Avalanche

Rudolph Weisenborn (1881-1974) studied art in North Dakota and Denver before arriving in Chicago around 1912. A committed modernist, he worked in a variety of styles that ranged from pointillism to vorticism. Weisenborn founded several artist groups including the Chicago No-Jury Society of Artists, the Cor Ardens, and the Neo-Arlimusic. He was the first to exhibit an abstract painting at the Art Institute of Chicago in 1928. During the Great Depression, Weisenborn was employed by the Federal Art Project to paint works such as the mural Contemporary Chicago at Nettlehorst Elementary School in Chicago. In 1945, Herman Spertus commissioned Weisenborn to paint the mural “The Fighting Navy” for the Great Lakes Naval Training Station.

Avalanche is apparently intended to be invertible: either short end can be at the top, thus the painting is signed at each end.