Minnie

Ed Paschke is celebrated as one of the leading figures of the Chicago Imagist Movement, a group of late-1960s artists whose expressive style of figurative painting was rooted in outsider art, popular culture, and Surrealism. Drawing inspiration from New York–based Pop Art, Paschke often culled his subjects from newspapers, tabloid magazines, and television, producing work that taps into the movement’s kitsch aesthetic. Although his paintings depict representational imagery, they play heavily upon expressionist distortion, particularly in his use of psychedelic, inharmonious colors. Paschke’s love of urban subcultures and his interest in the underbelly of American society translated into a penchant for sensational subject matter. In his early works, Paschke painted circus freaks and other marginal figures, in marked contrast to, for example, Andy Warhol’s overriding concern with mainstream celebrity. Minnie, which depicts a now-anonymous individual silhouetted against a background of emanating light, is typical of his artistic production from this period. With her theatrical costume, elaborate hairdo, and bizarre makeup, this larger-than-life figure becomes a grotesque. By painting a flamboyant, overtly sexualized underworld character in a peculiar mixture of electric hues, Paschke added heat to Pop Art’s cool aesthetic.