Chicago artist Ivan Albright executed this grisly work for the 1945 movie adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s 1891 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. In Wilde’s tale, a portrait of the young and attractive Gray decays as the protagonist leads an increasingly wayward life, recording the extent of his moral corruption in paint. Having established a reputation for capturing the macabre, Albright was the ideal choice to create such a horrific image that both attracts and repulses its viewers. The portrait appeared in vivid Technicolor, within the otherwise black-and-white film, causing a sensation. When Albright’s canvas was exhibited at the Art Institute later that year, the Chicago Tribune reported that the museum “is having a heck of a time handling the crowds flocking to see his painting.”
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.
“The Albright Twins Paint Gruesome Masterpieces in an Abandoned Methodist Church,” Life, March 2, 1944, 63–70.
The Art Digest, May 14, 1945, 14.
C.J. Bulliet, “Albright’s ‘Dorian Gray’ Hollywoodian in its Horror,” Chicago Daily News, July 28, 1945.
“A Look at the Albrights,” Newsweek, Nov. 5, 1945, 106.
Harriet and Sidney Janis, “The Painting of Ivan Albright,” Art in America, Jan. 1946, 43–49.
“By the Way,” Townsfolk, Chicago, 35, 1 (1946).
Dorothy Bridaham, “The Paintings of Ivan Albright,” Chicago, April 1954, 20–41, ill. p. 21.
Ralph M. Pearson, The Modern Renaissance in American Art (Harper and Brothers, 1954), 237, 239, fig. 146.
WFMT Fine Arts Guide, Chicago, Nov. 1960, ill. back cover.
Edith Weigle, “The Genius of Ivan Albright, Chicago Tribune Magazine, January 27, 1963.
Robert Hardy Andrews, “Some Stories That Didn’t Get Into My Book,” Chicago Daily News, Summer 1963.
“I Wish to Create Tension and Conflict,” Chicago Daily News, Panorama Section, Oct. 24, 1964, ill.
Edward Barry, “Big Albright Exhibit – Tribute to Chicagoan,” Chicago Tribune, Oct. 25, 1964.
“Ivan Albright,” Arts, March 1965, 55–56.
Peter Fox Smith, “Vermont’s Hidden Master,” Sunday Boston Globe magazine, Feb. 8, 1976, 18–29.
Jan. Van der Marck, “Ivan Albright: More than Meets the Eye,” Art in America, Nov./Dec. 1977, 93–98.
Alan G. Artner, “At 81, Ivan Albright Enjoys his Gift of Second Sight,” Chicago Tribune, Oct. 22, 1978.
Michael Croydon, Ivan Albright (New York: Abbeville Press, 1978), 112–14, 123, pls. 38–39.
Louise Bruner, “The Chicago Art Scene: Albright Returns Home,” The Blade, Toledo Ohio, Octo. 29, 1978, ill.
“Joshua Kind, Reassessing Albright,” The New Art Examiner, Dec. 1978, 10–11.
Ed Lion, “Albright Doesn’t Use Words Beautiful, Ugly,” Sarasota Herald–Tribune (UPI), Tues., Dec. 19, 1978, Sec. C, 1.
“America: Traum und Depression 1920/1940,” Neue Gesellschaft fur bilende Kunst, Berlin, Nov. 9–Dec. 28, 1980, b/w ill. in exh. cat. although work was not included in the show, 277.
“Ivan Albright,” The New Renaissance, 4, 3, 14 (Spring 1981), 31–40, ill. p. 37.
Michael Brenson, “Ivan Albright, 86, Painter, is Dead”, New York Times, Nov. 19, 1983, 33, ill.
James Martinez, “Artist Albright, the ‘Master of Decay,’ is Dead”, Chicago Sun–Times, Nov. 19, 1983, ill.
Christopher Lyon, “Synthetic Realism: Albright, Golub, Paschke,” Art Journal (Winter 1985), 330–333, ill. p. 332.
