born Julia Thecla Connell; dropped surname in 1920s
Thecla
n/a
n/a
n/a
February 28, 1896
Delavan, Illinois
June 29, 1973
Chicago, Illinois
Scottish and Irish
1971-1973: Sacred Heart Home of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Chicago, Illinois
1940: 63 W. Ontario Street, Chicago, Illinois
Mixed Media, Painter-Oil, Sculptor
1913: graduated Delavan High School, Delavan, Illinois
summer 1913: Illinois State Normal University, Normal, Illinois
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois; student of Laura Van Pappelendam
Student of Elmer Forsberg
Array
1931-1936, 1940-1944: International Water Color Exhibition, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
1932: Grant Park Art Fair, Chicago, Illinois
1932, 1950: The Little Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
1934: Century of Progress Exhibition, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
1934, 1939, 1957: Annual Exhibition, Chicago No-Jury Society of Artists, Chicago, Illinois
1937, 1941, 1944: Albert Roullier Art Galleries, Chicago, Illinois [solo]
1940, 1947, 1949, 1950, 1952, 1960, 1961, 1966: Annual Exhibition of Works by Chicago and Vicinity Artists, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
1940: National Art Week, Chicago, Illinois
1941, 1945: Exhibition by the Society for Contemporary American Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
1942: Exhibition of Midwestern Painters, David Porter Gallery, Washington, D.C.
1943: Romantic Painting in America, Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York
1943: Paintings by TA Hoyer & Julia Thecla, Room of Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
1943: Exhibition by 31 Women, Art of This Century Gallery, New York, New York
1944: Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey
1945: Women Artists' Salon of Chicago, Findlay Galleries, Chicago, Illinois
1945, 1951, 1954: Annual Exhibition of American Painting and Sculpture, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
1945: Annual Watercolor Exhibition of the San Francisco Art Association, San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, California
1946, 1947, 1952: Annual Exhibition by Professional Artist Members, Arts Club, Chicago, Illinois
1947: Abstract and Surrealist American Art, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
1949: Painting in the US, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1949: Old Northwest Territory Art Exhibit, Illinois State Fair, Springfield, Illinois
1951: Contemporary American Painting, Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma
1952 : Florida International Art Exhibit, Lakeland, Florida
1953: Self Portraits by Chicago Artists, Mandel Brothers Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
1956: Exhibition of Drawings by Julia Thecla, Ten-Twenty Art Center, Gallery 23
1964: Fine Arts Festival Annual Art Fair, Suburban Fine Arts Center, Highland Park, Illinois
1976: The Emergence of Modernism in Illinois 1914-40, Illinois State Museum, Springfield, Illinois
1977: Surrealism and American Art 1931-47, Rutgers University Art Gallery, New Brunswick, New Jersey
November 11, 1984-February 17, 1985: Julia Thecla 1896-1973, Illinois State Museum, Springfield, Illinois
1986: Julia Thecla 1896-1973, Illinois State Museum, Chicago, Illinois
1994: The “New Woman” in Chicago, 1910-1945: Paintings from Illinois Collections, Illinois Art Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
2004: Chicago Modern, 1893-1945: Pursuit of the New,
2009: Skirting Convention: Illinois Women Artists 1840-1940, Lakeview Museum of Arts & Sciences, Peoria, Illinois
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Krannert Art Center, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Norfolk Museum, Norfolk, Virginia
San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, California
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Illinois State Museum, Springfield, Illinois
Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey
Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, St. Paul, Minnesota
Breckinridge, Mrs. H. essay in exhibition catalog for Second National Exhibition of American Art, 1937.
Bulliet, C.J. “No. 40 Julia Thecla,” Chicago Daily News, January 23, 1935.
-----. “Julia Thecla’s Rich Fantasy Pervades Her New Paintings,” Chicago Daily News, May 19, 1945
Ford, Phyllis, “Artists Thecla Reluctantly Tells Her Life,” Chicago Tribune, December 12, 1943.
Holm, Erica L. “Julia Thecla,” Schultz Rima Lumin and Adele Hast, eds. Women Building Chicago, 1790-1980: A Biographical Dictionary. Bloomington, IN: University of Indiana Press, 2001.
Kennedy, Elizabeth ed. Chicago Modern, 1893-1945: Pursuit of the New, 2004.
Lifton, Norma. “Julia Thecla,” New Art Examiner, September 1986.
McKenna, Maureen A. exhibition catalog, Julia Thecla 1896-1973, Illinois State Museum, Springfield, Illinois, 1984
Soby, James. Romantic Painting in America, exhibition catalog, Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, 1943.
Weigle, Edith. “Her Canvases are Enchanted Worlds,” Chicago Sunday Tribune, August 21, 1960.
Weininger, Susan. The “New Woman” in Chicago, 1910-1945: Paintings from Illinois Collections. Illinois State Museum, 1993.
Chicago Arts Club, Chicago, Illinois
No-Jury Society of Artists, Chicago, Illinois
Women Artist Salon, Chicago, Illinois
The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
Artists Collection, Harold Washington Library, Chicago, Illinois
: teacher (1-7th grades), rural Tazewell County school, Illinois
industrial artist doing factory design and decoration
secretary/office clerk
art restorer
1938-1942: FAP Easel Division, Illinois
.J. Bulliet essay on Illinois Historical Art Project website
passionate about poetry, studied it in 1920s in Chicago, Illinois