She was marginalized as an artist because of her gender and her geographical location, which paradoxically, allowed her to follow her own idiosyncratic path. Fortunately for us, she transformed her life into works of great power, resonance and psychological truth that continue to speak to us today.

Top: Gertrude Abercrombie Leaf, Shell and Jack, 1957 oil on board Collection of Laura and Gary Maurer Bottom: Gertrude Abercrombie Demolition Doors, 1964 oil on masonite Illinois State Museum, Illinois Legacy Collection, museum purchase

CH ECKLIST Checklist may vary at the Illinois State Museum Gertrude Abercrombie There on the Table, 1935 oil on masonite 24 x 34 ½ in.

Gertrude Abercrombie Untitled (Masked Man by Pedestal), c. 1940 woodblock print on paper 7 x 5 in.

Gertrude Abercrombie Self Portrait, 1938 oil on canvas 40 x 30 ½ in.

Gertrude Abercrombie Compote and Grapes, 1941 oil on masonite 1½ x 1½ in.

Illinois State Museum, Illinois Legacy Collection, Gift of the Gertrude Abercrombie Trust

Gertrude Abercrombie The Pedestal, 1938 oil on masonite 35 ½ x 21 ½ in.

Illinois State Museum, Illinois Legacy Collection, Gift of the Gertrude Abercrombie Trust

Gertrude Abercrombie Tree at Aledo, 1938 oil on canvas 33 ⅝ x 23 ¾ in.

Elmhurst College Art Collection

Gertrude Abercrombie Landscape with Church, 1939 oil on canvas 19 ½ x 27 ½ in.

Collection of Laura and Gary Maurer

Gertrude Abercrombie Cat and I, c. 1940 woodblock print on paper 4 x 5 in.

Illinois State Museum, Illinois Legacy Collection, Gift of the Gertrude Abercrombie Trust

Gertrude Abercrombie Seated Man, c. 1940 oil on canvas 16 x 20 in.

Collection of Laura and Gary Maurer

Gertrude Abercrombie Untitled, c. 1940 woodblock print on paper 7 x 5 ½ in.

Illinois State Museum, Illinois Legacy Collection, Gift of the Gertrude Abercrombie Trust

Collection of Laura and Gary Maurer

Gertrude Abercrombie Visit at Midnite, 1941 oil on canvas 16 x 20 in.

Collection of Laura and Gary Maurer

Gertrude Abercrombie Horse and Blue House, 1942 oil on masonite 8 ¼ x 10 in.

Illinois State Museum, Illinois Legacy Collection, Gift of Marian & Leon Depres

Gertrude Abercrombie Solitude, 1942 oil on canvas 20 x 40 in.

Collection of Laura and Gary Maurer

Gertrude Abercrombie Dinah Enters the Landscape, 1943 oil on masonite 11 x 33 in. Collection of Laura and Gary Maurer

Gertrude Abercrombie The Parachutist, 1945 oil on masonite 16 x 20 in.

Illinois State Museum, Illinois Legacy Collection, museum purchase

Gertrude Abercrombie Reverie, 1947 oil on masonite 12 x 16 in.

Illinois State Museum, Illinois Legacy Collection, museum purchase

Gertrude Abercrombie Two Ladders, 1947 oil on masonite 12 x 16 in.

Illinois State Museum, Illinois Legacy Collection, museum purchase

Gertrude Abercrombie Night Owl, 1947 oil on masonite 4 ½ x 6 ¼ in.

Gertrude Abercrombie Self and Cat (Possims), 1953 oil on canvas 34 x 24 in.

Collection of Laura and Gary Maurer

Gertrude Abercrombie Queen and Owl, 1954 oil on masonite 4 ½ x 6 in.

Collection of Laura and Gary Maurer

Illinois State Museum, Illinois Legacy Collection, museum purchase

Gertrude Abercrombie The Chess Game, 1948 oil on canvas 22 x 24 in.

Gertrude Abercrombie Self Portrait, 1954 oil on board 1 x 1 in.

