TRANSFORMATIONS
Michigan Avenue Galleries at the Chicago Cultural Center
PRESS RELEASE
An experimental artist, Herbert Migdoll actively pursues his own
art in various mediums. This exhibition combines Migdoll's most
recent series of prints, with two of his earlier works of the faun
reflect the fruitful overlap of his artistic vision with that of
a resident photographer of modern and contemporary dance. Common
to all his imagery is the sense of movement inherent in his aesthetics
due to the passage of time encompassing one image.
Migdoll's digital prints achieve a rich painterly abstraction that
is visually related to the gestural abstraction of Expressionism.
Whether captured on stage or in the wings, Migdollís dancers are
most suggestive of flames against the night sky, perhaps, his subjects
in their costumes nearly explode before our eyes. Chance imagery
and ambiguity are the result of Migdollís split-second eye and hand
coordination in the creation of these diverse images. Whether depicting
one, two, or more dancers, these prints capture the exuberant, dynamic
gestures of lighted figures in space.
The two faun works, as well as Migdoll's portraits of the Doges,
constitute prime examples of his mural-sized works that use a succession
of images in space, which reflect their clear relationship to photography.
This, also ,is true of his latest painted mural of a gondola passing
on a Venetia canal, with the sequential imagery the basis for an
almost Cubist approach. The artist combines varied toned of gold
leaf as a background in some pieces to imbue his paintings with
a Byzantine character, somewhat consistent with the inspiration
of Venice so evident in works like the Doges' portraits that are
based on photographs of architectural sculptures of these 13th-16th
century Venetian leaders, located on the balcony of the Doges Palace
in Venice.
Herbert Migdoll is a Chicago-based artist who also works as the
Design Director of The Joffrey Ballet of Chicago. Migdoll holds
a degree in are from the Cooper Union, New York City, and also pursued
undergraduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and at the University of California Berkley. His accomplishments
as an artist include exhibitions in the United Stated and abroad,
with participation in the100th Venice Biennale in 1995. His paintings,
graphics and photographs are represented in several museums, corporate
and private collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New
York, and the Ikona Gallery, Venice, Italy. He has received commissions
and awards, most prominently a Fulbright fellowship in photography
(1970) and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in painting
(1980).
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click images for expanded view
Doges installation view
Doges detail
Black on Silver detail
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