About a month ago I purchased this Lee Grantham (American 1953-present) painting at a local estate sale.
Lee Grantham, “A Wonderful Life”, 1987
The piece, “A Wonderful Life”, is painted in reverse on acrylic along with a painted frame. This technique has the benefit of generating extremely vivid colors, which is apropos in an era when most media is viewed on a digital screen of some kind. It features homages to Chicago imagists such as Ed Paschke and Roger Brown, and likely others I don’t recognize. Plus it shows a family which seems to enjoy dancing, golf and some good art.
I bought the painting in part because I discovered that John Maloof – of Vivian Maier photography fame – was championing Grantham at a current exhibit at the Jean Albano Gallery in Chicago. At the very least, I figured that would give me an opportunity to learn more about the art and the artist.
Last week I headed down to the exhibit, which runs through March 2, 2018.
Grantham serves up a nice smorgasbord of unapologetic kitsch, light humor, 1950s icons and numerous visual puns. According to his artist statement, he was influenced by the Chicago imagists in the 70’s which led him to move to Chicago in the 80s. He now works out of Wisconsin.
“Held Up in the Art District” is a good example of his work – you can see recurring iconography such as paint brushes, along with a visual pun of a thief using a painting of a gun as his weapon of choice.
Lee Grantham, “Held Up in the Art District”
In “Descent into Hell” you can see the pernicious influence of the ordinary – art, TV and vacuum cleaners – as humanity is dangling perilously close to doom. This piece by the way has three dimensional flames which are incorporated into the lower edge of the frame.
Lee Grantham, “Descent into Hell”, 2006
The most elaborate pieces are 50’s TV sets which have been fully transformed painstakingly into art.
Lee Grantham, “Hot Lava”, 1993
My Grantham is a bit too large for me to hang or ship at 55”x47”, so I’m selling it at the new Toomey & Co auction on April 8, 2018. The pre-auction estimate will be $2,000-$3,000. Oak Park-based Toomey recently split with its Cincinnati partner Treadway and this will be the first auction at Toomey’s in 30 years as an independent entity. I’m told there will be a number of Chicago imagist works in addition to my Grantham. Judging by some of the inventory I could see on the shelves, it looks like they still have some of the best Arts and Crafts pottery, along with their usual assortment of fine art and modern design.