Apotheosis

1955–57

John D. Graham
American, born Russia (now Ukraine), 1886–1961

Status: On View, Gallery 397
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: John Graham
Title: Apotheosis
Place: United States (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1955–1957
Medium: Oil paint and graphite with smudging on tan wove paper, laid down on Japanese paper
Inscriptions: Signed and dated, upper right: "IΩANNH∑ / °YXH∏OM∏O∑ / OX°O°OI∆OPO∑ / SUMQUISUM / XXXXXV / LVII"; inscribed along upper-left edge: "E∑KATOBIBE°OI"; inscribed, left of head: "APOTEOSIDELEROE / IOANNUS SAN GERMANUS DUX / PHOTIUS MAGUS SERVUS DOMINI / MYTADOLOS PORPHIROGENATUS / GLAPHIROS MAKARIUS / °YXO∏OM∏O∑ OX°O°OI∆OPO∑ / DOCTOR JURIS UTRIUSQUE / ET ST GEORGIIEQUITUS / SEMPER IDEM)"; inscribed along lower left edge: "APOTHEOSIS"; inscribed three times, left of head: "666"; inscribed three times, right of head: "999"
Dimensions: 126.9 × 92.4 cm (50 × 36 7/16 in.)
Credit Line: Lindy and Edwin Bergman Collection
Reference Number: 2018.326

Fairfield Porter, “John Graham: Painter as Aristocrat,” Art News 59:6 (1960), p. 41 (ill.).
Irving Hershel Sandler, “New York Letter,” Art International 4:9 (1960), p. 29.
Thomas B. Hess, “Eccentric Propositions,” in The Grand Eccentrics: Five Centuries of Artists Outside the Main Currents of Art History, edited by Thomas B. Hess, Art News Annual 32 (Oct. 1966), p. 10 (ill.).
Jack Kroll, “Beyond the Fringe,” Newsweek (Nov. 7, 1966), p. 112 (ill.).
Eila Kokkinen, “Ioannus Magus Servus Domini St. Georgii Equitus,” Art News 67:5 (1968), p. 66.
“Painting: The Eyes Have It,” Time (Sept. 13, 1968), p. 72.
“An Eccentric Revived: John Graham - Painter of Cross-Eyed Beauties and Mystic Signs,” Life 65:14 (1968), p. 52 (ill.).
Marcia Epstein Allentuck (editor), John Graham’s “System and Dialectics of Art” (Baltimore, 1971), p. 69 (ill.).
Barbara Rose, “Arshile Gorky and John Graham: Eastern Exiles in a Western World,” Arts Magazine 50:7 (1976), pp. 68 (ill.), 69.
Hayden Herrera, “John Graham: Modernist Turns Magus,” Arts Magazine 51:2 (1976), p. 104 (ill.).
Paul Brach, “John Graham: Brilliant Amateur?,” Art in America 75:12 (1987), p. 133 (ill.).
Suvan Geer, “A Magus Seeking Enlightenment,” Art Week 18:43 (1987), p. 7 (ill.).
Peter Frank, “Jan Dibbets and John Graham,” Diversion (July 1988), p. 109 (ill.).
Jane Addams Allen, “Graham: Genius or Fake?,” Washingtion Times (July 11, 1988), p. E3 (ill.).
Jo Ann Lewis, “Modernism’s Madman,” Washington Post (July 24, 1988), p. G5 (ill.).
Edward J. Sozanski, “‘Artist and Avatar,’ A D.C. Retrospective of John Graham Art,” Philadelphia Enquirer (Aug. 4, 1988), p. 3-C (ill.).
Ellen G. Landau, Jackson Pollock (New York, 1989), p. 80 (ill.).
Dawn Ades, with Margherita Andreotti and Adam Jolles, Surrealist Art: The Lindy and Edwin Bergman Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1997), pp. 152–55, cat. 78 (color ill.).

New York, Gallery Mayer, “John Graham,” 1960, cat. 10.
Chicago, Arts Club, “John Graham,” 1963-1964, cat. 14; also Minneapolis.
Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, “Fantastic Drawings,” 1967–1968, no cat.
New York, The Museum of Modern Art, “John Graham: Paintings and Drawings,” 1968-1970, cat. 25 (ill.); also Athens, Georgia; Grinnell, Iowa; Auburn, Alabama; Houston; San Antonio; Seattle; Chicago; and Hanover, New Hampshire.
Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, “Twentieth-Century Drawings from Chicago Collections,” 1973, n.p.
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, “Twentieth-Century American Art from Friends’ Collections,” 1977, n.p.
Art Institute of Chicago, “A Tribute to Edwin A. Bergman (1917–1986): Selections from the Lindy and Edwin Bergman Collection,” 1986, pamphlet no. 29.
Washington, D.C., Phillips Collection, “John Graham: Artist and Avatar,” 1987-1988, cat. 62 (ill.), p. 87; also Purchase, New York; Newport Beach, California; Berkeley; and Chicago,

Sold by Gallery Mayer, New York, to Lindy and Edwin Bergman, Chicago, 1960; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2018.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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