Press Release

The subjects of Chimes’ ethereal portraits done were often his artistic and literary heroes. Alfred Jarry, the French poet and playwright and originator of Pere Ubu, was a frequent subject. Having discovered Jarry in the early 60s and sketched drawings of Ubu in 1966, Chimes’ first painted image of Alfred Jarry dates to 1973. Chimes also painted literary figures including Edgar Allen Poe, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Charles Baudelaire.

While much of Chimes’ work is deeply indebted to literature, each body of work maintained structured systems that dictated the composition– a process-based manifestation of the classicist and symbolist ideals in his work. In Exploits & Opinions of Dr. Faustroll, Pataphysician by Alfred Jarry (a seminal book to Chimes and his artistic practice), the narrator states, “For we are both of the opinion that if one can measure what one is talking about and can express it in numbers, which constitute the sole reality, then one has some knowledge of one’s subject.” This bold statement would become the subject of multiple late white paintings, and simultaneously represents Chimes’ own ideology to use geometric compositional systems to manifest Jarry’s ‘pataphysics within the visual arts.

In the white paintings, Chimes deliberately revealed and concealed information through the skins of glaze and pigment. He would work into the white ground and then wipe away leaving only a suggestion of the subject captured within the ethereal fog. The portraits, and in the later paintings, text and constellations were enshrouded in a glowing luminosity on the cloud-like surface of the painting.

Thomas Chimes (1921-2009) was a Philadelphia based artist whose practice was deeply rooted in an engagement with literature, alchemy, and classical Greek math and philosophy. With a prolific career spanning five decades he had four major periods of work: the crucifixion paintings (1958–65), metal box constructions (1965–73), panel portraits (1973–1978), and white paintings (1980–2009). His work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City, NY; The Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, Ireland; The Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA; The Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX; The Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece; Galerie der Stadt, Tuttlingen, Germany; and The National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C. In 2007, Thomas Chimes was the focus of a major monograph and retrospective at the Philadelphia Museum of Art organized by curator Michael Taylor. In 2013, a subsequent publication Into the White was released coinciding with a touring European exhibition, examining his celebrated later work.

Thomas Chimes
Artist
Thomas Chimes
Thomas Chimes
News
Thomas Chimes
Thomas Chimes acquired by the Museum of Modern Art
Thomas Chimes
Exhibition
Thomas Chimes
Philadelphia Museum of Art Nov 3, 2013 - Mar 2, 2014
Thomas Chimes
Exhibition
Thomas Chimes
Benaki Museum, Athens, Greece Sep 30, 2013 - Nov 17, 2013
Thomas Chimes
Exhibition
Thomas Chimes
Galerie der Stadt Tuttlingen, Germany May 17, 2013 - Jun 16, 2013
Thomas Chimes
Exhibition
Thomas Chimes
The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. April 1, 2013
Thomas Chimes
Exhibition
Thomas Chimes
Thomas Chimes acquired by MOCA LA Jun 23, 2010
Thomas Chimes
Exhibition
Thomas Chimes
Thomas Chimes acquired by Centre Pompidou Feb 9, 2010
Thomas Chimes
Exhibition
Thomas Chimes
Thomas Chimes acquired by the National Gallery of Art Feb 9, 2010
Writing
Metal Boxes: A Hermetic Side of Thomas Chimes
ArtCritical April 2015

by A.M. Weaver

Writing
Thomas Chimes: The Body in Spirals at Locks Gallery
Art + Auction April 2015

by Doug McClemont

Writing
Faustroll's Special Agent
Art in America December 2007

by Faye Hirsch

Thomas Chimes: Alchemy Machine
Publication
Thomas Chimes: Alchemy Machine
Text by Robert S. Mattison 2018
Thomas Chimes: The Body in Spirals
Publication
Thomas Chimes: The Body in Spirals
Text by Kelsey Halliday Johnson 2014
Thomas Chimes: Into the White
Publication
Thomas Chimes: Into the White
Text by Anna-Maria Ehrmann-Schindlbeck 2013
Thomas Chimes: Symbolic Landscapes (1958-62)
Publication
Thomas Chimes: Symbolic Landscapes (1958-62)
2012
Thomas Chimes: Early Works (1958-1965)
Publication
Thomas Chimes: Early Works (1958-1965)
Text by Lisa Saltzman 2009
Thomas Chimes: Adventures in 'Pataphysics
Publication
Thomas Chimes: Adventures in 'Pataphysics
Text by Michael Taylor 2007
Thomas Chimes: The Entropy Paintings
Publication
Thomas Chimes: The Entropy Paintings
Interview by Phillip Mitsis 2007
Thomas Chimes: Confronting the Unconscious, Early Works: 1958–1965
Publication
Thomas Chimes: Confronting the Unconscious, Early Works: 1958–1965
2005
Thomas Chimes: Faustroll Landscape
Publication
Thomas Chimes: Faustroll Landscape
Text by Faye Hirsch 2003
Thomas Chimes: Complete Circle
Publication
Thomas Chimes: Complete Circle
Text by David Cohen 2001
Thomas Chimes: Pataphysician Redivivus
Publication
Thomas Chimes: Pataphysician Redivivus
Text by Donald Kuspit 1999
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