Born: June 14, 1949, Springfield, IL
| Statement:"My involvement with the imagery of the rural Midwest
began in 1982. Based upon an early fascination with area magnitude and
meteorology, work from that period suppressed any specificity that I deemed
detracting from my perception of the grand scale and nature of this arena.
Thus, the work became not only a representation of the perceptual world
but also an unintentional and awkward intercession for the regional mythology
of roadside romanticism - the bountiful cornucopia of the heartland, the
Puritan work ethic, Manifest Destiny and others. Over the years, with considerably
more time spent in the midst of working farms, I slowly began to appreciate
the agrarian reality upon which much of this mythology is founded. My exploration
and experience of this Midwestern rural realism is now the nature and purpose
of my work today."
- George Atkinson |
Education: 1976 San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA, B.F.A.
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
1993 "Recent Landscapes from the Midwest and Florida," Sherry French
Gallery - New York, NY
1992 "Under Midwestern Skies," Sherry French Gallery - New York, NY
Selected Group Exhibitions:
1999-2000 “Contemporary American Realist Drawings The Jalane and Richard
Davidson Collection at The Art Institute of Chicago,” The Art
Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
“Director’s Choice,” Sales-Rental Gallery, Albright-Knox Art Gallery,
Buffalo, NY
1999 “Contemporary Romanticism: Landscapes in Pastel,” Southern Alleghenies
Museum of Art,
Loretto, PA
1998 - 1999 “EXPEDITION: Great Lakes – The Power of Water,” Sherry
French Gallery, New York, NY;
Travels to: Krasl Art Center, St. Joseph, MI; The Flint Institute of
Arts, Flint, MI;
Dennos Museum Center, Traverse City, MI
1994 - 1998 "EXPEDITION: Everglades - River of Grass," Sherry French
Gallery, New York, NY;
Travels To: Senate Russell Rotunda, U. S. Capitol Hill, Washington,
DC, Week of
the Presidential State of the Union Address, January 1995; The Henry
Morrison
Flagler Museum, Palm Beach, FL; DeLand Museum of Art, DeLand, FL; Edison
Community College Gallery of Fine Art, Fort Myers, FL; Art and Culture
Center of Hollywood, Hollywood, FL; Florida Department of State, The
Capitol,
Tallahassee, FL, During State Legislator's Session; Center for the
Arts,
Vero Beach, FL; Alexander Brest Gallery and Museum, Jacksonville University,
Jacksonville, FL; Sarasota Visual Arts Center, Sarasota, FL; Lemon
Bay
Playhouse, Englewood, FL; Pensacola Museum of Art, Pensacola, FL; Florida
Museum of Natural History, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
1996-97 "EXPEDITION: American Rivers - Along the Banks of the Ohio,"
Sherry French Gallery,
New York, NY; Travels To: Senate Russell Rotunda, U.S. Capitol, Washington,
DC; Owensboro Museum of Fine Art, Owensboro, KY; Zanesville Art Center,
Zanesville, OH; Franciscan University of Steubenville, Steubenville,
OH;
Evansville Museum of Arts & Science, Evansville, IN; The Kennedy
Museum of
American Art, Ohio University, Athens, OH
1996 "Collector's Gallery XXX," McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX
1995 "EXPEDITION: Utopia - The American Landscape 1995," Russell Rotunda,
U.S. Capitol,
Washington, DC
"Utopia," Sherry French Gallery, New York, NY
"Collector's Choice," Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, FL
1994 "EXPEDITION: Beaches, Seashores, and Coastlines-U.S.A.," Sherry
French Gallery,
New York, NY
"American Landscape," Susan Broden Gallery, Madison, WI
1993 "Utopia: 4 x 4 Four Illinois Landscape Painters," Sherry French
Gallery - New York, NY
"Focus on Art - 1993," National Council of Jewish Women, West Orange,
NJ
Group show, Munson Gallery, Vero Beach, FL
Group show, Sherry French Gallery, Boca Raton, FL
"Collector's Choice - 1993," Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, FL
"10th Year Anniversary Show," Sherry French Gallery - Palm Beach, FL
1992-93 "The New Whitney Dissenters," Sherry French Gallery, New York,
NY; Travels To:
Anchorage Museum of History and Art, Anchorage, AK; Rockford College
Art
Gallery, Rockford, IL; Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA
"Country Roads: Paintings of the American Landscape," Broden Gallery
Ltd. - Madison, WI
1992 "A View from Here: Heartland Landscape Painters," McLean County
Arts Center,
