The Elmhurst Art Museum will host “The Figure and the Chicago Imagists: Selections from the Elmhurst College Art Collection,” curated by Suellen Rocca, one of the original members of the ‘Hairy Who’ collective and current Curator and Director of Exhibitions at Elmhurst College. “The Figure and the Chicago Imagists” opens Saturday, September 8, 2018, and will be on view through January 13, 2019.

Over and over, the Chicago Imagists cast the figure in numerous roles, distorting it and layering it with metaphor and personal meaning. Outrageous, irreverent, and humorous and inspired by popular culture, these works reflect highly original expressions of the human form. “The Figure and the Chicago Imagists” features over 20 works from the Elmhurst College Art Collection, focused on artists working in Chicago between about 1950 and the present. The extraordinary collection is overseen by the A.C. Buehler Library at Elmhurst College. Numerous pieces in the collection have traveled to retrospective and thematic exhibitions at major museums throughout the United States and Europe. Jim Nutt’s Toot-Toot Woo-Woo, for example, represented the United States at the 1972 Venice Biennale in Italy and has since served as a pivotal piece in many more exhibitions.

“Rocca and the others are an integral part of Chicagoland’s history that has influenced generations of other artists,” said Elmhurst Art Museum Executive Director John McKinnon. “Their works have been exhibited around the globe and will become further canonized in a comprehensive retrospective being mounted at the Art Institute of Chicago this fall.”

In the 1960s, Rocca and five other artists formed the groundbreaking group, the Hairy Who, known for their powerfully graphic images and brazen sense of humor. This visionary group (comprised of Rocca, Nutt, Art Green, Gladys Nilsson, Jim Falconer and Karl Wirsum) forged the way with others that later became known as the Chicago Imagists. Rocca began teaching at Elmhurst College in 1983, and since 2006 she has been the Curator and Director of Exhibitions, overseeing the College’s collection of Chicago Imagist artwork. As caretaker, advocate, and interpreter of the collection, Rocca has helped bring awareness of its importance through class and group tours, organized discussions, and loans to important national and international venues. The Elmhurst Art Museum recently recognized Suellen Rocca for her outstanding service as an artist, curator, and educator in the western suburbs.

This exhibition is a part of Art Design Chicago, an exploration of Chicago’s art and design legacy. Art Design Chicago is an initiative of the Terra Foundation for American Art with presenting partner The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation.

About Elmhurst Art Museum
Elmhurst Art Museum is located at 150 Cottage Hill Avenue in Elmhurst (IL), 25 minutes from downtown Chicago by car or public transportation (Metra). The Museum is both an international destination for Mies van der Rohe scholars and fans and a regional center where people from Chicago and the western suburbs learn to see and think differently through the study of the art, architecture and design of our time.

The Museum is one block from the Elmhurst Metra station and open Tuesday-Sunday from 11 AM– 5 PM (7 PM on Fridays). Admission is $12 ($10 for seniors) and free for students and children under 18. For more information, please call 630.834.0202 or visit elmhurstartmuseum.org

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Tags: "The Figure and the Chicago Imagists", Art Design Chicago, Art Green, Elmhurst, Elmhurst Art Museum, Gladys Nilsson, Jim Falconer, Jim Nutt, Karl Wirsum, Suellen Rocca