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Artist: Lillian Florsheim
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  • About
  • Items (10)
  • Auctions (4)

Lillian Florsheim
1896—1988

Chicago artist and collector Lillian Florsheim is celebrated for her three-dimensional abstractions made using materials from Plexiglas to string, as well as for her role as a prominent patron of the arts for more than fifty years.

Auction Results Lillian Florsheim

Lillian Florsheim, J12

Lillian Florsheim

J12

estimate: $1,000–1,500

result: $2,142

Lillian Florsheim, Untitled Sculpture (Tree Shards)

Lillian Florsheim

Untitled Sculpture (Tree Shards)

estimate: $400–600

result: $2,500

Lillian Florsheim, Untitled (Tree Shards, Q7)

Lillian Florsheim

Untitled (Tree Shards, Q7)

estimate: $1,000–1,500

result: $625

Lillian Florsheim, Untitled (Square of Rods, H11)

Lillian Florsheim

Untitled (Square of Rods, H11)

estimate: $2,000–3,000

result: $4,375

Lillian Florsheim, Untitled (Box, A 1.7)

Lillian Florsheim

Untitled (Box, A 1.7)

estimate: $300–500

result: $845

Lillian Florsheim, Untitled (Tree Shards, Q7)

Lillian Florsheim

Untitled (Tree Shards, Q7)

estimate: $1,000–1,500

result: $1,250

Lillian Florsheim, Untitled (Metal Rings, R2)

Lillian Florsheim

Untitled (Metal Rings, R2)

estimate: $2,000–3,000

result: $4,688

Lillian Florsheim, Untitled (Cubes Stacked, O4.1)

Lillian Florsheim

Untitled (Cubes Stacked, O4.1)

estimate: $1,500–2,000

result: $1,750

Lillian Florsheim in her studio.

Lillian Florsheim

The Artist

Lillian’s artistic production took place late in her life; she began studying art in the late 1940s in her fifties and she continued to work until her eighties. She began with painting courses taught by Rudolph Weisenborn and George Buehle, both in Chicago. After viewing a work by Max Bill at the Art Institute of Chicago she became more interested in abstract work and enrolled in classes with Hugo Weber at the Institute of Design in 1951. Here she was introduced to more exploratory abstractions and three-dimensional studies, working with string and wire armatures, a technique derived from László Moholy-Nagy’s early teachings at the school.

Through the 1950s Lillian worked unaccompanied at home in her studio making abstracted figures, string study models, and a variety of utilitarian objects in Plexiglas. In the early 1960s, her sculptures became more abstract, complex studies of pure form. She began to layer Plexiglas, and then moved into strong geometric constructions of rods and planes. By the end of the decade, her works became much larger, first with tall columns and plinths and later with assemblies of tubes and portals. By the end of the 1970s, she returned to making smaller more intimately scaled works.

Cover and title page of the 1968 exhibition catalog published by Galerie Denis Rene

Over these three decades, she created an impressive body of work with more than 200 sculptures. She explored a variety of techniques, approaches, materials and methods throughout her career, probing the material and conceptual boundaries of her creations. Lillian’s sculptural work was widely exhibited from the mid-1960s through the 1980s; she had at least sixteen solo shows, and participated in twelve group shows in seven countries. She was a close friend of the highly-regarded Parisian gallerist Denise René, who showed Lillian’s work in 1968 and 1969. In 1970, Lillian was one of three artists in a major exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. She was represented by the notable Fairweather Hardin Gallery in Chicago, who hosted two solo shows of Lillian’s work in 1980 and 1983.

In February of 2018, Wright hosted an auction dedicated to the collaboration, collecting and creations of Lillian Florsheim and her architect son-in-law, Bertrand Goldberg.
View Auction

I’ve always liked geometric forms. I’m trying to create objects that have a beauty of their own through the materials used and the shapes formed.

Lillian Florsheim

The Home of Lillian Florsheim

Florsheim moved into the Gold Coast modernist home in 1946, purchasing it from the original owner and architect, Andrew Rebori, who built the home in 1938. The interior was re-designed by her son-in-law, architect Bertrand Goldberg to fit her emerging modern aesthetic sensibilities. At this time, she also became an active collector, interested in abstract and European avant-garde works. She began creating her own geometric sculptures in the 1950s and adding them to the works on display in her home created a singular and expressive modern space.

