Newcity Chicago June 2021

JUNE 2021

CHICAGO’S FIRST FEATURING ARTWORKS BY KEHINDE WILEY & AMY SHERALD THE OBAMA PORTRAITS TOUR IS ORGANIZED BY THE SMITHSONIAN'S NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, WASHINGTON, D.C. The Art Institute thanks the many supporters who have funded the Chicago presentation, as well as access, education, and programming. Lead Corporate Sponsor for the Chicago Presentation Lead Individual Supporters: Lester Coney and Denise Gardner. Leadership support is contributed by Illinois Tool Works and the Leadership Advisory Committee of the Art Institute of Chicago. Major funding is provided by the Blanchard-Nesbitt Family; Francesca and Liam Connell; Paul, Dedrea, and Ian Gray, In the Works Foundation; Cheryl and Eric McKissack; and Peggy A. Montes. Special support is contributed by Ariel Investments, Julia Langdon Antonatos and Larry Antonatos, Caroline Brown and Cairy Saltwell Brown, Marilyn and Larry Fields, Mellody Hobson, and Linda Johnson Rice. Additional support is provided by Jozy Altidore, Chanel Coney, Javon Coney, Andrea Ellis, Kyle and Ashley Gardner, Steven Galanis, Andre Iguodala, Olivia John, Jasmine Jordan, Azeeza Khan, Alexa Rice, and Sloane Stephens.

B:10.75\" T:10.5\" S:9.5\" FIRST FAMILY SEE THEM JUNE 18 – FIRST AUGUST 15 (L) Kehinde Wiley. Barack Obama, 2018. Oil on canvas. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. © 2018 Kehinde Wiley. (R) Amy Sherald. Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama, 2018. Oil on linen. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. The National Portrait Gallery is grateful to the generous donors who made these commissions possible and proudly recognizes them at npg.si.edu/obamaportraitstour. Support for the national tour has been generously provided by Bank of America.

Celebrate Chicago’s Performing Arts Upcoming performances: LAKE BLUFF PARK, ST. JOSEPH, MI $5 TICKETS | IN-PERSON JULY 10 & 11 Links Hall: June 10 LEARN MORE & RESERVE YOUR ENTRANCE TIME See Chicago Dance: June 24 AT KRASL.ORG Arts + Public Life: July 8 High Concept Labs: July 22 Artwork: Allison & Jonathan Metzger www.chicagotakes10.org Wassef Boutros-Ghali JUNE 24–JULY 30, 2021

JUNE 8 Arts & Culture 2021 Art Contents Multidisciplinary artist Zehra Khan The Conversation embraces the 3spontaneous.......................... 5 Claudia Flores makes Design the case for police reform Shopping at Ponnopozz A Living Institution 12 4 0Studio is a smile ............................................ 4 2Mood: Drinks ................................................. The South Side Community Art Center is a force in African American Art Dining & Drinking This Is Who I Am 18 Chef Jonathon Sawyer reimagines the everyday A forty-year Frida Kahlo at Adorn Bar & Restaurant.......................... 4 4 drought ends Film Margo Flats 24 Christian Petzold's In which the rescue dog Eleanor mythical romance \"Undine\" 4......................... 6 JUNE 2021 Newcity brings joy and heartbreak Lit Exploring the legacy of cartoonist Bill Mauldin 4.............................. 9 Music Alligator Records and its fifty years of sizzling blues ...................... 51 Stage How the Map of Now gamifies the Virtual Performance Festival................ 5 3 Reviews It's time to get out 5 5and see some art! ......................................... 5

