Chicago: Train

Kenneth Nack

In 1946 Kenneth Nack was coming to the end of this stint with the U.S. Air Force during World War II, and was back in his native Chicago. The works that emerged from this time are bold, calligraphic images of urban scenes, often nocturnal, and speak to the restlessness of a young artist caught between the chaos of war and the excitement of a burgeoning American art scene, standing on the precipice of possibility.

In “Chicago: Train,” Nack’s energetic, almost unbridled style captures the bustle of a train terminal in the heart of Chicago's Old Town. He does away with explicit detail to focus on the mood of the scene, with figures, architecture, and train slightly akimbo as if the glitter of city life awaits and there is no time to waste. This piece exemplifies Nack’s participation in the bridging of figurative and abstract work in newly post-war America, when the desire for something unspoiled by the past energized the movement toward new ways of observing the world.