Julia Thecla

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Artist Details

  • Julia
  • Connell
  • 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

    1935, 1936, 1942, 1944, 1961: Findlay Galleries, Chicago, Illinois

    1936: Katharine Kuh Gallery, 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

    1955: Magnificent Mile Exhibition, Drake Hotel, 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