GERTRUDE ABERCROMBIE: THE WHOLE WORLD IS A MYSTERY
Current exhibition
Overview
Gertrude Abercrombie (1909–1977) produced hundreds of paintings imbued with autobiography that revealed her emotional truth and declared it as real. A critical figure in the mid-twentieth-century Chicago art and jazz scenes, Abercrombie made art to give her internal life visual form. She put herself into her painted world—in self-portraits, landscapes, interior scenes, and still lifes—through the use of personal symbols and enigmatic female figures. She probed her consciousness, mined her memories, drew on her dreams, and found the peculiar in everyday life, painting, as she said, “simple things that are a little strange.”
Abercrombie lived in defiance of her era’s social norms. By blending layers of reality, her paintings similarly question existence as commonly understood and posit alternate dimensions. Though she had a singular vision, her reliance on her inner consciousness and use of a fantastical style connected her to broader developments in American modernism.
This retrospective exhibition—the first nationally touring presentation of Abercrombie’s art—celebrates an artist who has been historically marginalized due to who she was and how she lived and worked. She created a universe that broadens our understanding of American art and identity. Abercrombie observed, “The whole world is a mystery,” a statement that asserts expansive possibilities for liberation and self-discovery through art.
Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery is co-organized by Colby College Museum of Art and Carnegie Museum of Art, and curated by Sarah Humphreville, Lunder Curator of American Art, Colby Museum, and Eric Crosby, Henry J. Heinz II Director, Carnegie Museum of Art, and Vice President, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, with Cynthia Stucki, curatorial assistant, Carnegie Museum of Art.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue published in association with DelMonico Books and designed by Purtill Family Business. Contributors include Katie Anania, Donna M. Cassidy, John Corbett, Eric Crosby, Sarah Humphreville, and Cynthia Stucki.
Generous support for the exhibition catalogue has been provided by Karma Gallery and the Wyeth Foundation for American Art. Additional support for the exhibition and publication has been provided by Nancy and Woody Ostrow, Valerie Carberry and Richard Wright, the Robot Family Foundation, Schoelkopf Gallery, and Waqas Wajahat; as well as through Colby Museum funds including the Mirken Family Publications Fund and the Everett and Florence Turner Exhibition Fund.
Abercrombie lived in defiance of her era’s social norms. By blending layers of reality, her paintings similarly question existence as commonly understood and posit alternate dimensions. Though she had a singular vision, her reliance on her inner consciousness and use of a fantastical style connected her to broader developments in American modernism.
This retrospective exhibition—the first nationally touring presentation of Abercrombie’s art—celebrates an artist who has been historically marginalized due to who she was and how she lived and worked. She created a universe that broadens our understanding of American art and identity. Abercrombie observed, “The whole world is a mystery,” a statement that asserts expansive possibilities for liberation and self-discovery through art.
Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery is co-organized by Colby College Museum of Art and Carnegie Museum of Art, and curated by Sarah Humphreville, Lunder Curator of American Art, Colby Museum, and Eric Crosby, Henry J. Heinz II Director, Carnegie Museum of Art, and Vice President, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, with Cynthia Stucki, curatorial assistant, Carnegie Museum of Art.
The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue published in association with DelMonico Books and designed by Purtill Family Business. Contributors include Katie Anania, Donna M. Cassidy, John Corbett, Eric Crosby, Sarah Humphreville, and Cynthia Stucki.
Generous support for the exhibition catalogue has been provided by Karma Gallery and the Wyeth Foundation for American Art. Additional support for the exhibition and publication has been provided by Nancy and Woody Ostrow, Valerie Carberry and Richard Wright, the Robot Family Foundation, Schoelkopf Gallery, and Waqas Wajahat; as well as through Colby Museum funds including the Mirken Family Publications Fund and the Everett and Florence Turner Exhibition Fund.
Works
Oil on board, 6 x 8 in. (15.2 x 20.3 cm). Collection of Shio Kusaka and Jonas Wood. Photo: Marten Elder; Courtesy of Karma Gallery
Installation Views
