Eye Deal: Abstract Bodies of the Chicago Imagists

Exhibition Website

Aug 11 2018 - Jun 9 2019

From August 11, 2018 through June 9, 2019 the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art (MMoCA) will present an exhibition highlighting their acclaimed collection of works by the Chicago Imagists in Eye Deal: Abstract Bodies of the Chicago Imagists. The exhibition will feature artwork by Sarah Canright, Art Green, Gladys Nilsson, Jim Nutt, Christina Ramberg, Suellen Rocca, Barbara Rossi, and Karl Wirsum.

The Imagists were a group of figurative artists that emerged in Chicago in the mid-1960s. They employed the comic book, commercial advertising, and the grotesque to render detailed compositions full of color and sexual innuendo. Poking fun at the extreme silhouettes presented in advertisements of the 1950s and 60s, the Imagists created their own exaggerated, warped bodies that playfully mocked the bulging muscles and tiny waistlines of society’s ideal physique.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.         

  • Various Media
  • American
  • 20th Century
  • Sarah Canright
  • Art Green
  • Gladys Nilsson
  • Jim Nutt
  • Christina Ramberg
  • Suellen Rocca
  • Barbara Rossi
  • Karl Wirsum
  • and others

Exhibition Venues & Dates