Ed Paschke was a highly influential mid 20th c. Chicago painter. Here, I plan to discuss two works, Minnie (1974) and Ramrod (1969). Minnie depicts woman, while the painting Ramrod depicts a Lucha wrester. While these two painting have some similarities, they have differences as well. Ed Paschke was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois on June 22, 1939. Paschke studied at the Art Institute of Chicago. In his life time he was drafted for the military and was in charge of drawing diagrams for new weaponry. He was a part of a group called the Imagists which began in Chicago, other members include; Jim Nutt, Gladys Nilsson and Philip Hanson. The Chicago Imagists beliefs were rooted in outsider art, pop culture, and surrealist art. Paschke was an artist who deviated from the norm, because he painted Lucha wrestlers, freak show performers, and other marginal figures.
Minnie was painted in 1974, the medium is oil paint on linen, and is 50 3/8 X 38 inches. Paschke employs a psychedelic palette, such as the use of the bight and contrasting use of the use of blues, reds, and pinks. The flamboyant use of these colors draw my attention to it. This painting is a portrayal of an unnamed woman. Minnie is an abstraction of realistic colors for a person. In Minnie is an unnamed woman being portrayed is wearing a blue and red dress and has an intricate hair-doo. The woman is wearing bright green make-up that contrasts against her bright pink skin tone. Paschke over sexualizes his paintings that in a way make them very grotesque.
If we were to look at Ramrod, Ramrod was painted in 1969 and is oil paint on a 44 x 25 ¾ inch piece of canvas. We could see the absence of these psychedelic and see more use of realistic colors. Ramrod has some cartoonist aspects with the two fighting mice. The depicted wrester is in a red uniform, with a red cape draped on his back. This work has balance by having Ramrod written on both sides of the canvas and including two mice to balance out the work as well. In conclusion, though, both these works were done by Ed Paschke they are both very different from each other. While Minnie is a depiction of an “unnamed” person, Ramrod is a depiction of a Lucha wrestler. Additionally, the colors in both of these works are completely different, looking at Minnie we see use of bright, and psychedelic colors that abstract the painting whereas, if we look at Ramrod, we see realistic colors, that are duller and darker colors.
Writing by Riley Harper. A new contributor to the COMP Magazine, Harper is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts Education with an emphasis in K-12 arts education.
