Where or When (Things Past) (1948), oil on canvas, 21 1/2 x 35 1/2 inches. All images courtesy of the Carnegie Museum of Art and Colby Museum of Art, shared with permissionGertrude Abercrombies Autobiographical Surrealism Traverses Dreams and RealityJanuary 6, 2025ArtHistoryKate MothesSurrealism is meant for me because I am a pretty realistic person but dont like all I see, Gertrude Abercrombie (1909-1977) once said. So I dream that it is changed. Then I change it to the way I want it.Abercrombies stark, symbol-rich landscapes and enigmatic portraits painted in oil were influenced by the European Surrealist movement, magical realism, and her own dreams. A leading figure in Chicago art, she was also involved in the citys jazz scene, counting musical greats like Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, and Sarah Vaughan among her friends.Queen and Owl in Tree (1954), oil on masonite, 4 1/2 x 6 inches (unframed)The artists mystical works suggest a life of wistful introspection and emotional struggle, says a statement for the forthcoming exhibition Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery at the Carnegie Museum of Art. The show and accompanying catalog present an opportunity for visitors to experience the artists highly personal work in significant depth, with access to artworks held in a range of private and public collections all gathered in one place.Born in Austin, Texas, Abercrombie grew up in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago and spent some time in her fathers hometown of Aledo, Illinois. The small town in the northwestern part of the Midwestern state eventually became a source of inspiration for her atmospheric paintings.The artist studied the Romance languages at the University of IllinoisUrbana-Champaign and then pursued a course in commercial art at the American Academy of Art in Chicago, where she may also have briefly attended the School of the Art Institute.In 1932, Abercrombie began her career as a professional artist, which was spurred soon after by the support of the Federal Art Project of the Works Progress Administration (FPA/WPA). The program ran from 1935 to 1943 and provided economic relief to artists and craftspeople during the Great Depression. Along with Abercrombie, a slew of notable artists participated, from Arshile Gorky and Lucile Blanch to Jackson Pollock and Diego Rivera, among many others.Demolition Doors (1964), oil on masonite, Masonite, 20 x 25 1/2 inches (unframed)The Federal Art Project set up community centers around the U.S., sustaining the careers and livelihoods of around 10,000 artisans who contributed an estimated 400,000 easel paintings, prints, murals, posters, and other works during the programs eight-year run.Abercrombie participated in the FAP/WPA from 1935 to 1940. Around this time, she showed her work widely, including in annual exhibitions presented by the Art Institute of Chicago and venues like Katharine Kuh Gallery, one of the citys first commercial galleries to feature avant-garde work.Motifs like solitary women, dead trees, forking paths, stark landscapes, doors, cats, towers, and shells recur in her work. Abercrombie remarked that the scenes were always pretty real, merging facets of reality and the fantastic. Only mystery and fantasy have been added, she said. All foolishness has been taken out. It becomes my own dream.Split Personality (1954), oil on masonite, 8 x 10 inchesIn Demolition Doors (1964), for example, a black feline parks in front of a series of three multi-colored panels occupying most of the frame, behind which sits a gray, mostly empty landscape that could be either indoors or outdoors. Portal-like, the doors represent choices one makes about what direction to take, what threshold to cross. The cat stands sentry, waiting on the viewersand by extension, the artistsultimate decision. The whole world is a mystery, she had said.Abercrombie associated some of her recurring symbols with a witchs personahistorically an identity connected predominantly to womenwhich she sometimes embraced in her own fashion choices. She occasionally donned a pointed velvet hat to accentuate her sharp features and tall stature. The female figure, including Abercrombies own likeness, is often shown traversing barren terrain, reclining in pensive quietude, or interacting with otherworldly forces.In an interview with Studs Terkel shortly before her death, Abercrombie said that it is always myself that I paint. For example, in Split Personality (1954), a woman in a blue dress, standing inside an unadorned room, has been cut in half at the waist. Her torso and head hover over a pitcher, and she reaches out toward her legs, but the shadow on the wall to the left depicts a complete figurethe sum of two partsas a way of suggesting that looks can be deceiving.The Ivory Tower (1945), oil on masonite, 15 x 19 inches With a deft hand, a concise symbolic vocabulary, and a restrained palette, she created potent imagesthat speak tohermercurial natureandher evolving psychology as an artist, says an exhibition statement.Later in life, Abercrombies artistic output gradually waned as ongoing health issues related to arthritis and alcoholism took a toll. She became more reclusive as she eventually required a wheelchair, before being confined to bed. A major retrospective of her work was held at theHyde Park Art Center the year she died, and her will established the Gertrude Abercrombie Trust, which distributed her work and pieces by others in her collection to cultural institutions across the Midwest.Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery opens in Pittsburgh on January 18 and continues through June 1. The exhibition then travels to Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine, opening on July 12 and running through January 11, 2026. Find more on the Carnegie website.Winding Road (1937), oil on board, 7 7/8 x 10 inches (unframed)Letter from Karl (1940), oil on canvas, 24 x 30 inchesThe Countess Nerona (c. 1945), oil on masonite, 8 x 10 inches (unframed)Self-Portrait Brooch (1954), oil on board, set in wire mount, 1 x 1 inch overallThe Church (1938), oil on canvas, 18 x 24 inchesShell and Drape (1952), oil on canvas, 24 x 36 inches (unframed)Charlie Parkers Favorite Painting (1946), oil on masonite, 17 15/16 x 21 7/8 x 1 1/8 inchesNext article