PHILIP HANSON
SEEN IN THE MORNING, EN ROUTE TO THE STUDIO
Covered-over graffiti
Faded gang signs
Empty pedestals
Reflections in water
Signs overwhelmed by other signs
Vertical graffiti on posts
Shadows of fences
Fences behind fences
Architectural decoration: elegant and crude
Signs peeling off
Signs chiseled out
Lawn decoration
Signs shaped and hanging out into space
Neon stylization
Grand entrances for little buildings
Philip Hanson, Chicago,
October, 2014
—
Philip Hanson was born in 1943 in Chicago. One of the original Imagist artists, Hanson has been a signal Chicago painter since he first came on the scene in the late ’60s. Hanson’s work was included in the 2014 Whitney Biennial. He is the recipient of two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and has been included in group shows at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (1969 and 1972); the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia (1969); the Sao Paulo Bienniale (1973); the Chicago Public Library Cultural Center (1977). He was the subject of a solo retrospective at the Illinois State Museum in Springfield (1985).