Arthur Lerner (born 1929) is an American artist, known for his atmospheric figurative paintings and drawings, landscapes, and still lifes. He is sometimes described as a realist, but most critics observe that his work is more subjective than descriptive or literal.Pieszak, Devonna. "Arthur Lerner Enigmatic Realist," ''CITY: A Journal of the City Colleges of Chicago'', Fall 1986.Artner, Alan G
"Lerner's Brush Still Quicker Than the Eye,"
''Chicago Tribune'', June 20, 1986, p.59.Bone, James. "Art Facts: a mix of media on Wells Street," ''Chicago Reader'', March 11, 1983. Associated with Chicago's influential " Monster Roster" artists early in his career, he shared their enthusiasm for expressive figuration, fantasy and mythology, and their

existential Existentialism is a family of philosophical views and inquiry that explore the human individual's struggle to lead an authentic life despite the apparent absurdity or incomprehensibility of existence. In examining meaning, purpose, and value ...

outlook, but diverged increasingly in his classical formal concerns and more detached temperament.Corbett, John. "Bleak House: Chicago's Monster Artists," in ''Monster Roster: Existentialist Art in Postwar Chicago,'' John Corbett, Jim Dempsey, Jessica Moss, and Richard A. Born, University of Chicago Press: Smart Museum of Art, 2016.Reichert, Elliot
"Review: Chicago Connection/Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art,"
''New City'', September 7, 2015. Retrieved April 7, 2018. Critics frequently note in Lerner's art a sense of light that evokes

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

, delicate color and modelling that "flirts with dematerialization,"Polanski, G. Jurek
"Self Portraits 2000,"
''ArtScope'', 2000. Retrieved April 7, 2018. and the draftsmanship that serves as a foundation for all of his work.Artner, Alan G
"It's Taken 15 Years, But Exhibit Is Top Drawers,"
''Chicago Tribune'', May 4, 2000, Retrieved April 9, 2018.Goldstein, Nathan
''Design & Composition''
New York: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1989, p.20. The ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1847, it was formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN (AM), WGN radio and ...

'' 's Alan Artner lamented Lerner's comparative lack of recognition in relation to the

Chicago Imagists The Chicago Imagists are a group of representational artists associated with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago who exhibited at the Hyde Park Art Center in the late 1960s. Their work was known for grotesquerie, Surrealism and complete i ...

as the fate of "an aesthete in a town dominated by tenpenny fantasts."Artner, Alan G
"Mistiness And Insight: The Landscapes And Still Lifes Of Chicago Realist Arthur Lerner,"
''Chicago Tribune'', January 17, 1997. Lerner's work has been extensively covered in publications, featured in books such as ''Monster Roster: Existential Art in Postwar Chicago'',Corbett, John and Jim Dempsey, Jessica Moss, and Richard A. Born
''Monster Roster: Existentialist Art in Postwar Chicago,''
University of Chicago Press: Smart Museum of Art, 2016. and acquired by public and private collections, including those of the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States. The museum is based in the Art Institute of Chicago Building in Chicago's Grant Park (Chicago), Grant Park. Its collection, stewa ...

, Smart Museum of Art, and

Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art The Block Museum of Art is a free public art museum located on the campus of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. The Block Museum was established in 1980 when Chicago art collectors Mary (daughter of Albert Lasker) and Leigh B. Block ...

, among many.Boone, Garret. Review, ''Chicago Tribune'', October, 1963.Artner, Alan G. exhibition critique, ''Chicago Tribune'', April 22, 2005.Art Institute of Chicago
Untitled #1, 1961, Arthur Lerner
Collections. Retrieved April 15, 2018.
Retrieved March 30, 2018.

Life and education

Lerner was born and raised in the ethnic neighborhood of Humboldt Park on Chicago's west side. Interested in art as a child, he took classes at the

School of the Art Institute of Chicago The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a Private university, private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which gr ...

(SAIC) at age twelve, and won a scholarship there in 1946. He joined a student body composed largely of older

G.I. Bill The G.I. Bill, formally the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I. (military), G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in ...

veterans, including

Leon Golub Leon Golub (January 23, 1922 – August 8, 2004) was an American painter. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, where he also studied, receiving his BA at the University of Chicago in 1942, and his BFA and MFA at the School of the Art Institute ...

