GERTRUDE ABERCROMBIE
b. 1909, United StatesGertrude Abercrombie (b. 1909, Austin, TX; d. 1977, Chicago, IL) was a critical, under-considered fixture of mid-century American Surrealism. Well-known as a staple of the Chicago jazz scene, Abercrombie earned the epithets “queen of the bohemian artists” and the “other Gertrude,” in reference to Gertrude Stein. Her diaristic paintings were preceded by the legacy of French Surrealism and succeeded by the Chicago Imagists of the 1960s, such as Christina Ramberg, Jim Nutt, and Roger Brown. Rooted in fantasy, Abercrombie’s dreamscapes, still lifes, and self-portraits feature a visual lexicon inspired by her daily life: shells, eggs, black cats, doors, bowls of fruit, Victorian furniture, and moonlit landscapes.
Abercrombie’s work is included in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Illinois State Museum, Springfield, Lewistown, Lockport; The Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.; and Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee.
Text courtesy Karma.
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