Elmhurst College symposium explores Chicago Imagist artists

Bold, graphic, irreverent and inspired by pop culture, the work of Chicago Imagist artists includes highly original, personal expressions of the human form.

On Dec. 16, Elmhurst College will host The Figure, Humor and the Chicago Imagists, a full-day symposium that explores works by Chicago Imagist artists and highlights the college's extraordinary collection of Imagist art.

Featuring presentations and discussions on the topic, the symposium also includes the opportunity to view 33 works from the college's collection that are on exhibition at the Elmhurst Art Museum.

The symposium begins with an introduction by Suellen Rocca, curator of the Elmhurst College Art Collection and one of six artists who formed the Hairy Who, a groundbreaking artist group founded in Chicago in the 1960s. Known for their powerfully graphic images and brazen sense of humor, the Hairy Who and others working in the 1960s and '70s whose works possessed a similar spirit became known as the Chicago Imagists.

The main presentation will be given by writer and curator Dan Nadel, who recently organized the exhibition What Nerve! Alternative Figures in American Art, 1960 to the Present, at the Rhode Island School of Art and Design and Matthew Marks Gallery in New York City.

The Figure, Humor and the Chicago Imagists symposium begins at 11 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 16, in the Schaible Science Center, Illinois Hall, 190 Prospect Ave., and later moves to the Elmhurst Art Museum at 150 Cottage Hill Ave.

Admission to the symposium is free, but seating is limited and reservations are required. For more information and to reserve a spot, visit www.elmhurst.edu/2018artsymposium.

Since 2006, Rocca has overseen the Elmhurst College Art Collection, which comprises more than 150 works and is known as the finest public collection of its kind. An important resource for students, faculty and the community, works from the collection have been exhibited around the country and all over the world.

The symposium is funded by the Terra Foundation for American Art as part of Art Design Chicago, an initiative of the Terra Foundation exploring Chicago's art and design legacy. Chicago Imagist art, including pieces from the Elmhurst College Art Collection, can be viewed at a number of Art Design Chicago exhibitions, including Hairy Who? 1966-1969 at the Art Institute of Chicago. For more information, visit artdesignchicago.org/exhibitions.