Cosmo Campoli Cosmo Campoli (March 21, 1922 – December 15, 1997) was a Chicago-based sculptor, known for his figurative work centered on the themes of birth and death, and for his use of bold, surreal bird and egg imagery.Corbett, John. "Bleak House: Chicago' ...

and Seymour Rosofsky. Many of them would be collectively dubbed the "Monster Roster" by critic Franz Schulze in the late 1950s, for their expressionist figurative work, and regarded as forerunners to the more widely known and organized Imagists.Adrian, Dennis. "Introduction," in ''Monster Roster: Existentialist Art in Postwar Chicago,'' John Corbett, Jim Dempsey, Jessica Moss, and Richard A. Born, University of Chicago Press: Smart Museum of Art, 2016.Yood, James
"Introducing the MONSTER ROSTER,"
''art ltd.'', March 1, 2016. Retrieved June 27, 2018. Lerner studied under painters Louis Ritman and

Boris Anisfeld Boris Izrailevich Anisfeld (1878–1973) was a Russian-American painter during the Modernist period, best known for his Symbolist stage designs. Biography 1878 – October 2. Boris Izrailevich (Srulevich) Anisfeld is born in Bieltsy, in th ...

, earning his BFA (1951) and MFA (1952) at SAIC. During this time, he exhibited in the seminal Momentum Exhibitions of 1948-1950, organized by SAIC and Institute of Design students in protest over their exclusion from the Art Institute's prestigious "Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity." After graduating, Lerner won a foreign travel fellowship (1952)Art Institute of Chicago
1952 Press Releases, June 9, 1952
Retrieved April 7, 2018. and a Fulbright grant (1957), which took him for a year to Rome and to Florence, respectively. The experience left an enduring mark; his studies of Renaissance and Baroque art, as well as classical literature like Dante, took his developing work in figurative, mythological and mystical directions, while solidifying his classically influenced aesthetics. Travel would exert a strong influence throughout his career, inspiring a decade-plus shift to landscape painting in the late 1970s, and a return to the figure in the mid-1990s. In 1961, Lerner joined the art faculty at

City Colleges of Chicago The City Colleges of Chicago is the public community college system of the Chicago area. Its colleges offer associate degrees, certificates, free courses for the GED, and free English as a second language (ESL) courses. The City Colleges sys ...

, where he would teach until retiring in 1996. Over the last five decades, he has been featured in solo exhibitions at the Jan Cicero, Walter Wickiser (New York), LIPA, and Printworks galleries, and shown at institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago, Smart Museum of Art,

Hyde Park Art Center The Hyde Park Art Center (HPAC) is a visual arts organization and the oldest alternative exhibition space in the city of Chicago. Since 2006, HPAC has been located just north of Hyde Park Boulevard, at 5020 S.Cornell Avenue, in the Kenwood neigh ...

,Glatt, Cara. "Six Chicago Artists," ''Hyde Park Herald'', May 1984. Chicago Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, and

Chicago Cultural Center The Chicago Cultural Center, opened in 1897, is a Chicago Landmark building operated by Chicago's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. The Cultural Center houses the city's official reception venue, where the Mayor of Chicago, M ...

, which honored him with a solo show in 2000. Lerner continues to work and live, with his wife, artist Carole Harmel, in Chicago.

Work

Lerner's work reflects both a deep connection to art history and a commitment to his own deeply personal path. Fusing his regard for

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

and

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

masters,

Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French people, French Impressionism, Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, Print ...

, expressionists like Soutine, and modernists like

Francis Bacon Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (; 22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher and statesman who served as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England under King James I. Bacon argued for the importance of nat ...

and

Giacometti Alberto Giacometti (, , ; 10 October 1901 – 11 January 1966) was a Swiss sculptor, painter, draftsman and printmaker, who was one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century. His work was particularly influenced by artistic styles su ...

, he developed an introspective, intuitive style that suggests but eludes labels like Expressionism, Impressionism,

Surrealism Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

Fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

Classicism Classicism, in the arts, refers generally to a high regard for a classical period, classical antiquity in the Western tradition, as setting standards for taste which the classicists seek to emulate. In its purest form, classicism is an aesthe ...

, or Realism. Hallmarks of his style are his atmospheric modelling, restrained palette, and intense, bleaching light, which often creates a diaphanous space in which subjects appear "inexplicably muted as if viewed through a mist or scrim" or seem to hover "somewhere between mirage and dream." Postiglione, Corey. "Images of Quiet Intensity," Walter Wickiser Gallery, catalogue, 1993.Pieszak, Devonna. "Arthur Lerner," Catalogue essay, Galerija, Chicago, IL, 1983. Lerner's work can be classified into three main categories: figurative works, still lifes, and landscapes.

