The exhibition Voyages: The Art of Evelyn Metzger is on view at the James W. Palmer III Gallery through Friday, July 31, with an opening reception on June 25, 5–6:30pm.
Evelyn Metzger (1912-2007), Street Market, Hong Kong, 1993, Oil on panel, 24 x 32 inches.
The paintings of alumna Evelyn Metzger (1911-2004), Vassar Class of 1932, span most of the 20th century. As the daughter of wealthy New York socialites who had a passion for art, she grew up traveling extensively to study the great art of the world. After her studio art and art history studies at Vassar, Metzger continued to develop her painterly skills while traveling and mounted her first solo exhibition in Argentina in 1950.
The next four decades saw both developments in her personal life, as she became a mother and grandmother, and tremendous developments in her art as she continually experimented with realism, Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism, abstraction, Fauvism, and Cubism with subjects ranging from portraits of family members to religious and genre scenes.
The emotional and stylistic journeys inherent in her life are underscored and informed by her world travels as she captured compelling scenes from China, India, Algiers, Turkey, Yemen, Singapore, France, and the Arctic. From the thousands of paintings Metzger created over most of the 20th century, 42 have been assembled that represent the range of her temporal, stylistic, and physical journeys as an artist.
Metzger was memorialized in the book The Age of Grandeur and a Woman Who Lived It: Artist Evelyn Metzger by Brett Topping and Nancy G. Heller. Her work is in the Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.
THE PALMER GALLERY
233 w huron
chicago il 60654
The Palmer Gallery, in the heart of Chicago’s River North neighborhood, offers a lovingly curated collection of exceptional modernist works. Kevin Palmer, founder and director, has dedicated his life to the pursuit, acquisition and appreciation of art and object representing the highest standards of his taste.
thepalmergallery.com
