Don Baum Says: Chicago Has Famous Artists

In 1969, the exhibition Don Baum says: “Chicago Needs Famous Artists” was shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Curators Don Baum and Ruth Horwich presented Don Baum says: “Chicago Has Famous Artists,” a retrospective that featured the work of over seventy artists who have shown at the Hyde Park Art Center. The exhibition highlighted the role of the Art Center in presenting Chicago audiences with challenging and provocative new talent from its founding to the present day. The exhibition ran concurrently with the Museum of Contemporary Art’s major survey exhibition, Art in Chicago, 1945-95.

Some of Chicago’s most established artists were featured in the exhibition. Gertrude Abercrombie’s Three Doors, 1957, painted at the time of Hyde Park’s major redevelopment; Whitney Halstead’s small puzzle-piece abstraction, 1968; Alice Shaddle, artist and teacher at the Center presented a paper mache piece entitled, “Winged Victory”, 1965; Ralph Arnold exhibited a collage of magazine cut-out ads from 1966, Ronald Ginzel’s sculptural piece of suspended shapes was from 1967 and Ed Pascke’s piece Purple Ritual, 1967 a painting was exhibited. The exhibition also featured works by the famous, Hairy Who group, launched by Baum. Roger Brown, Gladys Nilsson, Jim Nutt, and Karl Wirsum exhibited painted works. The exhibition also featured contemporary Chicago artists Ben Prange, a sculptor who used found objects to create his beer-bottle chandelier, painter Tim Doud who presented his two-sided portraits, and painter Frank Klement’s self portrait.

  • November 17, 1996 – January 4, 1997
  • The Del Prado

Don Baum says: “Chicago Has Famous Artists” was made possible through generous loans from the collections of Dennis Adrian, Charles and Camille Baum, Don Baum, Roger Brown, Mary and Roy Cullen, Richard Christiansen, Ruth Horwich, Blanche Koffler, Carol Rosofsky Lifton, Ira and Janina Marks, Printworks Gallery, Smart Museum of Art, Irene Sherr, Charles Thurow, Charlotte Webb, Ray Yoshida, and the artists.

Partial List of Featured Artists

Gerturde Abercrombie, Ralph Arnold, John Bankston, Robert Barnes, Don Baum, Vera Berdich, Fred Berger, Hyonae Blakenship, Phyllis Bramson, Roger Brown, Cosmo Campoli, Sara Canright, Henry Darger, Tim Doud, Eleanor Dube, James Falconer, Ed Flood, Brent Gearan, ROland Ginzel, Deven Golden, Art Green, Lorri Gunn, Ted Halkin, Whitney Halstead, Phil Hanson, Alice Hargrave, Jack Harris, Rachel Hibbard, Jesse Hickman, Peter Holbrook, Richard hunt, Miyoko Ito, Tomm Kapsalis, Jin Soo Kim, Vera Klement, Paul LaMantia, Ellen Lanyon, Mike Lash, June Leaf, Laura Letinsky, Susan Moody Ward, Rebecca Morris, Gladys Nilsson, Jim Nutt, John Pakosta, Ed Paschke, Aldo Piacenza, Frank Piatek, Kerig Pope, Ben Pranger, Christina Ramberg, Suellen Rocca, Seymour Rosofsky, Barbara Rossi, David Russick, Alice Shaddle, Pauline Simon, Evelyn Statsinger, Frank Trankina, Ken Warneke, Derek Webster, Anne Wilson, Karl Wirsum, and Ray Yoshida.