Chicago artist Ed Paschke’s influences were numerous: pop culture, television, cartoons, magazines, tattoos, sports, circus acts, indigenous masks, Mexican wrestlers, street hustlers, burlesque dancers, and more. However, the present work by Paschke represents what is almost certainly the only time in which he painted a proposal. Literally. This bright and bold composition was rendered with oil and pencil on canvas. Entitled Nancy Would You Marry Me?, this painting was commissioned in 2000 by the original owner, and current consignor, to pop the question to his girlfriend at the time.
Back in 1996, the consignor had first met Paschke in Richmond, Virginia when he curated a show featuring Paschke’s work at the 1708 Gallery. The two became friends and began corresponding by letter thereafter. Over the next few years, the consignor made trips to Chicago to spend time with Paschke and attend some of his exhibition openings. While building a friendship from afar with a prominent contemporary artist, the consignor was also enjoying a budding romantic relationship with a woman named Nancy. In 2000, after attending an opening in Atlanta to view a series of Paschke’s portraits inspired by Venus de Milo, the consignor decided to propose to his girlfriend and asked for Paschke’s help.
Toward the end of the 1990s and into the early 2000s, Paschke began painting a series of works modeled on the famous Venus de Milo (or Aphrodite of Melos) sculpture in Parian marble from the 2nd century BC, which has been held at the Louvre Museum in Paris since 1821 and is one of the most iconic works in all of art history. While Paschke varied his neon-rich color palettes, and would sometimes position symbols or objects on the picture plane, each ode to Venus de Milo generally featured either her head or face at close range—echoing Andy Warhol’s reproductions of the famous faces of female celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, Elizabeth Taylor, Grace Kelly, and Ingrid Bergman.
Ultimately, Paschke agreed to produce a painting to help the consignor of the present lot propose to his girlfriend. A relatively small work (10" high by 8" wide), Nancy Would You Marry Me? presents a close-up of Venus’ face burnished in a golden hue with burnt orange decoration in the form of petals, stars, dots, and a triangle. Across her forehead, Paschke includes the title of the work and the all-important question:
NANCY
WOULD YOU
MARRY ME?
Curiously, Paschke uses the conditional “would” rather than the standard “will” in the proposal. Was this intentional or merely an accident, a Freudian slip of sorts? Either way, saying “would” rather than “will” might be interpreted as asking a question without actually asking it.
Following the show, the plan called for Paschke to invite the couple back to his studio to show them a special work in progress, at which point Nancy Would You Marry Me? would be revealed. But that never happened.
After Paschke had finished the painting, the consignor made the three-hour drive to Baltimore to fly with Nancy to Chicago to attend a Paschke exhibition at the Maya Polsky Gallery. Following the show, the plan called for Paschke to invite the couple back to his studio to show them a special work in progress, at which point Nancy Would You Marry Me? would be revealed. But that never happened. A major accident stalled traffic on I-95 such that the couple were stranded on the highway for over six hours. Eventually, the consignor managed to get to a payphone and called Paschke to inform him of the travel delay.
Once the couple arrived in Baltimore, the consignor was unable to rebook flights right away and his anxious exasperation led him to reveal the whole, grand romantic plan to Nancy. Succumbing to fate, or perhaps just a logistical nightmare, the couple opted to return home to Virginia. Not long after, Paschke sent the consignor the painting, but his relationship with Nancy did not work out in the end. For twenty-four years, the consignor of the present lot has been keeping this Ed Paschke painting safe within his collection, but now he is finally ready to let it go—to let Nancy go once and for all—and he hopes that someone else can appreciate the work for its complicated yet beautiful backstory, while creating new associations with a composition that is part of one of Paschke’s most recognizable and important artistic series.
Life is very much about rule breaking, about confrontation. Otherwise, history would just stand still. Someone has to come along and break the rules and try for whatever reason to go about things a different way.
Ed Paschke
Ed Paschke 1939–2004
Nicknamed Mr. Chicago, Ed Paschke was born on the north side of the city in 1939. He attended The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), earning his BFA in 1961. Like many of his contemporaries, he made a living designing department store window displays and selling illustrations to various publications including Playboy. In 1962, Paschke was drafted into the army and stationed at Fort Polk in Louisiana where his primary responsibility was drawing guns and bullets for weapons manuals, subject matter that would surface in his artwork later in life. Upon returning to Chicago, he reenrolled at SAIC and earned his MFA in 1970. During this time, he visited Andy Warhol’s first museum exhibition held at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. The exhibit had a profound effect Paschke, who viewed Warhol’s critical acclaim as validation for the Pop- Art influenced paintings that he was creating.
