June 17 – September 10, 2006
Although remembered today mainly for his contributions to the worlds of avant-garde poetry (in 1926 the vanguard magazine Poetry devoted an entire issue to his writings) and dance (in the 1920s and ’30s, he was a principal dancer with Allied Artists and partnered with legendary Chicago choreographer Ruth Page), Mark Turbyfill was also an accomplished visual artist.
Seeing continuity in all his creative endeavors, Turbyfill at times utilized texts lifted from his own poetry in his figurative and abstract paintings and drawings. With evocative titles such as Yellow Calligraphic Poem, Green Oracle, and Sibylline Head, his visual work also gestures toward a mythic literary past.
This intimate exhibition featured representative works on paper from the 1950s to the mid-1960s drawn from the Smart Museum of Art’s permanent collection.
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