Thomas Chimes: Complete Circle

Thomas Chimes: Complete Circle, 2001
Text by David Cohen
54 pages, Softcover
Published by Locks Art Publications
$10.00 ISBN: 1-879173-49-2

Complete Circle presents the early and later work of noted artist Thomas Chimes: a series of metal box constructions from 1965-1973 paired with related new paintings. Chimes is best known for his portraits of fin-de-siecle literary figures painted on wood panels, which followed the box series and large-scale white portraits where the figures emerge from a glowing, mist-like background. The intricate design of Chimes’ metal boxes, with their inlaid drawings, precision gadgetry and murky peep holes are a witty and allusive synthesis of Surrealism, Art Deco, and Pop. Their sensuous curves are often paired with technical drawings and words resembling the caricatures and equations of his recent paintings.