Upcoming Exhibition

GRAY artist Evelyn Statsinger (1927-2016) will be among four key Chicago artists highlighted in an extraordinary forthcoming exhibition at The Art Institute of Chicago, opening this spring: Four Chicago Artists: Theodore Halkin, Evelyn Statsinger, Barbara Rossi, and Christina Ramberg. The exhibition will be on view from May 11 through August 26, 2024.

[A] work of art exists as a whole. No explanation can convey to the heart the full meaning and wonder of art. That meaning is a live thing and withers at the [word’s] touch! — Evelyn Statsinger

The exhibition brings together approximately 95 drawings, sketchbooks, prints, photograms, quilts, and ephemera from four Chicago icons to showcase how their lives intersected across generations to shape the visual culture of their city. Despite the 20-year separation between Ted Halkin and Evelyn Statsinger, and the generation of Barbara Rossi and Christina Ramberg, each of these four artists shared a commitment to personal authenticity and a talent for inventing original, imaginative compositions inspired by the world around them. All four artists were formally educated at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and informally inspired by the city’s cultural resources.

GRAY artist Evelyn Statsinger depicted her experiences of the natural world through drawing, painting, and sculpture. Associated with Chicago’s “Monster Roster,” Statsinger received mentorship and support from notable Chicago figures including Katherine Kuh, Kathleen Blackshear, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Statsinger later developed her own unique visual language, relinquishing identifiable forms in favor of surreal compositions based on her observations in nature. At times mysterious, and eluding definitive classification, Statsinger’s intricate compositions describe vast, ethereal worlds that evoke the biological systems and cellular structures of plants as if viewed under a microscope.

Four Chicago Artists: Theodore Halkin, Evelyn Statsinger, Barbara Rossi, and Christina Ramberg is curated by Mark Pascale, Janet and Craig Duchossois Curator, Prints and Drawings; Stephanie Strother, research associate, Prints and Drawings; and Kathryn Cua, curatorial assistant, Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University.