“See America First”: Prints by H. C. Westermann
June 28 – September 9, 2001
"See America First" is the first retrospective exhibition of the prints of the American sculptor, painter, draftsman, and printmaker H. C. Westermann (1922–1981), a central figure in American art of the post-war period.
The Smart Museum mounted an exhibition of lithographs, linoleum cuts, woodblock prints, and related drawings and ephemera by this artist who was highly influential in Figurative and Pop Art trends, as well as in the locally based Chicago Imagist movement. The exhibition was organized to complement the Museum of Contemporary Art's concurrent exhibition of H. C. Westermann's sculptures, providing an unparalleled opportunity to compare the relationships in style, subject, and theme between the prints and the sculptural objects of this important artist.