Figurative work

Lerner has a longstanding affinity for the figure as a universal metaphor capable of expressing the full range of human experience.The Art Institute of Chicago, ''Artists Oral History Archive''
Arthur Lerner
Retrieved March 30, 2018.Schulze, Franz. "Art in Chicago: The Two Traditions," i
''Art in Chicago 1945-1995''
Museum of Contemporary Art, ed. Lynne Warren. New York: Thames and Hudson, 1996, p.16-20. Retrieved March 30, 2018. His early work, influenced by Expressionism, mythology, and the existentialism of

Sartre Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (, ; ; 21 June 1905 – 15 April 1980) was a French philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic, considered a leading figure in 20th-century French ph ...

and Camus, consisted of frontal paintings and conté drawings that featured isolated, fantastical creatures (''Phoenix'', 1955; ''Harpy'', 1957), anguished heads (''Screaming Head'', 1962), or agonized, cadaver-like figures (the ''Torn'' series, 1960-2), often dissolving into painterly color-field backgrounds.Donato, Marla. "Gallery Tripping: Chicago Artists Expose Themselves," ''Chicago Reader'', May 20, 1983. In addition to their emotional charge, these works have been noted for their "fascination with surface and the interplay of light and shadow" and compared to the work of

Moore Moore may refer to: Language * Mooré language, spoken in West Africa People * Moore (surname) ** List of people with surname Moore * Moore Crosthwaite (1907–1989), a British diplomat and ambassador * Moore Disney (1765–1846), a senior ...

, Baskin, and Bacon.Dose, Frederic. "The Lions and Lesser Known," ''Chicago Journal'', June 8, 1983. Lerner exhibited extensively at the time, locally and abroad, notably in several Art Institute "Chicago and Vicinity" exhibits, shows at the

Seattle Art Museum The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in Seattle, Washington (state), Washington, United States. The museum operates three major facilities: its main museum in downtown Seattle; the Seattle Asian Art Museum in ...

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...

and Antioch College, and solo exhibitions at the John L. Hunt (1963) and Anna Werbe (Detroit, 1964) galleries, Elmhurst College (1972), and Alverno College (1973). Over time, Giacometti's influence on Lerner grew and his work became more detached and ethereal, with "substantiality and concreteness displaced by diffusion of light" and color suppressed in favor of tonality and pale hue.Polanski, G. Jurek
"Significant Signifiers, Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art,"
''ArtScope'', 2001. Retrieved June 27, 2018. The shift, glimpsed in portraits, such as ''Laura I'' (1975), continued into the 1990s when Lerner returned to the figure after abandoning it for roughly a decade. Inspired by a visit to The Museum of the Mummies in Guanajuato, Mexico, he began exploring the beauty of decay and the feelings evoked by death through depictions of mummified, skeletal or hanged figures, corpses, and mythological subjects.Silverman, Lanny. "In Transition," Chicago Cultural Center, exhibition essay, 2000. Reviews commented on the epic tone, muted horror,Artner, Alan G. exhibition critique, ''Chicago Tribune'', October 22, 2004. "delicate animation and expressive grace" of works like ''Descent'' (2001) that considered humanity "variously as puppets in the game of life, pure physical matter, or tortured souls."Rosenbloom-Kerzner, Idelle. "Artists recall terrible things," ''Post-Tribune'', April 13, 2003, B1. Artist Neil Goodman, who curated an Indiana University show of this work, described the paintings as "both troubling and enticing, yet beautiful in the way that only visual language can embrace a paradox."King, Peter. "'Passages' Arouse Human Emotions," ''Indiana University Northwest News'', April 2, 2003. Lerner has said about this work, "Mummies and mythical figures in my work are not intended to represent specific political or historical events in any way, but rather to act as symbols or metaphors for the terror, the anguish, the tragic, the comic—even the absurdity and the beauty of life as we experience it."Arthur Lerner official website, artist statement
Retrieved March 30, 2018. In subsequent years, Lerner exhibited similar work in shows contemplating the effects of war, genocide,Artner, Alan G
"Memento Mori,"
''Chicago Tribune'', July 12, 2002. and the Holocaust. Rocca, Suellen. "24th Annual Holocaust Education Project at Elmhurst College," Program, Curator's note, April 27, 2014, p. 6.

Still lifes

In the late 1970s, Lerner made a major shift to still lifes and landscapes, prompted by a trip to the French maritime Alps, and later cemented after the purchase of a summer home in coastal Maine. Upon returning to Chicago, he began working on minimalist paintings of paper bags (1978) that, formally, recalled the mountains for him. He then turned to spare groupings of natural materials like rocks, shells, driftwood, leaves, bones and gourds that have been likened to Zen gardens in their "calculated casualness," careful arrangement, and spatial tension. Contrasting them to his other work, Lerner describes the still lifes as "a more direct approach to the pure pleasure of looking at things." Like the landscapes that would follow, these new paintings were simultaneously more precise and concrete—sometimes suggesting the detachment of Philip Pearlstein—and yet more abstract. Critics attributed this to Lerner's "opalescent light,"Holg, Garrett. "Contemporary Realism," ''New Art Examiner'', February 1984, p.18. which gave his shadows palpable form and created the "effect of a hazy, delicately colored, and possibly mystical procession of shapes across the canvas" that suggested landscapes. This artistic fiction transformed what appeared to be simple paintings, such as ''Bones, Gourds and Shells'' (1990), into metaphysical works that evoked a mood of mystery and quietude critics likened to the work of

