Dale Chisman

Considered to be one of Colorado’s most influential abstract painters upon his passing in 2008, Robischon Gallery exhibits a select series of Dale Chisman’s 1998 paintings on paper to illustrate how the artist’s relentless, poetic mark-making and sense of composition flourished. Using paint, ink and graphite, Chisman’s elemental and recurring marks have always suffused his studied compositions on both paper and canvas. Spontaneous and wide- ranging exploration of color and form, layered in relation to his drawn almost calligraphic underpinnings, came to define the artist’s bold, yet considered approach toward an abstraction informed by Abstract Expressionism with a late modernist sensibility. Chisman lived in New York from 1969 to 1984 and was represented by the noteworthy Martha Jackson Gallery along with painter Frank Lobdell. Chisman returned to Colorado in the 1980s as a seasoned artist setting in motion a long period of influence as an important teacher and leader in the art community. Chisman’s contribution and abstract vernacular continue to resonate. The word “voz” inscribed on one painting poignantly foreshadowed Chisman’s legacy as one of Colorado’s enduring artistic voices.