Corbett vs. Dempsey

By Paul Klein, February 20, 2009

I love how Jim & John at Corbett vs Dempsey think. (To a large extent their gallery focuses on Chicago art from 1940 to 1970 - a very fertile period for growth and change.) And they are intrigued by the parallels between Chicago and LA during that period. They are many essential differences. LA was much more about Light & Space, Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman. Chicago would be much more figurative and narrative like Ivan Albright through Seymour Rosofsky. Sorry, we got diverted. So the new show at C vs D is of Robert Donley who is a Chicago artist who moved to L.A. and painted large, bright, colorfield, theoretical paintings. And then he moved back to Chicago and made narrative, tight, almost literal, map-like renderings of Chicago. A fascinating look not only at the differences that exist between L.A. and Chicago, but also the affect of place on one artist.

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