Chicago Featured Programs
The Terra Foundation for American Art is committed to promoting and supporting American art activities in Chicago, including K–12, public, and academic programs and exhibitions, as part of an ongoing effort to shine a spotlight on the city as a dynamic center for exploring the rich history of American art.
New Website Presents The Civil War Using Chicago Art Collections
Discover the American Civil War like never before. The Civil War in Art: Teaching & Learning through Chicago Collections (civilwarinart.org) makes nearly 130 works of art from seven Chicago cultural organizations accessible to teachers, parents, and students around the world.
Developed by a team of museum and library professionals, historians, and teachers, this unique website connects elementary and high school students to the issues, events, and people of the era through:
- A high-resolution, zoomable gallery of objects
- Illustrated essays examining the causes and impact of the war and role that art played
- An extensive glossary of close to 200 art and historical terms and biographies
- Lesson plans developed by teachers for teachers
To learn more about this one-of-a-kind online tool, please visit civilwarinart.org.
The Civil War in Art: Teaching & Learning through Chicago Collections was funded and developed by the Terra Foundation for American Art in partnership with the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago History Museum, Chicago Park District, Chicago Public Library, DuSable Museum of African American History, and Newberry Library.
Lecture Series: American Art—Innovation and Reform
The Wit of Illusion: Trompe l'Oeil in American Art
Wednesday, May 9
6p.m.
Wendy Bellion, University of Delaware, notes that trompe l'oeil artworks have been pleasing and teasing Americans with perceptual riddles since the 1790s. From the Peale family painters in the early republic to the late nineteenth century world of William Michael Harnett, Bellion explores the wit of American illusionism.
For more information, please visit the Art Institute of Chicago's website.
Q & A with Director of the DePaul Art Museum, Louise Lincoln
Louise Lincoln is the Director of the DePaul Art Museum and curator of Re: Chicago, the eclectic and collaborative exhibition which closed on March 4, 2012.
The process of selecting the works for this exhibition involved over forty critics, artists, and curators, which is certainly a unique approach. Despite so many different opinions, the result is wonderfully cohesive. Can you tell us about this process?
In the beginning stages of this project I was asked if I had other models in mind and I think that I must have gotten it from somewhere. But in a lot of ways it grew up around itself. We've had an interest in Chicago art for a number of years and we knew that for our opening exhibition in this new building we wanted to do a Chicago–themed show, and it morphed into this group–sourced curatorial project and began to feel exciting and unpredictable. We wanted to widen the canon of Chicago artists, and to explore the reception of art as opposed to production of art. Then we hit on this idea of asking people in the Chicago art world to choose a Chicago artist to be in the show and to explain their choice, and to use those explanations as the labels for the works. We invited two DePaul University faculty members, a student, and a trustee, as well as scholars, critics, collectors. As we'd hoped, those texts turned out to be immensely varied in tone, approach, and what people wanted to talk about. A good example is Lynne Warren's label on Harry Callahan's Untitled, 1960. Her label destabilizes my approach to the photo. Before reading her wall text I looked at the photograph in terms of composition and timing, but I hadn't looked at it in terms of Callahan, or his humaneness. The personal tone of her response has really changed how I see the photo. With texts like hers, this has become a show about something else; it is much more about reception than we had originally intended. We're noticing that visitors are reading all the labels, and that's gratifying.
Q & A with Terra Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Chicago Sarah Miller
Sarah Miller is the Terra Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in pre-1945 American Art in the Department of Art History at the University of Chicago. Dr. Miller shares some of her experiences in working with students and local art historians to pursue original research in the field of American Art.What initially drew you to the field of American art? How has your interest or focus changed or developed throughout your career?
I began my studies in the history of photography and architecture and urbanism, but I almost always worked on American subjects. I didn't deliberately set out to study American art history specifically, but was always drawn to the areas of art history that are most closely related to cultural history and social politics, and my interests in those fields were usually American. I started out being most interested in contemporary art, and then steadily worked backwards. By the time I wrote my dissertation I knew I wanted to work in the pre-1945 period of American Modernism and that I generally thought of myself as a modernist, more than a contemporary, scholar.
Q & A with Terra Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University Melody Deusner
Melody Deusner is the Terra Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in American Art from 1600–1950 in the Department of Art History at Northwestern University. Dr. Deusner shares some of her experiences in working with students and developing scholarship.
What initially drew you to the field of American art? How has your interest/focus changed or developed throughout your career?
My interest in art history was originally grounded in nineteenth century French painting and developed through my graduate career into modern European art generally, but I tended to have ideas of work I wanted to do only to find that something similar had already been done. I think it was largely the openness of the American field that was so attractive to me. It seemed that on the American side there was so much accessible visual culture to work with, and that was, and is, really exciting. I began learning that there were all of these other visual objects that really enriched the fine art world and how I saw it—what is immediately available to you in American museums and archives, in person and online, is astounding. Because of my early training I still think of myself as a nineteenth century person in broad terms, but I try to use that grounding to look at American art as part of a continuum.
"Artbeat" on Chicago Tonight
With support from the Terra Foundation since 2007, PBS affiliate WTTW11 has created a series of "Artbeat" segments on American art, which air on the network's award-winning weeknight news show Chicago Tonight. Topics have ranged from outsider artist Henry Darger to photographers and friends Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind, and from Tiffany decoration at the Chicago Cultural Center to Progressive-era murals in Chicago schools. The segments cover prominent artists, collections, exhibitions, and art-historically significant spaces in Chicago and offer a fascinating look at the city's art history. Each segment is available for on-demand viewing on the Chicago Tonight Web site.
Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park
Aired April 10, 2012
Chicago Tonight visits the Nathan Manilow Sculpture Park, one of the most distinguished sculpture parks in the country and the only site to exhibit a collection of cutting edge, contemporary outdoor sculpture in the Chicago area. Spanning more than one hundred acres of prairie landscape at Governors State University campus, the collection was established in the late 1960s by Lewis Manilow and boasts highlights such as works by two winners of the National Medal of Arts, as well as works by Bruce Nauman and Richard Hunt.
Figurism
Aired March 13, 2012
"Figurism" is a show that features more than one hundred years worth of representations of the human figure by American artists from the Midwest. The exhibition includes a wide range of depictions of figures—some literal, others abstract or fantastic. All of the work being shown at the Chicago Gallery of the Illinois State Museum is from the museum's collection. This is an unusual large showing of these paintings, many of which are rarely on display. Some artists in "Figurism" are well-established, such as Ed Paschke and Alphonso Iannelli. There is a special emphasis on women artists, including Gertrude Abercrombie and members of the "Hairy Who".
Terra Foundation Lectures on American Art at the Chicago Humanities Festival Now Available Online
Since 2005, the Terra Foundation has awarded several multiyear grants to the Chicago Humanities Festival in support of an annual public lecture on the history of American art and visual culture at the organization's annual two-week celebration of the humanities. The Terra Foundation Lecture on American Art is intended to expose Chicagoans to leading scholars and thinkers in the field of American art.
Online versions of the lectures are available on the Humanities Festival's website.
2006 David Lubin, "Art for War's Sake"
2007 Angela Miller, "American Landscape Art and Environmental Thinking"
2008 Erika Doss, "Picturing New Deal American Art"
2009 Jennifer Greenhill, "Terra Foundation Lecture on American Art"
2010 Sarah Burns, "Corruptible Flesh: Art and Necrophilia in Chicago"
