William Conger [b. 1937: Dixon, Illinois]
oil on canvas
59 7/8 by 54 inches
Collection of the Illinois State Museum
William Conger’s work has occasionally been termed €Allusive Abstraction” and grouped loosely with that of three other Illinois artists who work with abstract images: Miyoko Ito, Richard Loving, and Frank Piatek,. Works by Ito and Piatek are included in this web presentation.
Conger’s painting Lakeview is certainly abstract in composition — we see lines and forms that ought to make visual sense ” but they stubbornly refuse to create illusionistic space. The shapes allude to three-dimensional form, they don’t create it. Conger’s approach digs into one of the classic justifications for abstraction: the artist’s canvas is not a window to another space, it’s just a two-dimensional plane.