A survey of the work of one of Chicago’s most prolific artists.

Edgar Miller (1899–1993) arrived in Chicago in 1917 and, over the next fifty years, established a successful career as a multi-hyphenate creative practitioner. He worked as an architect, artist, craftsperson, curator, designer, and illustrator during a particularly rich period that saw the ascendancy of modernism across the visual culture of the city. Though aware of contemporary developments and debates, Miller’s tremendous body of work, which spanned multiple media, materials, and disciplines, speaks to an individual unconcerned with trends, labels, or what became the established tenets of modern art. While developing a signature style, he never embraced the aesthetics of geometric abstraction, “art for art’s sake,” subjective expressionism, or the machine age. He instead remained committed to figurative storytelling and representing the natural world, creating work that was intended to be experienced across the built environment.

Published in conjunction with DePaul Art Museum’s 2024 retrospective of Miller’s work, Edgar Miller: Anti-Modern, 1917–1967 features new research by scholars Marin R. Sullivan, Craig Lee, and Jenn Marshall that serves to highlight one of Chicago’s most prolific and under-appreciated artists.
 

Marin R. Sullivan is a Chicago-based art historian, curator, consultant, educator, and writer. Sullivan is the author of Alloys: American Sculpture and Architecture at Midcentury and Sculptural Materiality in the Age of Conceptualism. She is also director of the Harry Bertoia Catalogue Raisonné and lecturer and guest curator at DePaul University.