The Past and the Present

Gertrude Abercrombie's 'Past and Present' is a small, richly symbolic Surrealist interior by the Chicago painter (1909–1977), sometimes called the 'queen of the bohemian Surrealists' for her close ties to the city's jazz scene. A lone woman (often read as a veiled self-portrait) stands in a moonlit room strewn with recurring emblems — a cat, a glove, a candle, a mirror — that fill Abercrombie's private iconography. Oil on Masonite, it is a signature work at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Exhibition Venue

Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States