Ed Paschke: An Interview

Polish-American arist Ed Paschke (1939-2004) received his BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1961 and his MFA in 1970. Paschke was known as a member of the late-1960s Chicago Imagist movement, a group of artists who called themselves The Hairy Who, whose expressive style of figurative painting was rooted in outsider art, popular culture, and Surrealism. Paschke's fascination with the print media of popular culture led to a portrait-based art of cultural icons. Paschke used the celebrity figure, real or imagined, as a vehicle for explorations of personal and public identity with social and political implications. 

In this interview with Kate Horsfield, Paschke discusses his concerns regarding transformative power of media. "I think film and television have had a lot to do with forming our ideas of a sense of self, he says. "They’re about relationships, they’re about isolation... they’re about reaching out beyond isolation."

A historical interview originally recorded in 1982, edited in 2012 with support from the Lyn Blumenthal Memorial Fund.