Teacher's Orientation Pages to:

Three Chicago Painters: Cast of Characters ­ Gertrude Abercrombie, Emil Armin,

and Julia Thecla

Collection

The painting collection of the Illinois State Museum is

fortunate to contain a body of artworks by three painters

who worked in Chicago from the 1930s to the 1970s. We

chose to present these artists in this Art Web site because

they

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are a strong part of the collection,

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reflect the independence of Chicago artists of the

era

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approached their subject matter in a unique way

The design of this sub-module will allow the museum to

add to the number of artists featured as time goes by.

Exhibit

Each of these artists has had an exhibit of their work at the Illinois State Museum. There are cata-

logs on Abercrombie and Thecla. For this online exhibit, the curators wanted to show a comparison

among the artists regarding their very personal treatments of similar subjects. The topics chosen

were

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self-portraits (insight into individual people)

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the use of space in compositions (how different artists handle one element of art)

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the idea of canvas as a stage set (to explore one way painters may present narratives).

The purpose of showing just a few works is to encourage viewers to look in depth into them for

meaning and interpretation. In just these nine paintings, there is wealth of thought and discussion.

*

Emil Armin painted landscapes and people of the Chicago area. His work may resonate most

with viewers who live in or have visited this city.

*

Gertrude Abercrombie presented an image of herself in almost every one of her paintings;

yet she always refused to comment on their meaning.

*

Julia Thecla presented a dream world in many of her paintings, many of which featured her,

pets, and portraits of friends.

Text

The questions accompanying the images just begin the conversation. We have provided a short list

of visual thinking questions in an offline activity for talking about art. It can be used with not only

this sub-module, but with any work of art. This activity is also a good one to use prior to a class tour

or a personal visit to a museum to prime viewers to look closely into works of art to which they are

drawn (not necessarily these same works of art). It can help prevent the museum burnout caused by

trying to look at every work of art in the museum on a single trip.