| Selected Artists | |||||
| Rudolph Weisenborn | |||||
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Springfield, Illinois |
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Before Treatment |
After Treatment |
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| Rudolph Weisenborn (1881-1974) set the foundation for Chicago's early Modernism movement. It is unfortunate that a studio fire in 1922 destroyed almost all of his early drawings and paintings. His work combined both European Cubist and Expressionist influences with American Precisionism as seen in the work of Charles Sheeler. Weisenborn clashed with the established art scene in Chicago that routinely held juried art exhibitions. In 1922, he founded the Chicago No-Jury Society of Artists with Raymond Johnson, Carl Hoeckner and Ramon Shiva . The underlying premise of the society was, that "freedom from juries gives the artist liberty to develop individual ideas." (Taken from 2nd Annual Show Catalog, 1923) Weisenborn went on to become a WPA artist. His visionary work far exceeded the repetitious formulas consistent throughout most of the WPA work in Chicago. His mural, "Contemporary Chicago," at the Nettelhorst Elementary School, is by far the city's most significant WPA mural. I had the honor of treating the painting in 1997. | |||||
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