John Phillips: Selections from the Series "A Contemporary Odyssey"

5 July–21 August 1994

John Phillips’s series, “A Contemporary Odyssey,” represents a heroic search for self as the artist responds to the story of Odysseus’s ten years of adventure and wandering on the voyage home following a decade of war against the Trojans. Phillips conceives of the ancient Greek myth as “the story of all men searching for self-discovery.” He explores the subjects of the Cyclops, Calypso, Circe, the Sirens, the Ancestor, the Underworld, and Penelope through themes of sexuality, compromise, family, love, and loyalty. The six oil and collage paintings selected from this extensive series of more than 78 works for the present exhibition emphasize decisive moments in the voyage itself rather than the personalities of specific characters the hero Odysseus encounters; the narrative grows to encompass the present as well as the past. In these selections, we see the act of traveling and crises along the way, the discovery of self, and ultimately, a return home with new understanding. Philips, a writer, critic, and art historian, is an alumnus of the University of Chicago, and his work can also be found at the Phillips Collection in Washington DC, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Smart Museum of Art.

The exhibition was funded, in part, by the Illinois Arts Council.  

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