Skip to Main Content

Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery

Location

Space

Dates

Gertrude Abercrombie (1909–1977) produced hundreds of paintings imbued with autobiography that revealed her emotional truth and declared it as real. A critical figure in the mid-twentieth-century Chicago art and jazz scenes, Abercrombie made art to give her internal life visual form. She put herself into her painted world—in self-portraits, landscapes, interior scenes, and still lifes—through the use of personal symbols and enigmatic female figures. She probed her consciousness, mined her memories, drew on her dreams, and found the peculiar in everyday life, painting, as she said, “simple things that are a little strange.”

A surreal painting of a figure in black leaning against a tree beside a table, with a black cat nearby under a cloudy night sky.

Travel Details

Carnegie Museum of Art
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
January 18–June 1, 2025

Milwaukee Art Museum
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
March 27–July 19, 2026

Norton Museum of Art
West Palm Beach, Florida
October 31, 2026—March 21, 2027

Selected Works

Gertrude Abercrombie

A woman in black walks on a dirt path in a surreal landscape with a white, leafless tree and cloudy sky.

Gertrude Abercrombie

Gertrude Abercrombie

A painting of a flower, a letter, and a vase of flowers on a blue table cloth with a landscape painting hung behind it on the wall.

Gertrude Abercrombie

A barren tree with a ladder leaning against it, under a cloudy night sky with a faint moon.

Gertrude Abercrombie

Two lions at a table playing chess under a full moon, with a crowned figure and a distant tower.

Gertrude Abercrombie

Painting of female figure and abstracted shadows

Gertrude Abercrombie

Surreal moonlit landscape with a woman, a blue chaise lounge, and a tree.

Gertrude Abercrombie

A green chaise longue against a gray wall with a mirror above and a white door beside it.

Gertrude Abercrombie

Five closed doors in gray, green, white, dark gray, and red along a flat wall.

Gertrude Abercrombie

A surreal landscape with a green ground, black domino pieces, white stones, a white pyramid, and a crescent moon in a dark sky.

Gertrude Abercrombie

A painting of a green, red, and white door freestanding in the middle of a room with a black cat sitting in front of them.

Gertrude Abercrombie

A painting of a women in pink levitating above a table in front of a man in a suit and top hat.

Installation Views

Installation view of Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, 2025. Photo: Abby Lank

Installation view of Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, 2025. Photo: Abby Lank

Installation view of Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, 2025. Photo: Abby Lank

Installation view of Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, 2025. Photo: Abby Lank

Installation view of Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, 2025. Photo: Abby Lank

Installation view of Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, 2025. Photo: Abby Lank

Installation view of Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, 2025. Photo: Abby Lank

Installation view of Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, 2025. Photo: Abby Lank

Installation view of Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, 2025. Photo: Abby Lank

Installation view of Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, 2025. Photo: Abby Lank

Installation view of Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, 2025. Photo: Abby Lank

Installation view of Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, 2025. Photo: Abby Lank

Installation view of Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, 2025. Photo: Abby Lank

Installation view of Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, 2025. Photo: Abby Lank

Installation view of Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, 2025. Photo: Abby Lank

Installation view of Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, 2025. Photo: Abby Lank

Installation view of Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, 2025. Photo: Abby Lank

Installation view of Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, 2025. Photo: Abby Lank

Installation view of Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, 2025. Photo: Abby Lank

Installation view of Gertrude Abercrombie: The Whole World Is a Mystery, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine, 2025. Photo: Abby Lank

Catalogue

A book cover with black and white stripes, titled "GERTRUDE ABERCROMBIE," featuring a surreal painting and the phrase "THE WHOLE WORLD IS A MYSTERY."

Related Events

Art Break: Where or When (Things Past) by Gertrude Abercrombie

A dark, surreal painting of a woman wearing a coral dress in a dark, gray room, holding up a long string that stretched across the painting.