Elmhurst Art Museum opens an exciting new exhibition on May 15, 2010. The Search for Form features the work of two remarkable Chicago artists: Eleanor Himmelfarb and Holly Renald Cohn. It was during the 1980’s that Holly Renald Cohn began formally studying painting with Eleanor Himmelfarb. The exhibition presents abstract canvases painted by both women during the last few decades.
Embodied in her paintings, and implicit in her teaching, was Himmelfarb’s guiding artistic philosophy. “Ideas rather than things are the basis of my subject matter. The manner of presenting an idea is the excitement of painting – the search for form.”
Himmelfarb was born in St. Charles, Illinois. She studied art history and design at the University of Chicago, followed by classes at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In addition to maintaining an active studio practice, Himmelfarb taught at Rosary College, Triton College, the College of DuPage, and the DuPage Art League.
Cohn, a Chicago native, studied art at Antioch College and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She continued her artistic education at numerous Chicago institutions through the years. Cohn taught painting at the Education Center at Elmhurst Art Museum. Of her own work, Cohn says, “The reality remains recognizable but challenges the viewer to experience the ‘scene’ in terms of exhilarating color, interesting shapes, directional lines, and connecting patterns.”
Himmelfarbs’s influence in Cohn’s work is clearly visible. Still, Cohn has said that, “her effect on me was life-changing. What more could you ask of a teacher?”
