Gertrude Abercrombie
Gertrude Abercrombie (b. 1909, Austin; d. 1977, Chicago) was a critical, under-considered fixture of midcentury American Surrealism.Well known as a champion 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, among other subjects, are prominent motifs in her paintings.
Abercrombie’s work is included in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; Illinois State Museum, Springfield; Milwaukee Art Museum; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia; RISD Museum, Providence, Rhode Island; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World is a Mystery, the most comprehensive museum presentation of the artist’s work to date, will be on view at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, from January 18 to June 1, 2025 and will travel to Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine from July 12, 2025 to January 11, 2026.
Born 1909, Austin, Texas
Died 1977, Chicago
EDUCATION
1929
University of Illinois
1930
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World is a Mystery, January 18–June 1, 2025; Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, July 12, 2025–January 11, 2026 (traveling exhibition) (forthcoming)
2018
Karma, New York
Elmhurst Art Museum; Illinois State Museum, Springfield; Gertrude Abercrombie: Portrait of the Artist as Landscape, organized by Jenny Gibbs
1991
Illinois State Museum, Springfield, Gertrude Abercrombie
1977
Gertrude Abercrombie Retrospective, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago
1964
Gilman Galleries, Chicago
1960
Devorah Sherman Gallery, Chicago
1956
Chess House, Chicago
1955
Esquire Theatre, Chicago
1954-55
Marshall Field and Company, Chicago
1954
Irv Benjamin’s Restaurant, Chicago
1953
Illinois Design Center, Chicago
John Fordon Gallery, Aurora, Illinois
Newman Brown Gallery, Chicago
1952
Leonard Linn Gallery, Winnetka, Illinois
Edwin Hewitt Gallery, New York
Newman Brown Gallery, Chicago
Stevens-Gross Gallery, Chicago
Bresler Gallery, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
1948
Chicago Public Library, Art Room
1946
Associated American Artists, New York
1944
Marshall Field and Company, Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024
Lévy Gorvy Dayan, London, Enchanted Alchemies: Magic, Mysticism, and the Occult in Art
70 Main Street, Thomaston, Maine, A Particular Kind of Heaven
125 Newbury, New York, Animal Watch
2023
Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, “Pictures Girls Make”: Portraitures, curated by Alison M. Gingeras
Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Connecticut
2021
Fleisher/Ollman, Philadelphia, In Resonance with David Byrd
Trienens Galleries, The Newberry Library, Chicago, Five Women Ahead of Their Time
Toledo Art Museum, Supernatural America: The Paranormal in American Art
Lubeznik Center for the Arts, Michigan City, Indiana, Lost and Looking
University of Georgia, Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, Extra Ordinary: Magic, Mystery and Imagination in American Realism
Museum of Art and Archaeology, University of Missouri, Columbia, American Women Artists Since the Vote
2020
Karma, New York, (Nothing but) Flowers
2019
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, The Whitney’s Collection: Selections from 1900 to 1965
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago at MASP, São Paulo, Picture Gallery in Transformation
Heather James Fine Art, New York, The Female Gaze: Women Surrealists in the Americas and Europe
Independent Art Fair, New York, Gertrude Abercrombie, Ann Craven, Nicolas Party, Matthew Wong
2018-19
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark, The Moon: From Inner Worlds to Outer Space
2018
The Arts Club of Chicago, A Home for Surrealism
2015-16
MCA Chicago, Chicago, Surrealism: The Conjured Life
2012
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, In Wonderland: The Surrealist Adventures of Women Artists in Mexico and the United States
Lakeview Museum of Arts & Sciences, Peoria, Illinois, Skirting Convention: Illinois Women Artists 1840-1940
2005
Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, Wisconsin, With Friends: Six Magic Realists 1940-1965
1989-90
Washington Project for the Arts, Washington DC, The Blues Aesthetic: Black Culture and Modernism
1983
Illinois State Museum, Springfield, Gertrude Abercrombie and Friends
Illinois State Museum, Springfield, After the Great Crash: New Deal Art in Illinois
Madison Art Center, Wisconsin, Women Look at Women
1982
Rutgers University Art Gallery, New Brunswick, New Jersey, Realism and Realities: The Other Side of American Painting, 1940-60
