Paul Thek
An untitled painting from 1974, part of a display of Thek’s notebooks and two-dimensional works from 1970 to 1988 at the Arts Club of Chicago, is directly inspired by such photos. Thek paints the earth at the center of four actual sheets from the International Herald-Tribune, surrounding it with black, but he leaves enough of the newspaper exposed to show some of the more mundane concerns of the day: an article on a pop singer, an ad for Ashland Oil, a notice that the British Oxygen Company has acquired four million shares of Airco Inc. (Isn’t the air supposed to be free? If corporations are really buying and selling oxygen, what’s left for the rest of us to breathe?) And look, the Cubs beat the Cardinals.
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When “psychedelic” and “art” appear in the same sentence, most of us run for cover, expecting Lava lamps or black-light posters of Jimi Hendrix. But Thek framed his cosmic questioning in less embarrassing terms. Rather than draw on sentimental, silly cliches, he produced a steady flow of fresh images. Some are sentimental (Bambi Growing), and some are silly (Self-Portrait as Hot Potato), but they’re not cliches.