Giorgio Morandi Giorgio Morandi (July 20, 1890 – June 18, 1964) was an Italian painter and printmaker widely known for his subtly muted still-life paintings of ceramic vessels, flowers, and landscapes—their quiet, meditative quality reflecting the artist's ...

Landscapes

Concurrent with the still lifes, Lerner began painting Maine coastscapes. Describing the contrast between Maine's "dramatic, almost brooding landscape" and Chicago's urban unruliness as "a kind of epiphany," he said, "I became drawn into the more spiritual, psychological and atmospheric qualities and the sense of oneness that pervades everything in nature." Critics described these new paintings as "landscapes of wonderment" and "hard-headed poetry";Artner, Alan G
"Blaze of Illumination Turns Heads in Delight,"
''Chicago Tribune'', June 9, 1988. and compared them to the work of

Hopper Hopper or hoppers may refer to: Places * Hopper, Illinois * Hopper, West Virginia * Hopper, a mountain and valley in the Hunza–Nagar District of Pakistan * Hopper (crater), a crater on Mercury People * Hopper (surname) Insects * Hopper, the ...

and Rothko, noting Lerner's use of light as an agent of transformation to harmonize what he sees in nature. In reviews covering four shows at Jan Cicero Gallery (1986-1997), Alan Artner observed that the light alternately gave "shadows the solidity of rock and rock the buoyancy of snow" or bleached out land and seascapes in its intensity, detaching them from their natural contexts.Artner, Alan G. Exhibition critique, ''Chicago Tribune'', May 3, 1991. He wrote that paintings like ''Coastscape Series III'' (1985-6) revealed keen observation, yet diverged from reality to create a sense of feeling and atmosphere that became almost abstract. In later series, Lerner focused on the brighter reds, yellows and blues of Arizona's red rock country and the subtler palettes of the Grand Canyon, in works like ''Canyon Series V'' (1996).

Teaching

Lerner began his teaching career at Ray-Vogue College, a commercial art school in Chicago, in 1955. He worked there until 1957, teaching fine arts, illustration and design. In 1961, he was hired at City Colleges of Chicago, where he would teach basic drawing, figure drawing, and painting until his retirement in 1996. He was named Distinguished Professor, Richard J. Daley College in 1986–7. Lerner modeled his approach on that of his own SAIC figure drawing teacher, Robert Lifvendahl, taking a highly structured approach to teaching foundational technique and methods to a broad spectrum of students that included college teens, blue-collar workers, and retirees. Lerner also taught at Ox-Bow School of Art, School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1961.

Collections and recognition

Lerner's art is represented in numerous public and private collections, including those of the: Smithsonian Institution, Art Institute of Chicago,Art Institute of Chicago, Frank B. Hubacheck Purchase Award for Drawing First All-Illinois Biennial of Prints, Drawings and Watercolors, Announcement
1961 Press Releases, December 4, 1961.
Retrieved April 7, 2018. Smart Museum of Art,Smart Museum of Art
Arthur Lerner, ''Harpy''
1957. Retrieved June 27, 2018. Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Farhat Cultural Center (Beirut, Lebanon),Farhat Cultural Center
Arthur Lerner, ''Abstract Portrait''
1961–2. Retrieved June 27, 2018. Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art, U.S. State Department Cultural Division, Harry S. Truman College, United Airlines, Continental Bank of Illinois (now Bank of America), Northern Trust Bank of Illinois, Kemper Insurance Companies, Jenner and Block, Inc., Hahn, Holland and Grossman, Joseph Shapiro, and David and Sarajean Ruttenberg, among many. He has been recognized with National Endowment for the Arts awards (1981, 1982), a Fulbright Grant (1957-8), and a James Nelson Raymond Foreign Travel Fellowship (1952–3).

References

External links

Arthur Lerner official website

The Art Institute of Chicago, Artists Oral History Archive: Arthur Lerner
Interview with Linda L. Kramer and Sandra Binion, 2010. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lerner, Arthur 21st-century American painters 21st-century American male artists Painters from Chicago 20th-century American painters American male painters American landscape painters School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni University of Chicago alumni Culture of Chicago 1929 births Living people Educators from Illinois 20th-century American male artists