Bloomington, IL
"Collector's Show," The Arkansas Arts Center - Little Rock, AR
1991-92 "New Horizons in American Realism," Philharmonic Center for
the Arts, Naples, FL and Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN
"EXPEDITION: Estes Park," Sherry French Gallery, New York, NY; Travels
To: R.H. Love
Galleries, Chicago, IL; Museum of the Southwest, Midland, TX; The Wichita
Center for the Arts, Wichita, KS
1990-92 "Illumination and Radiance: epiphanies in Contemporary Painting,"
Sherry French
Gallery, New York, NY, Travels To: Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo,
MI;
The University of Oklahoma Museum of Art, Norman, OK; Riverside Art
Museum,
Riverside, CA; Museum of the Southwest, Midland, TX; Rahr-West Art
Museum, Manitowic, WI
1991 "New Realism," Flint Institute of Art, Flint, MI, Travels To:
Philharmonic Center for the
Arts, Naples, FL and Knoxville Museum of Art, Knoxville, TN, catalog
"INAUGURAL EXHIBITION II: Gallery and Invited Artists," Sherry French
Gallery, New York, NY
"Heartland Artists," Struve Gallery, Chicago, IL
1990 "Chicago International Art Exposition," Struve Gallery, Chicago,
IL
"Contemporary Works on Paper," Struve Gallery, Chicago, IL
1989 "Contemporary Works on Paper," Struve Gallery, Chicago, IL
1988 "Contemporary Works on Paper," Struve Gallery, Chicago, Il
"In a New Light - Three Views of the Heartland," Illinois State Museum,
Springfield, IL
1987 "In a New Light - Three Views of the Heartland," State of Illinois
Art Gallery, Chicago, IL, catalog
"Landlocked: Contemporary Midwest Landscapes," Wabash College, Crawfordsville,
IN
1986 "Contemporary Works on Paper," Struve Gallery, Chicago, IL
"The American Landscape," Elliot Smith Gallery, St. Louis, MO
1985 "Works on Paper," Frumkin & Struve Gallery, Chicago, IL
1984 "A New Look At American Landscape," Frumkin & Struve Gallery,
Chicago and Rahr-
West Museum, Manitowic, WI
1983 "Illinois Invitational," Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL
Selected Public Collections:
AT&T, Chicago, IL
Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR
Arthur Anderson & Co., Chicgo, IL
Borg-Warner Corporation, Chicago, IL
Champion International, Chicago, IL
Chemical Bank, New York, NY
De Geldersche Bloem Foundation, Chicago, IL
FMC Corporation, Chicago, IL
FMCxCorporation, Tokyo, Japan
First of America Bank-Springfield, N.A., Springfield, IL
GTE North Westfield, IN
Hallmark Cards Incorporated, Kansas City, MO
IC Industries, Chicago, IL
Illinois Department of Revenue, Springfield, IL
Illinois State Museum, Springfield, IL
Kemper Group, Long Grove, IL
McDermott, Emery & Will, Chicago, IL
McDonald's Corporation, Oakbrook, IL
Northern Indiana Public Service Company, Ft. Wayne, IN
Prudential Insurance Company of America, Newark, NJ
Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, PA
State of Illinois Center, Chicago, IL
Sunrise Art Museum, Charleston, WV
United States Department of State, Washington DC
Vero Beach Center for the Arts, Vero Beach, FL
Williams and Montgomery, Ltd., Chicago, IL and St. Louis, MO
Zurich Kemper Investments, Chicago, IL
Selected Bibliography:
Boswell, Margaret. "Arts Scene," The State Journal Register, August
8, 1991
Boswell, Margaret. "The sky's the limit," The State Journal Register,
p. 21, color reproduction.
Coviello, Victoria. "Buying Into the Field of Dreams," The Christain
Science Monitor, November 27,
1992, reproduction.
Driscoll, John and Arnold Skolnick. “The Artist and the American Landscape.”
Cobb, CA :First Glance Books, 1998. p. 114.
Fine, Ruth, Hernández-Durán, Raymond, and Pascale, Mark.
Contemporary American Realist Drawings.
The Jalane and Richard Davidson Collection at The Art Institute of
Chicago, 1999.
Garrett, Daniel. "Changing Traditions," Art & Antiques, summer,
1992, p. 23, color reproduction.
"George Atkinson," ARTnews, November, 1992, p.140, reproduction
Guillen, Michael. "Two Artists paint in the Everglades," ABC GOOD MORNING
AMERICA, July 3, 1995, 7:45 am
Ligocki, Gordon. "Exquisite Contemporary Sculpture at Richard Gray
Gallery, The Times, Art Section.
Neustadt, Karen. "Swamp & Circumstance," Orlando Weekly, June 8-14,
1995, p. 10
Sjostrom, Jan. "Art of the Everglades," Palm Beach Daily News, March
19, 1995, p. C1, C7, color reproduction.
(biographical information last updated on September 10,
2001)
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