1980
Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana, Selections from the Collection of George M. Irwin
1976
Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, 1939-76
Illinois State Museum, Springfield, Emergence of Modernism in Illinois, 1914- 40
1972
Bergman Gallery, University of Chicago, 57th St. Art Fair 25th Anniversary, Collector’s Retrospective
1971-2
Illinois Arts Council, Painters and Sculptors in Illinois, 1820-1945
1967
Art Institute of Chicago, 70th Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity
1966
One Day May Festival of Art, Chicago
1965
Gilman Gallery, Chicago, Primitives
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Art History Gallery, An Artist Collects: Paintings and Drawings from the Collection of Karl Priebe
1962
Renaissance Society, University of Chicago Collector’s Choice
Renaissance Society, University of Chicago Centennial Exhibition: Hyde Park Collects
Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, Hyde Park Art: Past and Present
1960
Art Institute of Chicago, 63rd Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity
1957
Chicago No-Jury Society of Artists Exhibition, Chicago
Old Town Art Gallery, Chicago
1956
Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago
1955-56
Art Institute of Chicago, Sales and Rental Gallery
1955
Art Institute of Chicago, 58th Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity
Magnificent Mile Art Festival, Chicago Stevens-Gross Gallery, Chicago
1954
Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Paintings, Prints, Drawings, Sculpture by Artist Members
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Myrtle Todes Gallery, Highland Park, Illinois
1953
57th Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity, Art Institute of Chicago
Mandel Brothers Gallery, Chicago, Exhibition of Chicago Artists’ Self-Portraits
1952
12th Annual Spring Purchase Exhibition, Springfield Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts
Artists Equity Association of Chicago Exhibition, Mandel Brothers Gallery, Chicago
Marshall Field and Company, Chicago
Peggy Palmer Burrows Studio, Chicago
1951-2
Holiday Show, Layton Art Galleries, Milwaukee
1951
Art Institute of Chicago, 55th Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity
University of Illinois, Urbana, Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, 1948-51
New Studio Gallery, Chicago
Edwin Hewitt Gallery, New York
1950
Art Institute of Chicago, 54th Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity
New Studio Gallery, Chicago
Artists Equity Association of Chicago Exhibition, Mandel Brothers Gallery, Chicago
1949
Art Institute of Chicago, 53rd Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity
1948
Art Institute of Chicago, 52nd Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity
1947
Art Institute of Chicago, 51st Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity
Riverside Museum, New York, Second Annual Exhibition of the La Tausca Art Competition circulated by the American Federation of Arts
Hyde Park Outdoor Art Fair, Chicago
Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Art for Young Collectors
1946
Chicago Society of Artists Exhibition, New Trier High School Gallery, Winnetka, Illinois
Art Institute of Chicago, The Fiftieth Annual Exhibition of Works by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity
1945
Society for Contemporary American Art, Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago, 56th Annual Exhibition of American Painting and Sculpture
Western College, Oxford, Ohio, The Women: An Exhibition of Paintings by Contemporary American Women
Associated American Artists Gallery, New York, First Show of Chicago Artists
Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture by Chicago Artists
1944
Art Institute of Chicago, 55th Annual Exhibition of American Painting and Sculpture
Art Institute of Chicago, 48th Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity
Art Institute, Milwaukee
Fourth Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Paintings, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia
Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Illinois, Drawings by Contemporary Artists
1943
Art Institute of Chicago, 47th Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity
Art Institute, Kalamazoo, Michigan
Cordon Club, Chicago, Exhibition of Women Painters and Sculptors of Chicago
1942
Art Institute of Chicago, 46th Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity
Passedoit Gallery, New York
Art Institute of Chicago, 53rd Annual Exhibition of American Painting and Sculpture
