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Thomas Chimes: Adventures
in 'Pataphysics
February 27 - May 6, 2007
About Thomas Chimes
Thomas Chimes, born to Greek immigrant parents in Philadelphia
in 1921, is widely considered one of the city's most important living artists.
In September 
1939, Chimes enrolled
at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he studied with Daniel
Garber, Henry McCarter and Francis Speight. Financial difficulties disrupted
Chimes's studies in December 1939, when he left the Academy to help his
father start a new business venture in Alabama. The artist continued his
education at the Art Students League in New York in 1941, but his studies
were again cut short by events beyond his control, namely the Japanese bombing
of Pearl Harbor, which led him to enlist in the United States Army Air Force.
Following the end of World War II, Chimes completed his education at the
Art Students League, where he studied through the aid of the GI Bill with
Reginald Marsh, Will Barnet, Vaclav Vytlacil, and John Hovannes.(right:
Thomas Chimes (American, born 1921), Momo, 1965, Ink and wash on
wove paper. 8 ? inches x 5 5/8 inches. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Purchased
with the Julius Bloch Memorial Fund created by Benjamin D. Bernstein, 2001
[2001-75-1].)
Chimes was deeply affected by seeing Picasso's Guernica
at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1946. Although he initially resisted
its aggressive modernity, Chimes was nonetheless struck by the raw emotional
impact of this monumental anti-war painting and thereafter began to take
a strong interest in modern art. While a student at the Art Students League,
Chimes became acquainted with contemporaries such as Jackson Pollock, Barnett
Newman, George Constant and Tony Smith. Despite the appeal of this intellectually
and artistically fertile environment, Chimes was wary of the intense pressure
to join groups or adhere to the prevailing artistic climate, which at that
time was dominated by the type of abstract painting championed by the prominent
formalist art critic Clement Greenberg.
After a seven-month sojourn in Europe with his wife, Dawn,
in 1952 -- viewing the Greek landscape and art of his forebears, meeting
Alberto Giacometti in Paris, and visiting Henri Matisse's Chapel of the
Rosary of the Dominican Nuns at Vence -- Chimes made a conscious decision
to permanently settle in Philadelphia in 1953. The relative peace and seclusion
of his home city allowed the artist to explore more deeply his own interests
and preoccupations, away from the hectic, commercially driven art world
of New York. It was here, over several decades of hermetic existence and
devotion to his craft, that Chimes would develop a rich personal iconography
drawing on childhood memories, dreams, and associations that were often
inspired by reading the iconoclastic novels and plays of Alfred Jarry.
Chimes has had numerous solo exhibitions, including Thomas
Chimes: A Retrospective Exhibition, at the Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota,
in 1968; Tom Chimes, A Compendium: 1961-1986, at Moore College of
Art in Philadelphia in 1986; and Thomas Chimes: Survey at the Alexander
Onassis Center for Hellenic Studies, New York, in 1994. In 1975, his work
was included in the Whitney Biennial, and in the following year he was represented
in the Philadelphia Museum of Art's landmark exhibition Three Centuries
of American Art. His work is included in many major American museum
collections, including The Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Wadsworth
Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut; the Phoenix Art Museum; the Delaware
Art Museum; the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts; and the Philadelphia
Museum of Art.
(above: Thomas Chimes (American, born 1921), Antonin
Artaud, 1974. Oil on panel, 9 1/8 x 9 1/8 inches. Philadelphia Museum
of Art: Gift of the artist, 1975.)
(above: Thomas Chimes (American, born 1921), Oscar Wilde,
1975. Oil on panel, 11 x 9 1/4 inches. Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift
of the artist, 1976.)
(above: Thomas Chimes (American, born 1921), Alfred Jarry,
1974, oil on panel. 17 3/4 inches x 14 3/4 inches x 1 3/4 inches. Philadelphia
Museum of Art, Purchased with the Adele Haas Turner and Beatrice Pastorius
Turner Memorial Fund, 1975.)
(above: Thomas Chimes (American, born 1921), Rrose Sélavy,
1976. Oil on wood, 14 5/8 x 12 1/2 x 3/4 inches. Philadelphia Museum of
Art, Gift of Deborah J. Allen and Jukka Hamalainen, 1991.)
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