Christina Ramberg, 5/1-6/10/00, installation view
While she was alive, Chicago artist Christina Ramberg did not exhibit her drawings. Instead, she used them to investigate the morphological processes informing the painting for which she is most recognized. This exhibit provides a fascinating first look at a selection of the over 350 drawings in Ramberg's estate. Demonstrating the artist's creative process, the exhibition includes 140 drawings on index cards, graph paper and tracing paper as well as several vitrines containing original source material. By bringing to light a compelling new layer of her creative practice, this exhibit forces a reevaluation of Ramberg's career, as well as offers new insight into the history of Chicago post-war art in general.
Traditionally associated with the Chicago Imagists, Ramberg was a dynamic presence in the Chicago community from the 1960s until her death in 1995. Sharing the Imagist practice of quoting liberally from popular culture, Ramberg found inspiration in a wide range of visual sources, from fashion layouts and medical illustrations to tattoo books and underwear advertisements.
Ramberg's work, however, stands apart from the Imagists' in its particularly feminist sensibility, evidenced in her use of erotically charged, fetishized female imagery. Ramberg's depictions of women evade a simplistic, authoritative reading. Her careful formal technique, using quiet colors and precise lines, belies a messy subject full of torture and desire. Fragmented and cropped, bound and gagged, Ramberg's women describe an imploding force of repressed female desire.
Many of Ramberg's drawings describe multiple transformations of a single subject. In her review, Amanda Henry notes that the "[w]omen's bodies are not just associated with domestic objects, they are taken over by them. " For instance, a woman's head of hair turns into a head of lettuce, a plastic bag, and pair of pantaloons. By combining disparate elements- underwear with medical supplies, bandages with brassieres- Ramberg makes the innocuous threatening and the everyday strange.
This exhibition travels to four other institutions: The Ben Maltz Gallery
(Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles), Herron Gallery (Indiana
University), Madison Art Center (Madison, Wisconsin) and Marsh Art Gallery
(University of Richmond, Virginia).
Accompanied by a 128 page catalog, with color and black and white reproductions.
