Art in Chicago, 1945-1995 examines the unique development of artistic traditions within the cultural, social, and political life of this quintessential American city during the second half of the twentieth century. Capturing the verve and innovation that characterized each decade, the book considers painting, sculpture, photography, drawing, and media arts (film, video, performance) by 150 artists who have either always lived and worked in Chicago or have created significant bodies of work in residence there. Among the artists profiled are Roger Brown, Harry Callahan, Ruth Duckworth, Jeanne Dunning, Leon Golub, Robert Heinecken, Richard Hunt, June Leaf, Kerry James Marshall, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Jim Nutt, Ed Paschke, Hirsch Perlman, Martin Puryear, Arnaldo Roche Rabell, Miroslaw Rogala, Alejandro Romero, Kay Rosen, Hollis Sigler, Aaron Siskind, Nancy Spero, Tony Tasset, H. C. Westermann, Claire Zeisler, and the Zhou Brothers. More than 170 color reproductions are set amidst a running timeline of historical events in both Chicago and beyond, and over 140 black-and-white photographs complement the text.

Significant bodies of work in residence there. Among the artists profiled are Roger Brown, Harry Callahan, Ruth Duckworth, Jeanne Dunning, Leon Golub, Robert Heinecken, Richard Hunt, June Leaf, Kerry James Marshall, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Jim Nutt, Ed Paschke, Hirsch Perlman, Martin Puryear, Arnaldo Roche Rabell, Miroslaw Rogala, Alejandro Romero, Kay Rosen, Hollis Sigler, Aaron Siskind, Nancy Spero, Tony Tasset, H.C. Westermann, Claire Zeisler,

With its title taken from a signature work by Bruce Nauman, Life, Death, Love, Hate, Pleasure, Pain presents a selection of approximately 190 works from the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago. A wide-ranging, insightful survey, arranged in roughly chronological order, it features work by such artists as Vito Acconci, Magdalena Abakanowicz, Francis Bacon, Matthew Barney, Joseph, Beuys, Christo, Iìigo Manglano-Ovalle, KerryJames Marshall, Mariko Mori, Martin Puryear, Richard Serra, Yinka Shonibare and H. C. Westermann. In an introductory essay, chief curator Elizabeth Smith discusses key trends in art from World War II to the present and provides a brief history of the MCA and its collection. Additional, accessible short texts by the curatorial staff of the MCA focus on individiual works.

A puzzling and enticingly experimental play from a celebrated German writer.

The first publication to explore Calder's significance for artists who emerged in the mid-1990s and the early twenty-first century.

Chicago’s fine arts have long languished in the shadow of the city’s architectural riches, but their time has finally come, most prominently as the focus of the final major exhibition at Chicago’s Terra Museum of American Art. The attendant catalog of the Terra Museum’s fall 2004 exhibition, "Chicago Modern, 1893-1945: Pursuit of the New", is the first-ever survey by a major art museum of early American modernist works created by Chicago artists. At the opening of the twentieth century, Chicago was regarded as the quintessential modern city that would provide fertile soil for a new national art. The debut of impressionism at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 bore early witness to this expectation as it marked the arrival of modern art in Chicago. In the midst of great local controversy, and echoing debates raging at the time in New York and Paris, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago incorporated modernism into its curriculum, a move that led Chicago-trained artists to experiment in and reinterpret the prominent art movements of their time. Here, for the first time, this work is showcased. This volume focuses on the rich body of artistic work produced during the city’s artistic “golden age,” the period from the 1893 Exposition through the end of World War II. Noted art scholars contribute to the volume with essays that explore how Chicago painters created a unique niche in these transformative international art movements—from the impressionism of the 1800s to the social realism and surrealism of the 1930s and 1940s—and forged a regional consciousness through experimental means. This detailed and lavishly illustrated catalog examines the larger issues and concerns that shaped art in Chicago during this period, offering a new and valuable addition to regional American art scholarship and a fitting farewell for one of Chicago’s most beloved art museums. Contributors: Wendy Greenhouse Elizabeth Kennedy Daniel Schulman Susan Weininger

For decades now, the story of art in America has been dominated by New York. It gets the majority of attention, the stories of its schools and movements and masterpieces the stuff of pop culture legend. Chicago, on the other hand . . . well, people here just get on with the work of making art. Now that art is getting its due. Art in Chicago is a magisterial account of the long history of Chicago art, from the rupture of the Great Fire in 1871 to the present, Manierre Dawson, László Moholy-Nagy, and Ivan Albright to Chris Ware, Anne Wilson, and Theaster Gates. The first single-volume history of art and artists in Chicago, the book—in recognition of the complexity of the story it tells—doesn’t follow a single continuous trajectory. Rather, it presents an overlapping sequence of interrelated narratives that together tell a full and nuanced, yet wholly accessible history of visual art in the city. From the temptingly blank canvas left by the Fire, we loop back to the 1830s and on up through the 1860s, tracing the beginnings of the city’s institutional and professional art world and community. From there, we travel in chronological order through the decades to the present. Familiar developments—such as the founding of the Art Institute, the Armory Show, and the arrival of the Bauhaus—are given a fresh look, while less well-known aspects of the story, like the contributions of African American artists dating back to the 1860s or the long history of activist art, finally get suitable recognition. The six chapters, each written by an expert in the period, brilliantly mix narrative and image, weaving in oral histories from artists and critics reflecting on their work in the city, and setting new movements and key works in historical context. The final chapter, comprised of interviews and conversations with contemporary artists, brings the story up to the present, offering a look at the vibrant art being created in the city now and addressing ongoing debates about what it means to identify as—or resist identifying as—a Chicago artist today. The result is an unprecedentedly inclusive and rich tapestry, one that reveals Chicago art in all its variety and vigor—and one that will surprise and enlighten even the most dedicated fan of the city’s artistic heritage. Part of the Terra Foundation for American Art’s year-long Art Design Chicago initiative, which will bring major arts events to venues throughout Chicago in 2018, Art in Chicago is a landmark publication, a book that will be the standard account of Chicago art for decades to come. No art fan—regardless of their city—will want to miss it.