George Kokines

Biography

Kokines was an alumnus of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His large and colorful abstract expressionist oil paintings earned notice in the early 1960s, especially in Chicago. In 1962, Kokines won the Art Institute of Chicago Mr and Mrs Frank G. Logan Art Institute Prize at the annual Chicago and Vicinity annual exhibition. Although described as an abstract expressionist, Kokines told an interviewer "All contemporary painting should defy description." Kokines's paintings from this period were noted for their "fierce movement and polyphonic complexity" and "organic surrealist overtones." Kokines' paintings and drawings were featured in several group and solo shows in Chicago galleries, including the Richard Gray Gallery. His work was also included in the Whitney Museum Annual Contemporary Painting show in 1963.

Kokines’ paintings became the focus of a local censorship scandal in Chicago when the Chicago Public Library Cultural Center removed his paintings from display after a library visitor complained they were obscene. Others defended the paintings, which were purchased by Hugh Hefner.

In the 1980 and 90s, Kokines used textured surfaces out of cement and plaster onto which he painted or scratched images and writing. "Painting is the way of creating a visual writing that stimulates an inner knowing before it can be put into words." In the late 1990s, Kokines produced a series of paintings called Etudes, featuring organic plant-like forms in containers painted on top of black and white lithographs of a piano.

Among Kokines’s final works is a group of panels based on the events of September 11, 2001, which he witnessed firsthand. The series was shown together in 2011in Elgin, Illinois. About these paintings, he said, “I wanted a memorial, not an autopsy. I didn’t want to be in the disaster business.”

Exhibitions and shows

The following is a partial list of shows and exhibits

Solo Shows

John Gibson Gallery, Chicago, 1962; Richard Feigen Gallery, Chicago, 1962 and 1964; University of Chicago, Chicago, 1963; Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, 1965, 1967, 1968, 1972, 1980;Barat College, Lake Forest, Illinois, 1965; Museo Diamanti, Ferrara, Italy, 1982; Gruen Galleries, Chicago, 1993;Gruen Galleries, Chicago, 1999; Brooklyn Brewery, New York,1999; Centro Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2001.

Group and Museum Shows

Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago. 1959 and 1962; Annual Artists of Chicago and Vicinity, Art institute of Chicago, 1959, 1960, 1962, 1963; First and Second invitational Exhibit, Frumkin Galleries, Chicago, 1960 and 1961; Richard Feigen Gallery, 1961 and 1962; "New Genereation", John Gibson Gallery, 1962; "Twelve Young Painters", McCormick Place Gallery, Chicago, 1963; Annual American Painting and Sculpture, Krannert Center, University of Illinois, 1963; Annual Contemporary American painting, Whitney Museum, New York 1963; De Paul university, Chicago, 1965; Andover Gallery, New York, 1994

Selected works and videos

Shadows of Ferrara, Italy, 1982:

September 11: The Sky Above, Ground Zero, Agios Nikolaos:

Education and educational positions

Art institute of Chicago, Degree in Fine Arts, 1959

Positions: Hyde Park Art Center, 1959, 1961; Columbia College, Chicago, Illinois, 1964; Northwestern University, artist-in-residence, 1965–66; University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, visiting artist, 1974.

Professional life

Kokines was born in Chicago, Illinois and attended the Art Institute of Chicago. Following graduation, Kokines painted signs at Playboy's main offices. Days after losing his job, his painting, "Embracement No.1" was awarded the Art Institute's Logan Medal of the Arts, along with a $2000 prize. Group and individual shows in Chicago followed, and Kokines was artist-in-residence at Northwestern University for two years. During these years, Kokines was associated with other Chicago artists Edvins Strautmanis, Morris Barazani, and Richard Hunt (sculptor).

In 1966, Kokines relocated to Greenwich Village, Manhattan. He maintained a studio in SoHo through the 1970s and worked at two Soho artist bars, the Broome Street Bar and Fanelli's. Later studios were located in Long Island City (in Queens) and lower Manhattan, where he witnessed firsthand the collapse of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. This event affected his life and his work for the remaining years of his life.

Death

Kokines died of leukemia at his home in the Rogers Park neighborhood of Chicago, on November 26, 2012.