Gertrude Abercrombie Screen, Shadow and Cats, 1950 oil on canvas 23 x 18 in.

Gertrude Abercrombie Untitled (Cat with Closed Eyes), 1954 pen and ink on paper 5 x 5 in.

Illinois State Museum, Illinois Legacy Collection, museum purchase

Gertrude Abercrombie House at Aledo, c. 1950 oil on canvas 19 ½ x 21 ⅝ in.

Illinois State Museum, Illinois Legacy Collection, Gift of the Gertrude Abercrombie Trust

Gertrude Abercrombie Marble Top Mystery, c. 1950 oil on canvas 20 x 42 in.

Illinois State Museum, Illinois Legacy Collection, Gift of the Gertrude Abercrombie Trust

Gertrude Abercrombie Compote and Purple Yarn, 1952 oil on board 8 x 10 in.

Collection of Laura and Gary Maurer

Gertrude Abercrombie Shell and Drape, 1952 oil on masonite 24 x 36 in.

Collection of Laura and Gary Maurer

Illinois State Museum, Illinois Legacy Collection, museum purchase

Collection of Laura and Gary Maurer

Gertrude Abercrombie Eggs and Carnation, 1955 oil on canvas 20 x 28 in.

Collection of Laura and Gary Maurer

Gertrude Abercrombie Untitled (Richard Purdy), 1955 oil on canvas 23 ¼ x 19 ½ in.

Illinois State Museum, Illinois Legacy Collection, Gift of the Gertrude Abercrombie Trust

Gertrude Abercrombie Owl and Tornado, 1956 oil on masonite 7 ⅞ x 10 in.

Collection of Laura and Gary Maurer

Gertrude Abercrombie Untitled (Cat and Ball), 1956 oil on masonite 4 ¼ x 5 ¼ in.

Collection of Laura and Gary Maurer

9 Gertrude Abercrombie Leaf, Shell and Jack, 1957 oil on board 5 x 4 in.

Gertrude Abercrombie Untitled (Blue Screen, Black Cat, Print of Same), n.d oil on board 8 x 10 in.

Gertrude Abercrombie My Second Best Box, 1957 mixed media assemblage 9 ½ x 11 ½ x 4 in.

Gertrude Abercrombie Untitled (Figure on Moonlit Path), n.d. oil on board 16 x 13 in.

Collection of Laura and Gary Maurer

Illinois State Museum, Illinois Legacy Collection, Gift of the Gertrude Abercrombie Trust

Gertrude Abercrombie Untitled (Four Doors, Cat), 1957 oil on board 6 ½ x 7 ½ in.

Collection of Laura and Gary Maurer

Gertrude Abercrombie Untitled (shell), 1957 oil on board 4 x 6 in.

Collection of Laura and Gary Maurer

Arnold Newman For Gertrude, n.d. gelatin silver print 5 ½ x 6 ½ in.

Illinois State Museum, Dinah Abercrombie Livingston Archives

Jerome Karidis Gertrude Abercrombie Collage, 1973 collage 28 x 23 in.

Collection of Susan and Michael Weininger

Gertrude Abercrombie The Ostrich Egg, 1963 oil on masonite 7 ½ x 9 in.

Karl Priebe Untitled (Karl Priebe, Charles Sebree, Gertrude Abercrombie), c.1940 opaque watercolor on paper 16 ⅛ x 19 ⅞ in.

Gertrude Abercrombie Untitled (Tree at Aledo variation), 1963 oil on masonite 10 x 8 in.

Karl Priebe Untitled (Portrait of Gertrude), 1936 watercolor and ink on paper 6 ¾ x 4 ¾ in.

Gertrude Abercrombie Demolition Doors, 1964 oil on masonite 20 x 24 ½ in.

Karl Priebe Portrait of Gertrude Abercrombie, n.d. watercolor and ink on paper 9 x 6 ½ in.

Gertrude Abercrombie Orlando, For Once in My Life, issued 1970 printed record jacket with signature 12 ½ x 12 ½ in.