Henry Canter, “Modern Work Shown at Arts and Letters,” The Uptown Dispatch, New York, Dec. 6–19, 1985, 13, ill.
Arte American 1930–1970, Independent Curators Inc., 1991, ill.
Judith A. Barter et al., American Modernism at the Art Institute of Chicago, From World War I to 1955, (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2009), cat. 92.
The Andy Warhol Foundation, Sally King–Nero, Neil Printz, The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné: Paintings and Sculpture late 1974–1976, (Phaidon Press, 2014), vol. 4, (ill.).
Sarah Kelly Oehler, ed., Ivan Albright Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2019), https://www.artic.edu/digitalalbright, cat. 18 (ill.).
Art Institute of Chicago, Fifty–Sixth Annual American Exhibition of Paintings, Oct. 25, 1945–Jan. 1, 1946, cat. 2, ill. pl. VI.
Chicago, Associated American Artists Galleries, The Albright Twins First Joint Chicago Exhibition, Mar. 29–Apr. 17, 1946, cat. 1.
Chicago, Riccardo’s Restaurant and Gallery, 1946.
Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, Painting in the United States, Oct. 11–Dec. 8, 1946, cat. 101, ill. pl. 84.
Springfield, Illinois State Fair, First Annual Exhibition by Artists of the Old Northwest Territory, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Aug. 8–17, 1947, cat. 2, ill. p. 2.
Chicago, Marshall Field & Co. Galleries, Exhibition of Winners of the Illinois State Fair (and Dorian Gray), Sept. 1947.
Miami, Fla. Work exhibited at The Cadillac Hotel and Lord Tarleton Hotel, sponsored by the Advertising Artists Guild of Miami, Dec. 1947.
Chicago, Riccardo’s Restaurant and Gallery, Albright Family Exhibition (works by Ivan, Malvin and Adam), 1950.
Art Institute of Chicago, Ivan Albright Retrospective Exhibition, Oct. 30–Dec. 27, 1964; New York, the Whitney Museum, Feb. 3–Mar. 21, 1965, cat. 29.
Hanover, New Hampshire, Dartmouth College, Hopkins Center, Beaumont–May Gallery, Visitors Forum Show, Aug. 1970.
Omaha, Joslyn Art Museum, The Thirties Decade: American Artists and Their European Contemporaries, Oct. 10–Nov. 28, 1971, cat. 1, ill.
Woodstock, Vermont, Universalist Church, Art on Church Street, June 1975.
Art Institute of Chicago, Works by Ivan L. Albright from the Collection, Oct. 21–Dec. 10, 1978, cat. 22.
Munich, Germany, Haus Der Kunst, Amerikanische Malerei, 1930–1980, Nov. 14, 1981–Jan. 31, 1982, cat. 99, ill. p. 104.
New York, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, Memorial Exhibition of Deceased Members, Nov. 18–Dec. 15, 1985, cat. 14, ill. p. 2.
Turin, Italy, Lingotto S.R.L., Arte Americana 1930–1970, Jan. 8–Mar. 31, 1992, ill. p. 51.
Berlin, Neue Nationalgalerie, George Grosz: Berlin – New York, Dec. 21, 1994–Apr. 17, 1995; Düsseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein–Westfalen, May 6–July 30, 1995; Stuttgart, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Sept. 7–Dec. 3, 1995, cat. 23, ill.
Art Institute of Chicago, Ivan Albright, Feb. 20–May 11, 1997, cat. no. 41; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, June 10–Sept. 7, 1997.
Milwaukee Art Museum, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Jan. 22–Feb. 21, 1999, in conjunction with Florentine Opera Event, no cat.
Art Institute of Chicago, Flesh: Ivan Albright at the Art Institute of Chicago, May 4–Aug. 5, 2018, no cat.
Ivan Albright (1897–1983); given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1977.
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