Intuit is excited to present an exhibition of Joseph Yoakum’s visionary landscapes, inspired by his world travels. When he was nine, Yoakum left home to join the Great Wallace Circus. He traveled the country, and even the world, as a billposter with five different circuses including Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and the Ringling Brothers. Yoakum’s life was shrouded in a number of myths of his own creation, but he did travel extensively both during and after his drafting and service in World War I. The son of an African American and Cherokee father and a French-American mother, Joseph was fascinated by his own Native American heritage. He claimed to have been born in Arizona and recognized himself as a member of the Navajo nation. In the 1950s, Yoakum began creating his supple landscapes, and created over 2,000 images in just two short decades.

Yoakum’s drawings function as records of his own memories; his work blends remembered and imagined locales to create abstracted topographies. Yoakum often includes an inscription of the location, season or time of day within his depicted environments. This specific documentation of the landscapes presents one with a visual autobiography of Yoakum’s perceived experience and envisioned world.

Yoakum’s drawings have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney in New York.

Join us for the opening reception Friday, January 16th at 5pm. Beer will be provided by Chicago's own Half Acre Beer Company.

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