Mid American

Ed PaschkeWW-1969-029252

1969·Oil on canvas·114.3 × 152.4 cm (45 × 60 in.)

Ed Paschke was a member of the late-1960s Chicago Imagist movement, a group of artists whose expressive style of figurative painting was rooted in outsider art, popular culture, and Surrealism. Their art added heat to Pop Art’s cool aesthetic. Mid American, an early painting that Paschke reworked several times, exemplifies the artist’s characteristic style, which utilized luminous, electric colors and fantastic imagery, yet remained rooted in a gritty realism. The confrontational, satin-robed athlete appears playfully otherworldly, with enlarged wing-tipped spats—a significant precursor to Paschke’s later shoe paintings—that emerge like butterfly wings behind his shoulders. The inscription on his shorts, Our Cover—like the tattoo on his chest, the mask on his face, the baseball mitts that float next to him, and his athletic attire—suggests the social markings used to conceal, protect, and layer a middleclass, middle-American identity.

Catalogue

Year: 1969
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 114.3 × 152.4 cm (45 × 60 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Ed Paschke

Artist

Ed Paschke

Painting

Edward Francis Paschke was an American painter. His childhood interest in animation and cartoons, as well as his father's creativity in wood carving and construction, led him toward a career in art. As a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago he was influenced by many artists featured in the museum's special exhibitions, in particular the work of Gauguin, Picasso and Seurat.

Chicago, IL, USA

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