‘Gyroscopic’ Exhibition Features Richard Koppe’s Fish and Bird Series

Abstract paintings and drawings by a noted artist who taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago will be shown at a well-known gallery to support art scholarships.

WHAT:
The UIC College of Architecture and the Arts will present “Gyroscopic: Cubist Drawings and Late Paintings, 1936-1970,” an exhibition of paintings and drawings by Richard Koppe.

[Note: photos can be downloaded at http://newsphoto.lib.uic.edu/v/Koppe/.]

WHERE:
Corbett vs. Dempsey
1120 N. Ashland Ave.
third floor.

WHEN:
Opening reception: Nov. 30, 5 to 8 p.m.
Exhibition on view through Jan. 26, Tuesday – Saturday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., or by appointment.

DETAILS:
Richard Koppe (1916-1973) was a prolific painter, printmaker, muralist and sculptor who became influential in Chicago’s postwar art scene. Originally from St. Paul, Minn., he moved to Chicago to study with Lazlo Moholy-Nagy, György Kepes and Alexander Archipenko at the New Bauhaus (now the Institute of Design at the Illinois Institute of Technology). He taught at IIT from 1946 to 1963, and at UIC from 1963 to 1970.

Koppe’s work is included in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago. He exhibited widely through New Bauhaus group shows. Articles in the New York Times, ArtNews, and Art Digest referred to Koppe’s sense of design and interest in non-objective images.

In 1949, Koppe wrote, “My work starts out as an abstract idea and sometimes becomes objective in the fish and bird series of drawings. Between the two poles, the abstract and the particular, are infinite possibilities.”

For information on the exhibition, contact Olga Corrias Hancock, ohancock@uic.edu. For gallery information, call (773) 278-1664.