Rarely seen Paschke artwork at Benedictine University gives visitors insight into Imagist movement

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Sep 25, 2014, 03:41 ET

LISLE, Ill., Sept. 25, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The late Edward Francis Paschke was a Polish-American painter whose childhood interest in animation and cartoons, as well as his father's creativity in wood carving and construction, led him toward a career in art.

Artwork is displayed in the Fr. Michael E. Komechak, O.S.B., Art Gallery at Benedictine University. (PRNewsFoto/Benedictine University)

The Fr. Michael E. Komechak, O.S.B., Art Gallery at Benedictine University is commemorating the 10-year anniversary of the artist's death with an exhibition celebrating the lively and pop art-influenced representational imagery associated with Paschke's art. The exhibition is comprised of family members' collections, which have rarely been seen in public.

A graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago, which has nearly two dozen of his works in its collection, Paschke was a member of the late-1960s Chicago Imagist movement, a group of artists whose expressive style of figurative painting was rooted in outsider art, popular culture and surrealism. Their art added heat to pop art's cool aesthetic.

"Although Ed Paschke is perhaps the best known of the Chicago Imagists, unlike many of his compatriots, Ed's interest in image was so much more fused with his interest in painterly matters," said Lynne Warren, curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.

"His bold use of color and the pictorial space it creates; his willingness to let his striking figuration dematerialize into blurs of color and retinal ghosts was certainly unique among Chicago-based artists and indeed in contemporary art in general."

Paschke's influence and popularity extend well beyond his native Chicago. His work has been included in exhibitions at numerous institutions around the world, including the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, D.C.), and the Louvre (Paris).

The exhibition at Benedictine underscores the University's mission – and that of the late Fr. Michael, for whom the gallery is named – to instill within students an appreciation of art, music and culture, and to develop well-rounded individuals who will become better learners, leaders and world citizens. Employers seek out staff who have a balanced education and experience. The gallery also provides a venue for students to display their own creative talents.

Fr. Michael began amassing the University art collection in 1951. It now contains more than 4,000 original works of art. Learn more at ben.edu/paschke.

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SOURCE Benedictine University