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The Florsheim Mansion at 1328 N State in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood.

Works from the Collection of Lillian Florsheim

Jean (Hans) Arp, Constellation

108 Jean (Hans) Arp

Constellation

estimate: $70,000–90,000

result: $233,000

De Wain Valentine, Untitled (Circle)

117 De Wain Valentine

Untitled (Circle)

estimate: $50,000–70,000

result: $105,000

Max Bill, Construction With and Within a Cube

106 Max Bill

Construction With and Within a Cube

estimate: $70,000–90,000

result: $93,750

Georges Vantongerloo, Formation de la Matière

111 Georges Vantongerloo

Formation de la Matière

estimate: $70,000–90,000

result: $93,750

Yaacov Agam, Continuity (Transformable painting, circular)

114 Yaacov Agam

Continuity (Transformable painting, circular)

estimate: $30,000–50,000

result: $50,000

Victor Vasarely, Quasar

122 Victor Vasarely

Quasar

estimate: $30,000–50,000

result: $40,000

Zoltán Kemény, Cristal d'Esprit

110 Zoltán Kemény

Cristal d'Esprit

estimate: $15,000–20,000

result: $32,500

Lajos Kassak, Bildarchitektur I

119 Lajos Kassak

Bildarchitektur I

estimate: $10,000–15,000

result: $13,750

Karl-Peter Röhl, Zwei Im Rot

116 Karl-Peter Röhl

Zwei Im Rot

estimate: $7,000–9,000

result: $7,500

John Cannon, Untitled #11

172 John Cannon

Untitled #11

estimate: $2,000–3,000

result: $4,688

Ilya Bolotowsky, Untitled (Yellow Tondo)

163 Ilya Bolotowsky

Untitled (Yellow Tondo)

estimate: $300–500

result: $2,750

Charles Hinman, untitled

637 Charles Hinman

untitled

estimate: $1,000–1,500

result: $1,800

Lillian Florsheim 1896–1988

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Lillian Florsheim came to the arts late in life. She began with painting in the 1940s, starting artistic work in her fifties. Her life up to then had been more conventional. She was born Lillian Hyman, in 1896 to parents Clara Newman and Harris Hyman. Raised in New Orleans in a large house on St. Charles Avenue in the Garden District, she summered with her family in Charlevoix, Michigan. The first woman in her family to go to college, Lillian was a strong student, and graduated from Smith College where she studied literature and philosophy. In 1918 she married Irving Florsheim of the prominent manufacturing company Florsheim Shoes, founded by his father. The young couple lived in Chicago and kept homes both in the city and outside in Libertyville. Lillian and Irving had two daughters, Mary and Nancy.

After twenty-eight years of marriage, in 1946, Lillian and Irving divorced and she would never remarry. It was at this time that Lillian began to pursue her interest in the arts. She took courses in painting with Rudolph Weisenborn and George Buehle, before studying sculpture under Hugo Weber at the Institute of Design in Chicago where she was introduced to more exploratory abstractions and three-dimensional studies. Throughout the 1950s Lillian dedicated herself to creating works that ranged from small abstract figures to string studies. In the late 1950s and early 1960s she moved to more abstract and complex studies of form and larger geometric constructions. From the mid-1960s through the early 1980s, Lillian’s art was widely exhibited locally as well as overseas in Europe. In 1970 she was one of three artists featured in solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.

Not only did Lillian make art, but she also began to collect art in the late 1950s. She undertook this with serious investigation into the Cubists and other artists of the 1930s Paris-based group Abstraction-Création, and assembled a leading collection of their work. She traveled and met many of the artists whose works she collected, with particularly strong friendships with Georges Vantongerloo and Max Bill among others. Over the next two decades she would amass a well-considered and impressive collection which was shown in exhibitions around the world.

Her own work continued to evolve in scale and technique, reflecting changing ideas about art as she worked late into life, well into her eighties. Lillian died in 1988 at the age of 92. Today, works from her collection can be found in major museum collections including The Art Institute of Chicago, Hirshhorn, Smithsonian and the New Orleans Museum of Art, as well as in museums in Europe. Her work too has found homes in numerous prominent collections across the globe.

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