In the early 2000s the Hyde Park community succeeded (with then-Senator Obama’s help) in blocking a government plan to strip away the quarried step stones around Chicago’s Promontory Point and replace them with a new concrete-and-steel revetment. That important act of preservation incidentally saved the many stone carvings that reside on those blocks — several dozen of the thousands of the carvings that line Chicago’s waterfront. The concrete-and-steel approach to shoreline reconstruction was nonetheless applied from just north of Promontory Point up to Montrose Harbor. The “shoreline protection project” demolished several miles worth of the old step stones along with
Continue readingCategory: Vernacular Art
Review: Photo/Brut
Photo / Brut, by Bruno Decharme and others, Flammarion in collaboration with the American Folk Art Museum, New York, and abcd, Paris, 320 pages, 2020. ISBN: 978-2080204325. Hardcover, $55 Among the varieties of art brut creation, photography has historically received limited attention. A newly extensive, if not definitive, exploration built around the great ABCD art brut collection of Bruno Decharme takes some steps to remedy that situation. Photo / Brut, the exhibit and catalog, boasts impressive scale, and Decharme’s deep art brut experience gives him standing to help define what art brut photography might mean. That’s not exactly what this
Continue readingReview: Unheard Conversations/Carved Coconut Heads
Unheard Conversations: A Wonderful Collection of Carved Coconut Heads, by John Turner, Blurb, 72 pages, 103 color and 11 black-and-white illustrations, 2019. ISBN: 978-1714598229. Paperback, $85 Kitsch and art each have their virtue. Art, at least when recognized as such, is reputable, upmarket even when inexpensive, and trades on originality. Kitsch is disreputable, down market even when expensive, and trades on clichés. Yet kitsch can be fun, funny, and sometimes even meaningful. It is remarkably effective in evoking a time or a place or a feeling. Consider tikis, pink flamingos or Hello Kitty. It also can say a lot about a culture, revealing
Continue readingRoadside Art Tableaus
There are isolated bursts of brilliance all along Western Avenue and other working-class stretches of Chicago’s orderly street grid. And every once in a while you come across a building or a sales lot where the signmaker’s art gives way to something far more ambitious than a simple commercial illustration. Here are three examples — all gone now — where the signage adds up to a large-scale piece of art.
Continue readingThe Famous Bottle Cap Inn
Just added: a recently acquired Bottle Cap Inn postcard showing a different angle on the exterior. Click here for a full gallery of Bottle Cap Inn images, outside and in.
Continue readingDa Masterpiece Disappeared
Circa 1995 you could find a fantastic set of murals advertising D&A Auto Body Repair at Western Avenue and 47th Street. This prodigious achievement, featuring at least three distinct styles, does not survive, but here are its highlights. Back to the Automotive Art Gallery index
Continue readingAutomotive Artistic Commitment
Julio’s Auto Parts has maintained its commitment to the art of auto parts over many years. This gallery features images from 2002 and 2016. Back to the Automotive Art Gallery index
Continue readingDynamic Auto Parts
Most auto parts are about as prosaic as can be, but they are often made dynamic through the magic of roadside art. This gallery starts with a straightforward representation of a spark plug, picking up creative steam with the artist at International Auto Service, who wins for the bold use of color and shapes. The Illinois Starter artist went for simplification of the parts and highlighting technique. The puddle approach makes Akram Electric stand out while Rudy’s goes the more traditional cover-the-earth strategy. Back to the Automotive Art Gallery index
Continue readingAuto Parts Come Alive
The right artist can bring auto parts and auto repair alive, whether through grotesque hybrids, anthropomorphized mechanicals or mechanics who are plain realistic. Back to the Automotive Art Gallery index
Continue readingAuto Parts Afloat
One of the most common techniques for promoting auto repair shops and parts stores is to have a large variety of images floating around the place. These three examples of folky auto parts run from the North Side to the Far South Side of Chicago . Back to the Automotive Art Gallery index
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