Seymour Rosofsky Collection

Biographical Note

Seymour Rosofsky (1924-1981) was part of a generation of post-war, independent-minded Chicago artists who bucked the trends of abstraction, minimalism and conceptual art coming from New York in the mid-20th century. Rosofsky wrestled with his experiences through a staunchly figurative, surreal style. He is considered a founding member of the Chicago Imagist tradition.

Born in 1924, Rosofsky grew up in an immigrant neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side. His parents came from Russia and Poland. He began painting at young age and at 13 started attending the Saturday School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In 1943 Rosofsky was drafted into the Army, where he illustrated military training publications. His deployment to Europe offered him the opportunity to study masterpieces at the Louvre. After his return to Chicago, Rosofsky completed his studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, earning his bachelor of fine arts (1949) and master of fine arts (1951). In 1958 Rosofsky returned to Europe, studying in Rome on a Fulbright Scholarship. That year he also married Carol Rawson, with whom he had three children. The family lived in Paris from 1961 to1963 on a series of Guggenheim Foundation grants. In 1964 they returned to Chicago, where Rosofsky joined the faculty of the City Colleges. He taught there until his death in 1981.

Rosofsky’s complex imagery is intensely personal and illuminates the social, cultural and artistic contexts of the last half of the 20th century. Emotional and societal turmoil is reflected in themes of the individual’s loss of power in the face of modern life; relationships between male and female; the voyage of life; and the absurdity of war. ¹

¹ http://www.seymour-rosofsky.com/bio.html

The Seymour Rosofsky Collection includes 59 drawings, paintings and lithographs of theater scenes and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with conductor George Solti.

The theater drawings depict backstage activities and stars of the day—Vincent Price and Joe E. Brown—and others in performances at Salt Creek Summer Theater in the western suburbs. The drawings were commissioned by the Chicago Daily News in 1953 for its Roto Magazine.

The CSO collection is a group of working drawings, sketches and states of a lithograph commissioned by Illinois Bell in 1977 for the cover of the Chicago Telephone Book white pages. A copy of the telephone book cover is in this collection as well as lithographs signed by Solti and Rosofsky. Working sketches depict Solti conducting the orchestra.

Box and Folder Inventory