World’s Fair Show, San Francisco
1941
Art Institute of Chicago, 52nd Annual Exhibition of American Painting and Sculpture
Art Institute of Chicago, 45th Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity
Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Illinois, Works by Chicago Artists loaned by Chicago Collectors
University of Minnesota Gallery, Some Individuals
1940
Art Institute of Chicago, 19th International Watercolor Exhibition
Art Institute of Chicago, 44th Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Four American Traveling Exhibitions
1939
Art Institute of Chicago, 43rd Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity
Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco, International Water Color Exhibition
New York World’s Fair Show, Museum of Modern Art, New York, American Art Today
Frontiers of American Art, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco
University of Minnesota
Riverside Museum, New York, Chicago Society of Artists Exhibition
Katharine Kuh Gallery, Chicago
1938-39
Great Lakes Exhibition, Paintings by artists of the Great Lakes Region (circulating exhibition-Albright Art Gallery for the Patterson Society, Buffalo, New York)
1938
Art Institute of Chicago, W.P. A. Art for the Public by Chicago Artists
49th Annual Exhibition of American Painting and Sculpture, Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago, 17th International Watercolor Exhibition
Art Institute of Chicago, 42nd Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity
Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts
Lake Shore Athletic Club Annual Invitation Exhibition
Katharine Kuh Gallery, Chicago
1937
Art Institute of Chicago, 41st Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity
Katharine Kuh Gallery, Chicago
Chicago Society of Artists, Annual Exhibition
1936
Art Institute of Chicago, 15th-14th International Watercolor Exhibition
Art Institute of Chicago, 40th Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity
Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute,Pittsburgh, Exhibition of Paintings by Chicago Artists
City of New York Municipal Art Committee, New York, First National Exhibition of American Art
Katharine Kuh Gallery, Chicago
Boyer Galleries, Inc., Philadelphia, Paintings by Chicago Artists
Chicago No-Jury Society of Artists, 12th Annual Exhibition
Mandel Brothers Gallery, Chicago and Evanston Art Center, Evanston, Illinois, Chicago Society of Artists Calendar Exhibition
Chicago Society of Artists, Chicago, Annual Exhibition
1935
Traveling Exhibition of the Chicago Society of Artists, circulated from Delphic Studios, New York, by American Federation of Arts (to Trenton, New Jersey; Washington DC; Delaware, Ohio; Bemidji, Minnesota; and Rockford, Illinois)
Art Institute of Chicago, 46th Annual Exhibition of American Painting and Sculpture
Art Institute of Chicago, 14th International Watercolor Exhibition
Art Institute of Chicago, 39th Annual Exhibition by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity
Salon des Refuses, The Davis Store Galleries
University Guild, Evanston, Illinois, Exhibition of Paintings by Artists of Chicago and Vicinity
Act L Century Gallery, Chicago
Katharine Kuh Gallery, Chicago
Provincetown Studio of the Century Gallery, Massachusetts
Annual Exhibition, Chicago Society of Artists
1934
11th Annual Exhibition, Chicago No-Jury Society of Artists
Annual Exhibition, Chicago Society of Artists
Abbott’s Art Store Gallery, Chicago
1933
Grant Park Outdoor Art Fair
Head Show, Little Gallery, Chicago
World’s Fair Exhibition, Kroch’s Book Store, Chicago
1932
Increase Robinson’s Studio Gallery, Chicago, Portraits of Chicago Artists by Chicago Artists
Public Collections
Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
The Art Institute of Chicago
Elmhurst State College, Illinois
Illinois State Museum, Illinois Legacy Collection, Springfield
Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences, Peoria, Illinois
Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Wisconsin
Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia
RISD Museum of Art, Providence, Rhode Island
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.
Western Illinois University, Macomb
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City
Publications
2019
Gertrude Abercrombie, Ann Craven, Nicolas Party, Matthew Wong
Karma, New York
60 pages
8 1⁄4 × 11 inches
2018
Gertrude Abercrombie
Essays by Robert Cozzolino, Robert Storr, and Susan Weininger, and an interview by Studs Terkel
Karma, New York
488 pages, hardcover
7 1/2 × 9 1/4 inches