Karl Priebe Untitled (Portrait of Gertrude Abercrombie), n.d. watercolor on brown paper 12 ¾ x 10 ½ in.

Illinois State Museum, Illinois Legacy Collection, Gift of the Gertrude Abercrombie Trust

Illinois State Museum, Illinois Legacy Collection, Gift of the Estate of Maurine Campbell

Illinois State Museum, Illinois Legacy Collection, museum purchase

Illinois State Museum, Illinois Legacy Collection, Gift of Marian & Leon Depres

Gertrude Abercrombie The Door and the Rock, 1971 oil on masonite 8 x 10 in.

Collection of Laura and Gary Maurer

Illinois State Museum, Illinois Legacy Collection, Gift of the Gertrude Abercrombie Trust

PU B LIC PROG RAMS Programs listed for Elmhurst Art Museum only Members Opening

Music at the Museum: Elmhurst College Jazz Trio

A preview of Gertrude Abercrombie: Portrait of the Artist as a Landscape and IN THIS HOUSE, featuring works by Michelle Grabner, Brad Killam, Paula Crown, Tony Tasset, and James Welling.

Join us for a concert by Elmhurst College Jazz musicians performing jazz songs from the 1940s and 50s, inspired by the exhibition. Abercrombie regularly hosted jam sessions with musician friends such as Dizzy Gillespie and Sonny Rollins.

Music at the Museum: Elmhurst College Jazz Trio

Free with admission or current membership. Includes two complimentary glasses of wine (21+)

Friday, January 19 | 7 - 9 pm

Friday, January 26 | 5 - 7 pm

Exhibition Tour with Susan Weininger Saturday, January 27 | 1:30 pm

Join us for an enlightening tour of the exhibition led by Susan Weininger, the author of multiple comprehensive essays on the artist. Weininger is professor emerita of art history at Roosevelt University, Chicago, where she was Chair of the Department of History, Art History and Philosophy. Free with museum admission or current membership.

Family Day at the Elmhurst Art Museum Saturday, February 3 | 1 - 4 pm

We invite you and your family to participate in hands-on art activities inspired by the exhibition. Free with museum admission or current membership.

Conversation: Doug Beach and John Corbett Sunday, February 4 | 1:30 pm

Join us for an insightful conversation with Doug Beach (Director of Jazz Studies, Jazz Band and Arranging at Elmhurst College) and John Corbett (writer, producer, curator, and gallery owner), about the intersections of art and jazz during Gertrude Abercrombie's life. In addition to hosting a vibrant jazz salon in her home, Abercrombie became friends with musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Sonny Rollins. She was also the subject of the song "Gertrude's Bounce" by Richie Powell. Free with museum admission or current membership.

Friday, February 16 | 5 - 7 pm

Exhibition Tour with Donna Seaman Saturday, February 17 | 1:30 pm

Donna Seaman, the author of Identity Unknown: Rediscovering Seven American Women Artists, will give an exhibition tour focusing on Gertrude Abercrombieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s biography. The painter Abercrombie surrounded herself with fascinating people including jazz musicians like Dizzy Gillespie, held regular jam sessions at her home, and was referred to as "the queen of the bohemian artists." After the tour, Seaman will be available to sign copies of her book. Free with museum admission or current membership.

51st Annual Elmhurst College Jazz Festival Thursday, February 22 - Sunday, February 25

Each February, the best college jazz bands in the country converge on the Elmhurst campus for three days of performances and education. The bands take turns performing for some of the greatest names in professional jazz today, who offer critiques and award a variety of honors. The professionals cap off each night of the Festival with a rousing performance of their own. Please note the annual festival is hosted by Elmhurst College. For more information, please visit https://www.elmhurst.edu/ about/special-events/jazz-festival/

Family Day at the Elmhurst Art Museum Saturday, March 3 | 1 - 4 pm

We invite you and your family to participate in hands-on art activities inspired by the exhibition. Free with museum admission or current membership.

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