Sarah Canright

A member of the Chicago Imagist movement of the 1960s, a group of artists associated with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago whose paintings, drawings, printmaking and sculptures were recognisable through a shared aesthetic of vibrant colours and graphics, cartoonish shapes and patterns. A departure from this style, Canright’s work is more muted and subtle in colour. In addition, she renders knotted calligraphy with pale pastel tones, making her paintings more mysterious, ethereal, and less surreal than other Imagists but no less striking. Looking retrospectively at Canright’s 1960s paintings, these works appear to be proto-feminist abstract depictions filled with braided, woven hair and disjointed, rippling body parts.