Cosmo Campoli (March 21, 1922 – December 15, 1997)[1] was a Chicago-based sculptor, known for his figurative work centered on the themes of birth and death, and for his use of bold, surreal bird and egg imagery.
[2] He was a member of a group of School of the Art Institute of Chicago artists collectively dubbed the "Monster Roster" by critic Franz Schulze in the late 1950s, based on their affinity for sometimes gruesome, expressive figuration, fantasy and mythology, and existential thought.
Campoli rose to prominence in the 1950s locally and nationally when art historian and curator Peter Selz featured him, Golub and Cohen in a 1955 ARTnews article, "Is There a New Chicago School?
", and included him, Golub and Westermann in the 1959 Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) exhibition, New Images of Man, as examples of vanguard expressive figurative work in Europe and the United States.
In 1950, after graduating, Campoli, John Kearney and Golub co-founded Contemporary Art Workshop, a collaborative exhibition space on Chicago's Rush Street that nurtured young talent.
[8] His interest was in creating organic, nurturing, rounded "yen" forms, particularly portraying the spirit of birds, other animals, and eggs in bronze, clay, stone, or mixed-media objects such as abstracted birdbaths that became increasingly surreal.
[2] Critic Franz Schulze characterizes Campoli's work displaying a "consistent lyricism," "ambition and technical command," that consciously combined 20th-century influences with "archetypal imagistic ideas.
[8][7] Later, Compoli and Dutch artist Sonja Weber Gilkey originated and curated (with other associates) a groundbreaking exhibit called "Spumoni Village" in the Chicago gallery 1134.
When I was a child in the late 1970s I would go to Cosmo's house and he would give me glitter, glue, paint, and other interesting objects to adorn his front yard.