Chicago Featured Programs
The Terra Foundation for American Art is committed to promoting and supporting American art activities in Chicago, including K–12, public, and academic programs and exhibitions, as part of an ongoing effort to shine a spotlight on the city as a dynamic center for exploring the rich history of American art.
Lecture Series: American Art—Innovation and Reform
Fullerton Hall, The Art Institute of ChicagoFree to the public
Better for Haunts: Victorian Houses and the Modern Imagination
Wednesday, March 14
6p.m.
Sarah Burns, professor emerita at Indiana University asks: Why does the Addams family live in a decayed Victorian house? Why does the ominous mansion in Psycho have a mansard roof? Examining the dark side of American domestic architecture, Burns traces the Victorian house back to painting, photography, and the mass media of the early twentieth century, when the invasion of ghosts and ghouls began.
The Wit of Illusion: Trompe l'Oeil in American Art
Wednesday, May 9
6p.m.
Wendy Bellion, University of Delaware, notes that trompe l'oeil artworks have been pleasing and teasing Americans with perceptual riddles since the 1790s. From the Peale family painters in the early republic to the late nineteenth century world of William Michael Harnett, Bellion explores the wit of American illusionism.
For more information, please visit the Art Institute of Chicago's website.
Q & A with Terra Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Chicago Sarah Miller
Sarah Miller is the Terra Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in pre-1945 American Art in the Department of Art History at the University of Chicago. Dr. Miller shares some of her experiences in working with students and local art historians to pursue original research in the field of American Art.What initially drew you to the field of American art? How has your interest or focus changed or developed throughout your career?
I began my studies in the history of photography and architecture and urbanism, but I almost always worked on American subjects. I didn't deliberately set out to study American art history specifically, but was always drawn to the areas of art history that are most closely related to cultural history and social politics, and my interests in those fields were usually American. I started out being most interested in contemporary art, and then steadily worked backwards. By the time I wrote my dissertation I knew I wanted to work in the pre-1945 period of American Modernism and that I generally thought of myself as a modernist, more than a contemporary, scholar.
Q & A with Terra Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University Melody Deusner
Melody Deusner is the Terra Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in American Art from 1600–1950 in the Department of Art History at Northwestern University. Dr. Deusner shares some of her experiences in working with students and developing scholarship.
What initially drew you to the field of American art? How has your interest/focus changed or developed throughout your career?
My interest in art history was originally grounded in nineteenth century French painting and developed through my graduate career into modern European art generally, but I tended to have ideas of work I wanted to do only to find that something similar had already been done. I think it was largely the openness of the American field that was so attractive to me. It seemed that on the American side there was so much accessible visual culture to work with, and that was, and is, really exciting. I began learning that there were all of these other visual objects that really enriched the fine art world and how I saw it—what is immediately available to you in American museums and archives, in person and online, is astounding. Because of my early training I still think of myself as a nineteenth century person in broad terms, but I try to use that grounding to look at American art as part of a continuum.
"Artbeat" on Chicago Tonight
With support from the Terra Foundation since 2007, PBS affiliate WTTW11 has created a series of "Artbeat" segments on American art, which air on the network's award-winning weeknight news show Chicago Tonight. Topics have ranged from outsider artist Henry Darger to photographers and friends Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind, and from Tiffany decoration at the Chicago Cultural Center to Progressive-era murals in Chicago schools. The segments cover prominent artists, collections, exhibitions, and art-historically significant spaces in Chicago and offer a fascinating look at the city's art history. Each segment is available for on-demand viewing on the Chicago Tonight Web site.
Artist H.C. Westermann
Aired January 10, 2012
A gunner on an aircraft carrier in World War II, Westermann witnessed kamikaze attacks, and his later artwork was deeply informed by his wartime experience. As Abstract Expressionism gave way to Pop Art, Westermann stood alone, constructing unique and personal objects that employed his abundant woodworking and machine-shop skills. We'll visit the H.C. Westermann Study Collection at the Smart Museum of Art, speak with curators Richard Born and Lynne Warren about his emergence in the 1950s, and get a peak inside an important private collection in Chicago.
Elmhurst College Art Collection
Aired October 25, 2011
At the heart of the Elmhurst College Art Collection is an extraordinary collection of works by Chicago Imagist and Abstractionist artists. Focusing on artists working in Chicago between about 1950 and the present, the collection displays a broad range of artistic ideas and influences. Elmhurst’s collection dates to 1971, when the College received federal funding to purchase art for the newly built A.C. Buehler Library. With the goal of buying art that had a particular meaning, the College focused its collecting on the works of a group of emerging and affordable Chicago artists—a group that would later be known as the Chicago Imagists.
Terra Foundation Lectures on American Art at the Chicago Humanities Festival Now Available Online
Since 2005, the Terra Foundation has awarded several multiyear grants to the Chicago Humanities Festival in support of an annual public lecture on the history of American art and visual culture at the organization's annual two-week celebration of the humanities. The Terra Foundation Lecture on American Art is intended to expose Chicagoans to leading scholars and thinkers in the field of American art.
Online versions of the lectures are available on the Humanities Festival's website.
2006 David Lubin, "Art for War's Sake"
2007 Angela Miller, "American Landscape Art and Environmental Thinking"
2008 Erika Doss, "Picturing New Deal American Art"
2009 Jennifer Greenhill, "Terra Foundation Lecture on American Art"
2010 Sarah Burns, "Corruptible Flesh: Art and Necrophilia in Chicago"
