Chicago Calling - March 13 through November 1, 2020
The Collection de l’Art Brut is delighted to be welcoming the exhibition Chicago Calling in the wake of its presentation at lntuit, The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art in Chicago, the Halle Saint-Pierre in Paris; and the Kunsthaus in Kaufbeuren, Germany.
Of all America's great cities, Chicago is unquestionably the most independent in artistic terms. In the 1940s, when the New York scene was turning to Abstract Expressionism, art circles in Chicago were delving into German Expression and Surrealism – and "primitive" art and Art Brut as well. Their interest in the latter was largely fuelled by the writings of German psychiatrist Hans Prinzhorn and French artist Jean Dubuffet, originator of the concept of Art Brut.
At his first Chicago retrospective, at the Arts Club in 1951, Dubuffet gave his famous Anticultural Positions talk, which triggered enormous interest among artists, experts and collectors. In the course of the year he entrusted his Art Brut collection to his painter friend Alfonso Ossorio, who lived in East Hampton, near New York. On show in Ossorio's mansion for the next ten years, the works were seen by influential members of New York art circles, among them the painters Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell and Clyfford Still.
In the 1960s a group of artists known as the "Chicago Imagists" – their number included Roger Brown, Jim Nutt and Gladys Nilsson – began collecting artworks that did not match official criteria. Very quickly Art Brut and Outsider Art gained the attention of the city's collectors, dealers and curators, and 1991 saw the founding of Intuit, a centre for American Outsider Art and Art Brut.
In Europe the Collection de l’Art Brut had opened to the public in 1976. Heir to the historic Dubuffet collection, this was the first Art Brut Museum, and in 1987 it began regular showings of works by Chicago artist Henry Darger. This was made possible by a remarkable donation from Kiyoko Lerner, widow of photographer Nathan Lerner, who had been Darger's landlord. Between them the Lerners had succeeded in saving this magisterial body of work.
And so Chicago Calling is a chance to (re)discover one of Art Brut's most celebrated American representatives, alongside five other self-taught Chicagoans working in the same naive vein: Lee Godie, Mr. Imagination, Pauline Simon, Wesley Willis and Joseph E. Yoakum. The exhibits come from Intuit and American private collections as well as, in Darger's case, the Collection de l’Art Brut.
The showing at the Collection de l’Art Brut brings together works selected by Sarah Lombardi from the exhibition curated by Kenneth C. Burkhart and Lisa Stone, and organised by Intuit, The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art.
The Chicago Calling show in the medias:
L'exposition Chicago Calling à voir dès jeudi, 20 minutes, 12.03.2020
Darger créait, seul, dans la nuit, Florence Millioud Henriques, ", 24heures, 27 mars 2020
La Collection de l'Art Brut passe au virtuel, Philippe Lespinasse, Siné mensuel, avril 2020
Un tour de ville de Chicago très singulier, Florence Millioud-Henriques, 24heures, 22 mai 2020
Chicago, l'appel créatif, Aurélie Lebreau, La liberté, 6 juin 2020
Chicago, l'art à contre courant, Guillaume Lasserre, mediapart, 15 novembre 2020
Practical information
Dates
March 13 - November 1, 2020
Public opening
Thursday 12 March 2020, 6:30pm
Guided tours
Upon request for groups and classes: in French, German, English.
Films
- Wesley Willis: Artist of the Streets , de Carl W. Hart, 1988, 11 min. , vo anglaise, sous-titres français, © Carl W. Hart 1988
- Révolution of the Night : The Enigma of Henry Darger, de Mark Stokes, 2015, 16 min. , vo anglaise, sous-titres français, © Quale Films/Kioko Lerner 2015
- Lee Godie, Chicago French Impressionist, de Kapra Fleming et Tom Palazzolo, 2020, vo anglaise, sous-titres français, © Pandora lobo estepario Production/Kapra Fleming 2020
Press kits
To be downloaded on the "media" page
Accessibility
The exhibition Chicago Calling is accessible to people with reduced mobility.
Associated event(s)
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Public opening of the "Chicago Calling!" exhibition - Thursday 12 March 2020, 06:00 pm
open to all public, free entrance
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Young public workshop "Decalcomania" - Saturday 5 September 2020, 02:00 pm
A quick tour of the Chicago Calling exhibition, then it's into the workshop to discover the magic of transferring. With Henry Darger's works in mind, you'll create a hero or heroine of your own. There'll also be inspiration in the form of comics and magazines. Then your work will be printed on a long roll of paper, for a fantastic adventure along with all the other workshop characters.
Workshops for children ages 6 to 10
Duration: 1h45
Fr. 10.–
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Free guided tour of the "Chicago Calling!" exhibition - Saturday 5 September 2020, 02:00 pmall public
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Young public workshop "Decalcomania" - Saturday 3 October 2020, 02:00 pm
A quick tour of the Chicago Calling exhibition, then it's into the workshop to discover the magic of transferring. With Henry Darger's works in mind, you'll create a hero or heroine of your own. There'll also be inspiration in the form of comics and magazines. Then your work will be printed on a long roll of paper, for a fantastic adventure along with all the other workshop characters.
Workshops for children ages 6 to 10
Duration: 1h45
Fr. 10.–
-
Young public workshop "Decalcomania" - Saturday 31 October 2020, 02:00 pm
A quick tour of the Chicago Calling exhibition, then it's into the workshop to discover the magic of transferring. With Henry Darger's works in mind, you'll create a hero or heroine of your own. There'll also be inspiration in the form of comics and magazines. Then your work will be printed on a long roll of paper, for a fantastic adventure along with all the other workshop characters.
Workshops for children ages 6 to 10
Duration: 1h45
Fr. 10.–