Chicago Tribune Examines Ralph Arnold’s Blurred Lines
"The Many Hats of Ralph Arnold" (1975), detail. Photo: Aine Dougherty/RedEye
With an eye on his intertwining social and artistic identities, the Chicago Tribune spotlights The Many Hats of Ralph Arnold: Art, Identity & Politics, a new exhibition bringing together Chicago artist Ralph Arnold’s most significant contributions to the art of collage. The article discusses how Arnold’s early embrace of intersectionality fueled his work until his passing in 2006.
“(Collage) is a metaphor for his own identity as a queer artist of color who was a Korean War veteran…All of these elements, these components of his own identity, really can’t be pulled apart,” — Gregory Foster-Rice, curator of the exhibition and Professor of Photography at Columbia College Chicago.
Artist Krista Franklin, who is featured in Echoes: Reframing Collage, the companion exhibition to The Many Hats of Ralph Arnold, also talks about the parallels between Arnold’s work and contemporary photocollage artists like herself.
Both The Many Hats of Ralph Arnold: Art, Identity & Politics and Echoes: Reframing Collage are on view through December 21 at the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago, and presented as part of Art Design Chicago.
