Untitled, 1946
Emerson Woelffer [b. 1914: Chicago, Illinois – d. 2003: Los Angeles, California]
mixed media on paper
11 7/8 by 8 7/8 inches
Gift of the Gertrude Abercrombie Estate
Collection of the Illinois State Museum
Woelffer’s image from 1946 demonstrates the early abstract expressionist fascination with marrying the Surrealist strategy of automatic drawing, myth, iconic imagery, and Jungian psychology. Here we see a terrifying mythic figure drawn from the artist’s imagination and consuming . . . the artist’s vision?