Gertrude Abercrombie
Gertrude Abercrombie | |
---|---|
University of Illinois Art Institute of Chicago | |
Known for | Painting |
Gertrude Abercrombie (February 17, 1909 – July 3, 1977) was an American painter based in Chicago. Called "the queen of the bohemian artists", Abercrombie was involved in the Chicago jazz scene and was friends with musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Sarah Vaughan, whose music inspired her own creative work.[1]
Early life
Abercrombie was born on February 17, 1909, in
She earned a degree in
Fine art career
In 1932, she began to focus strictly on her art.[5] The following summer she made her first sale at an outdoor art fair in Chicago and received an honorable mention in the newspaper for the event.[3] In the mid-1930s she moved out of her family's home and became active in the regional art scene.[3] From 1934 to 1940 she served as a painter for the Works Progress Administration and in 1934 the Chicago Society of Artists held a solo show of her work.[3] During the 1930s and 1940s she also began creating woodcuts.
In 1940, she married lawyer Robert Livingston, and in 1942 gave birth to their daughter Dinah. In 1948 the couple divorced. That same year she married music critic Frank Sandiford, with Dizzy Gillespie performing at the wedding. The couple were active in the
Within Abercrombie's avant-garde social circle she was the inspiration for the song "Gertrude's Bounce" by Richie Powell, who claimed that she walked "just like the way the rhythm sounds in the Introduction",[6] and she appeared as herself in James Purdy's Gertrude of Stony Island Avenue and as a fictional character in Purdy's Malcolm, Eustace Chisholm.[3]
Death
By the late 1950s, her health declined due to financial trouble, alcoholism, and arthritis, and she became reclusive. After 1959, her paintings diminished in number as well as scale.[7] She required a wheelchair and was eventually bedridden. In the final year of her life, a major retrospective of her work was held at the Hyde Park Art Center.[3] She died in Chicago on July 3, 1977. Her will established the Gertrude Abercrombie Trust which distributed her work and the work of other artists she owned to cultural institutions throughout the Midwest.[3]
Themes
Abercrombie painted many variations of her favored subjects: sparsely furnished interiors, barren
Abercrombie's mature works are painted in a precise, controlled style. She took little interest in other artists' work, although she admired
I am not interested in complicated things nor in the commonplace. I like and like to paint simple things that are a little strange. My work comes directly from my inner consciousness and it must come easily. It is a process of selection and reduction.[4]
Her work evolved into incorporating her love for jazz music, inspired by parties and jam sessions she hosted in her Hyde Park home. Musicians such as Sonny Rollins, Max Roach, Jackie Cain and the Modern Jazz Quartet were considered friends. Dizzy Gillespie described her as "the first bop artist. Bop in the sense that she has taken the essence of our music and transported it to another art form".[14]
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions
- Gertrude Abercrombie: Portrait of an Artist as a Landscape, Elmhurst Art Museum, January 20-March 4, 2018.[15]
- Gertrude Abercrombie. State of Illinois Art Gallery, Chicago, March 18.-May 17, 1991 and at the Illinois State Museum, Springfield, July 28-October 25, 1991.[16]
- Gertrude Abercrombie: A Retrospective Exhibition. Hyde Park Art Center, January 28-March 5, 1977.[17]
- Gertrude Abercrombie. Newman Brown Gallery, 1952.[18]
- Gertrude Abercrombie. Leonard Linn Gallery. Winnetka, Illinois, 1952.[19]
- Gertrude Abercrombie. Steven-Gross Gallery. Chicago, Illinois, 1952.[20]
Group exhibitions
- In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2012[21]
- Gertrude Abercrombie and friends: An Exhibition of the work by Gertrude Abercrombie (1909-1977) and her Contemporaries Donated to the Illinois State Museum by the Gertrude Abercrombie Estate. February 6-March 27, 1983, Illinois State Museum, Springfield.
Notable awards
- Prize, Annual Exhibition of Works by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity, 1936;1938, Art Institute of Chicago[3]
See also
- Women Surrealists
Notes
Constructs such as named references (quick guide), or an abbreviated title. (December 2023) ) |
- ISBN 978-0-500-23728-1
- ^ Sparks, Esther (1971). A Biographical Dictionary of Painters and Sculptors in Illinois 1808-1945. Chicago: Northwestern University. p. 235.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Finding Aid". Gertrude Abercrombie Papers. Archives of American Art. 2011. Retrieved 15 Jun 2011.
- ^ a b Weininger and Smith 1991, p. 12.
- ^ "The surreal art of the Chicago saloniste Gertrude Abercrombie". The Magazine Antiques. 2018-03-27. Retrieved 2021-04-29.
- ^ LP sleeve notes by Alun Morgan for Clifford Brown and Max Roach, I Remember Clifford (Mercury MMC 14041)
- ^ Weininger and Smith 1991, pp. 33–34.
- ^ Weininger and Smith 1991, p. 11.
- ^ Weininger and Smith 1991, pp. 33, 77.
- ^ Weininger and Smith 1991, p. 19.
- ^ "Gertrude Abercrombie, 2018, Gertrude Abercrombie, Susan Weininger". Karma. Retrieved 2020-04-18.
- ^ Weininger and Smith 1991, p. 67.
- ^ Weininger and Smith 1991, p. 13.
- ^ Weininger and Smith 1991, p. 79.
- ^ Abercrombie, Gertrude. Gertrude Abercrombie: Portrait of the Artist as a Landscape. Elmhurst Art Museum, 2018. https://issuu.com/elmhurstartmuseum/docs/gertrudeabercrombie_brochure_finalp
- ^ Smith, Kent, and Susan Weininger. Gertrude Abercrombie. Illinois State Museum, 1991.
- ^ Abercrombie, Gertrude. Gertrude Abercrombie: A Retrospective Exhibition. Hyde Part Art Center, January 28 through March 5, 1977. [Hyde Park Art Center], 1977.
- ^ Works Cited Lynch, Agnes. "Art Critics Say Her Works are 'Magic Realism': Miss Abercrombie Likes Mysteries, Fantasies." Chicago Daily Tribune (1923-1963), Sep 14, 1952, pp. 2-s_a4. ProQuest.
- ^ ibid.
- ^ ibid.
- ISBN 9783791351414.
References
- Storr, Robert, et al., Gertrude Abercrombie. Karma, 2018. ISBN 978-1949172027
- Weininger, Susan, and Kent Smith. 1991. Gertrude Abercrombie. Springfield, IL: Illinois State Museum. ISBN 0-89792-132-1
Further reading
- Levy, Hannah Heidi (2004). Famous Wisconsin: Artists and Architects. Oregon, WI: Badger Books.
- Seaman, Donna (2017). "Girl Searching: Gertrude Abercrombie". Identity Unknown: Rediscovering Seven American Women Artists. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 9781620407608– via Google Books (preview).
External links
- Staff (5 July 1977). "Gertrude Abercrombie, 68, leading Chicago artist, dies". Metropolitan. Chicago Tribune (Obituary). Vol. 131, no. 186 (Final ed.). p. 9. Retrieved 1 Jan 2019.
- Gertrude Abercrombie (American, 1909 - 1977) - Richard Norton Gallery
- Abercrombie and her Cats