Events
Isobel Steele MacKinnon
“Untitled (Female Portrait)”
c. 1927
oil on canvas
24.5” x 19”
ISOBEL STEELE MACKINNON
Weimar Portraits
Riviera Landscapes
A Chicagoan in Hofmann’s Studio 1925–1929
March 28 – May 3, 2008
Opening reception: Friday, March 28, 5-9 p.m.
Isobel Steele MacKinnon’s (1896-1972) adventures as an American artist living and working in Europe echo those of many other expatriates of the epoch. What the couple encountered from 1925 to 1929 in the studio of German artist Hans Hofmann would rock the impressionist foundations of their artwork and transform them into committed modernists. In Chicago, MacKinnon’s approach had been relatively conventional, but under Hofmann she took to the new ideas with startling ease, absorbing his “push and pull” spatial concept and his deep investigations of the compositional consequences of hot and cold colors.
The exhibition at Corbett vs. Dempsey is drawn from the work MacKinnon produced during this exceptional period. It includes portraits, charcoal figure drawings, and the bright landscapes of Capri and St. Tropez painted during MacKinnon’s summer travels with Hofmann.
In the East Wing:
Benjamin Seamons
New Paintings
In the East Wing, Corbett vs. Dempsey is pleased to present new work by Benjamin Seamons. These bold, playful, immaculate paintings on panel are rooted in the Chicago Imagist tradition of Christina Ramberg and Philip Hanson, with a thoroughly contemporary sensibility.