Hollis Sigler: Expect the Unexpected (Part 01)

Being able to amble through a selection of an artist’s work that spans several decades grants viewers insight into the trajectory of a life. The fact that Hollis Sigler perpetually relates her most intimate thoughts on life and human interaction through seemingly bland, daily occurrences captured in paint makes the collection amassed for Expect the Unexpected, on display at the Chicago Cultural Center, all the more revealing.

After establishing a distinctive approach to her craft and devising a variety of settings to paint, Sigler was diagnosed with cancer in 1985. Seeing as the affliction ran in her family, the artist was adept at dealing with her mother and great-grandmother in the throws of the disease. Nothing can prepare an individual for battling cancer oneself. Turning to her work, though, Sigler began incorporating personal perspectives on her affliction in her paintings. There wasn’t a tremendous shift stylistically when contrasting work prior to ’85 and Sigler’s subsequent paintings. Subtle differences, though, point to an artist’s world being drastically different.

The 1981 painting “Inside She was Bleeding” presents a bloody mess set inside of a sparsely furnished bedroom. While the spattered blood reaches from the bureau to the wall behind it and a prominently featured bloody dress appears troublesome, the room looks calm and void of clutter. Something awful happened here, though, even as calmness defines what’s trapped within the frame. Another painting, this one from 1983 and titled “The World is Endless Desire,” depicts a similarly stark and empty world. This latter painting includes signs of life as an empty dinner table was clearly encircled by people moments ago. With fireworks centered in the frame, Sigler might be hinting that the party goers ventured outside to take in the spectacle. Regardless of her intent, the staid simplicity inherent in her paintings before the realization of her disease contrasts with the motion and frenetic energy coursing through her work completed after 1985.

Moving forward in time through Expect the Unexpected, Sigler uses the words of an American expatriate poet, Renée Vivien, to encircle “The Earth Grows Languid,” from 1994. Scrawling around the perimeter of the brown frame, bedecked with faux jewels and ornamentation that looks like cake frosting are the lines, "The earth grows languid, weak and the breeze still warm from far away beds, comes to soften the ocean finally subdued. Here is the night of love so long promised." Reveling in the love of her partner, Sigler relates a warm sentiment that points to her unwillingness to succumb to cancer. While outwardly portraying a façade of strength, the painter chooses to construct a canvas focused on the aforementioned bed. Placing the piece of furniture in mid air, seemingly ascending to the heavens, viewers should wonder if the painting is meant to reveal an elevated perception of love and its all encompassing power or if its Sigler’s death bed, which once doubled as a place of intense happiness.