collaged elements. Panel portraits Between 1973 and 1978, Chimes completed a series of 48 portraits in artist-made frames that have been likened to contemporary icons. The portraits are based on both famous and obscure photographs, and began with Alfred Jarry and his literary and cultural circle. Subjects include figures like proto-surrealist playwright Alfred Jarry, poet Arthur Rimbaud, and author Oscar Wilde. Chimes would add satellite contemporary and historic figures that he felt were in dialogue with their symbolist, quasi-surrealist, or pseudoscientific thoughts, making a catalog of references and influences. Late works and white paintings In the 1980s, Chimes began working on a series of white paintings characterized by their minimal clouded surfaces. Many had embedded images in the layers of paint, or raised surfaces of portraits, constellations, and text. Using both Greek, French, and English quotes from alchemical texts and Jarry, he made works that explore 'pataphysics, the human psyche, and Hellenic myth, symbols, and icons. The paintings began as works in oil on canvas and linen but later became increasingly smaller oil on wood panel works that eventually were only three by three inches in size. He continued making the white paintings until he died in 2009. Solo exhibitions Chimes had numerous solo exhibitions. According to a 2007 Philadelphia Museum of Art press release, "By the early 1960s Chimes had enjoyed successful solo shows at the Avant-Garde and Bodley Galleries in New York." Many important solo exhibitions followed, including "Thomas Chimes: A Retrospective Exhibition", at the Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, in 1968; Tom Chimes, A Compendium: 1961–1986, at Moore College of Art in Philadelphia in 1986; and Thomas Chimes: Survey at New York University's Alexander Onassis Center for Hellenic Studies in 1994. In 1975, his work was included in the Whitney Biennial, and in the following year he was represented in the Philadelphia Museum of Art's landmark exhibition Three Centuries of American Art. A major recent retrospective was "Thomas Chimes: Adventures in 'Pataphysics" (February 27 – May 6, 2007) at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It was a full review of his artistic life which included over 100 of his pieces. A 2013 traveling European exhibition "Into the White" and accompanying monograph explored his celebrated later paintings and traveled from the Galerie der Stadt Tuttlingen in Germany to the Benaki Museum in Athens, Greece. Museum collections Works by Thomas Chimes are included in many major American museum collections