The two men behind the collaborative exhibition that details and celebrates the work of artist Jack Simmerling are William Tyre and Tim Blackburn, and one day last week, they were proudly showing off their creative handiwork.
They have done a compelling job in their “Jack Simmerling: Through His Eyes,” which takes up most of the ground floor space of the Ridge Historical Society, charmingly housed in a 1922 house.
The Ridge Historical Society has exhibited Simmerling’s work in the past, but this show is more expansive, covering his life and work so thoroughly that it provides a punctuation mark to his importance to Chicago art and history.
He is there in the dozens of watercolors, sketches and pen-and-ink drawings on the walls, in the artifacts and materials saved from the trash heaps of razed mansions, in the tiny models he made as a teenager of the interiors of bygone homes, in interactive maps, printed exhibit panels and a video interview.
Even those who knew or think they knew Simmerling will be enlightened, for the exhibition is packed with such facts as Simmerling’s “first paid commissions were for the State Bank of Blue Island and the Pullman Trust and Savings Bank, each of which purchased a painting annually for their Christmas cards,” that his maternal grandfather played piano in silent movie houses and that he painted every day from 4-9 a.m.
The exhibit thoughtfully and entertainingly combines Blackburn’s research into Simmerling’s work in the Beverly and Morgan Park communities, with Tyre’s focus on Simmerling documenting Prairie Avenue.
Tyre is the longtime executive director and curator of the Glessner House Museum. He was also a friend of Simmerling’s, and I was there in 2014 when he hosted the opening of John J. “Jack” Simmerling Gallery of Prairie Avenue History.
That took place at Glessner a year after Simmerling’s death on what would have been his 79th birthday, and Tyre spoke with deep emotion, telling me after formally addressing the crowd, “I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to get through my remarks.”
This current exhibition was sparked last year by the upcoming 90th anniversary of Simmerling’s birth. Blackburn called Tyre and things were set in motion.
Blackburn had never met Simmerling. Originally from Joliet, he moved from a place in Wicker Park to a house near the Ridge Historical Society in Beverly a few years ago and dove into the area’s rich history. He has taken what he calls a sabbatical from his successful career in the tech world and has been devoting more and more time to the organization. “Learning of this remarkable life has been such a rewarding journey,” he said.
Not to spoil any of the surprises and delights you’ll find when you visit this show, here’s a bit about Simmerling. He was born on Dec. 1, 1935, and raised in Blue Island, the only child of an accountant father and a stay-at-home mom. He was a self-taught artist and something of a prodigy, in seventh grade winning a statewide art competition with a painting of the Great Chicago Fire.
Around that time, his grandfather, George Washington Bargerbush, who had been an office boy and messenger for Marshall Field and Co., took Jack to see what remained of the many mansions (including the Field family’s) that lined Prairie Avenue and were nearing their final days.
As he later told me, “I was determined that these relics of a bygone era not be forgotten.” He began to draw the soon-to-vanish buildings and also hooked on with a demolition crew taking down the mansions, and so was able to salvage all manner of items headed for the trash.
He went off to earn a degree in fine arts from the University of Notre Dame. His ambition was to work in a museum but there were no jobs available. So he went to work for a framing company, where he soon began selling his paintings for 25 cents.
Thousands of drawings and paintings were produced, headed for galleries, public spaces and, as he once told me proudly, “I do believe my work might be hanging in every other house in Beverly.”
He married Marjorie MacCartney in 1958, and they would have seven children. Simmerling died in 2013, his wife nine years later.
He has remained a part of the city. In addition to his presence at the Glessner House, there is a gallery at the Beverly Art Center named in his honor. And it is only a short walk to the Heritage Gallery at 1907 W. 103rd St. This is where you can find Simmerling’s work and where you would have found him for more than three decades, working alongside his daughter and expert framer, Victoria. She is still there.
The Ridge Historical Society show, originally scheduled to end in February, has been extended until April 26. “As you might expect in our community, the exhibit has been popular,” says Blackburn. “And so many people who came in on Sunday thanked us for keeping it open longer.”
Seeing this exhibition, I was thrown back to a long-ago day I spent with Simmerling. He took me to his house, which was like a museum, filled with the accumulated “treasures” of his lively past, the city’s past. It was also home to a Bernese mountain dog named Molly, four cats and a talking bird named David.
That was the day he told me, “I have always been drawn to the past, to preserving it.”
No one did that better or with more artful affection.
“Jack Simmerling: Through His Eyes” is open through April 26 at the Ridge Historical Society, 10621 S. Seeley Ave.; hours Tuesdays and Sundays 1-4 p.m. or by appointment; 773-881-1675 and ridgehistorical.org
rkogan@chicagotribune.com
