Paul Lamantia Art

Paul LaMantia, who is often associated with the Imagists, has works in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, and The Collection of Jean Dubuffet, Paris, France. Paul LaMantia is widely known in Chicago for his intense, often excoriating drawings and paintings. A student of Briggs Dyer at the School of the Art Institute in the ’60s, LaMantia was a daring and wildly inventive young artist who also attracted the attention of Jean Dubuffet, who asked him to come to Paris to swap ideas. His hallucinatory vision is inhabited by a comically disturbing mix of sinister creatures. A bird or bug-like being with multiple heads shares the stage atop a glass floor with a human/non-human creature sporting a horned helmet, a lizard type animal and other varmints. The artist insists that although these nightmarish inventions are not of the real world, they are in fact about the real world. Garish color, strong black outlines and a composition that fits the tradition of horror vacuii (fear of open space) characterize this drawing. A variety of media were utilized to execute his work. LaMantia’s rarely seen early drawings are outrageous, beautiful and disturbing. Paul LaMantia participated in these exhibits: Selections from the Permanent Collection: Made in Chicago and Chicago's Bauhaus Legacy Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art (UIMA) Subconscious Eye, Face Forward: The Art of the Self-Portrait Printworks Gallery. Global Blindnese, Packer Schopf Gallery Paul LaMantia has Exhibited with these artists: Alexander Archipenko, Morris Barazani, Richard Hunt, Richard Haas, Carole Harmel, Michiko Itatani...