Artists View the Law in the Twentieth Century

5 October–27 November 1977

This exhibition commemorates the seventy-fifth anniversary of the University of Chicago Law School and includes paintings, drawings, sculpture, prints, and photographs that deal with an evolving public perception of the law during the past seventy-five years. These works range from Kenyon Cox’s Reign of Law made for the New York Appellate Court Building that clearly venerates the legal system, to 1930s images of social protest and unrest by artists like Georges Rouault, George Grosz, and Ben Shahn, to the 1950s and 1960s with Jack Levine, Francis Bacon, and Andy Warhol, who approached lawyers and the law with increased criticism and skepticism. Two preparatory drawings for Christo’s Running Fence showcase issues of art and the law, where the legal issues surrounding the work ultimately became part of the work itself.

Catalogue by Pamela Leaderman.

Curator: Katharine L. Keefe, the Curator of Collections at the Smart Museum of Art.

The exhibition was made possible by grants from the Illinois Arts Council, the University of Chicago Law School, the Harold T. Martin Fund, and the Woods Charitable Trust.

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