Contributors ON THE COVER Cover Photo MARGARET FLATLEY (Cartoonist, “Margo Flats”) is an illustrator Frida Kahlo / Photo: Nickolas Muray and comic artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, but / © Nickolas Muray Photo Archives originates from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She has contributed to several Cover Design publications including The Washington Post, New York Times and The Dan Streeting Lily. Her own lived experiences and their emotional resonance is visible throughout her narrative work. When Margaret isn't drawing, she can “Frida Kahlo: Timeless” will be on view be found running laps around Prospect Park or playing keyboard. June 5–September 6, 2021, at the College of DuPage Cleve Carney Museum of Art in the DAVID HAMMOND (Writer, “This Is Who I Am”) is Dining & Drinking McAninch Arts Center, Glen Ellyn Editor at Newcity and a regular contributor to local and national publications including Chicago Tribune, Better and Atlas/Gastro Vol. 36, No. 1415 Obscura. He is co-writing a book about Chicago original foods, to be published by U of I Press in 2022. PUBLISHERS Brian & Jan Hieggelke MONICA KASS ROGERS (Writer and Photographer, “The Associate Publisher Mike Hartnett Conversation”) writes and photographs from Evanston. Her texture EDITORIAL art photographs of Chicago alleyways can be seen at rogers.mk Editor Brian Hieggelke and The Alley Project on Instagram. Managing Editor Jan Hieggelke Art Editor Kerry Cardoza ALISA SWINDELL (Writer, “A Living Institution”) is a curatorial Design Editor Vasia Rigou research associate at the Block Museum of Art and a Ph.D. candidate Dining and Drinking Editor in art history at the University of Illinois at Chicago as well as an art David Hammond reviewer for Newcity. Her primary areas of interest in art are the history Film Editor Ray Pride of photography and other modes of contemporary art with a focus on Music Editor Robert Rodi race and sexuality. Stage Editor Sharon Hoyer ART & DESIGN Opening June 26, 2021 Art Director Dan Streeting Senior Designers Explore the World’s Largest Collection of Art Environments Fletcher Martin, Billy Werch Designer Stephanie Plenner Newcity JUNE 2021 3636 Lower Falls Rd The Art Preserve of the MARKETING Sheboygan, WI 53081 John Michael Kohler Arts Marketing Manager Todd Hieggelke +1 920 453 0346 Center, Sheboygan, WI. OPERATIONS artpreserve.org Photo: Kohler Co. General Manager Jan Hieggelke Distribution Nick Bachmann, Adam Desantis, Preston Klik Retail price $10 per issue. In certain locations, one copy is available on a complimentary basis. Subscriptions and additional copies of current and back issues available at Newcityshop.com. Copyright 2021, New City Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Newcity assumes no responsibility to return unsolicited editorial or graphic material. All rights in letters and unsolicited editorial or graphic material will be treated as uncondition- ally assigned for publication and copyright purposes and subject to comment editorially. Nothing may be reprinted in whole or in part without written permission from the publisher. Newcity is published by Newcity Communications, Inc. 47 West Polk, Suite 100-223, Chicago, IL 60605 Visit NewcityNetwork.com for advertising and editorial information. Subscribe at Newcityshop.com 6

Letter from JUNE 2021 Newcity the Editor In early 2017, I went to Mexico City for a month to supervise the fin- ishing of our film \"Signature Move.\" The post-production company was located in the neighborhood of Coyoácan, and I found an apart- ment nearby. Casa Azul, the home of Frida Kahlo, was on my route and each day I'd pass by the lines of visitors waiting to get inside. And there was always a line. I absolutely loved my time in Ciudad de Mexico, and, perhaps with the exception of snacking on fried chapulines (grasshoppers) and gua- camole at Corazón de Maguey, nothing was more memorable than my visits to Casa Azul. Though I was certainly aware of the bullet points of the Frida Kahlo story, I'd never taken the time to get to know her life and work. The house and its garden—where Kahlo lived as a child and then returned as a prominent artist years later—are beautiful versions of the local architecture of its period in its finest form. But it's the lovingly preserved furnishings and artwork, along with the costume display in an adjacent building, that convey the genius of her work, the power of her activism and the challenges of her struggle— as a woman married to a prominent, philandering artist, Diego Rive- ra, and as someone who contracted polio and who was hit by a bus in her teens and who dealt with disability her entire life. She not only rose above the occasion, but managed to live a full, colorful life and create timeless work in her brief forty-seven years. I left a Frida fan. — Brian Hieggelke 7

ClaudiaTHE CONVERSATION Flores and the Case for Police Reform Interview and photo by Monica Kass Rogers Newcity JUNE 2021 Too much force. None of the “My reaction was mixed,” says Flores, “I was grateful that there was a guilty verdict twenty largest cities in the United and that there were going to be consequences for police misconduct. And thankful States meet international human and happy that Floyd’s family got this confirmation that his life mattered. But the mo- rights standards on police use-of- ment didn’t feel celebratory. It took so much work, so much organizing, so much of a force policies. Claudia Flores, Direc- public voice to confirm something that should have been just obvious. So there’s a tor of the Global Human Rights sadness. I remember thinking, ‘Okay, there’s this long road that we are traveling, and Clinic at the University of Chicago it’s going in the right direction, but there’s so much farther to go.’” Law School, tells us why and what can be done about it. Flores has dedicated her work to the pursuit of global human rights. In her early criminal justice work, she represented individuals on death row, appealing their sen- Claudia Flores was in her office at tences in an effort to get them commuted to life without parole. As a civil rights litiga- the University of Chicago Law tor, Flores fought for low-wage immigrant workers and worked as a staff attorney at School where she directs the Global the national office of the American Civil Liberties Union in the Women’s Rights Project. Human Rights Clinic (GHRC) when Today, Flores advises governments on state obligations under the Convention on the she heard the news: Derek Chauvin Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, or CEDAW. In her role as had been convicted of second- and a law professor at the University of Chicago, Flores has lectured and written on every- third-degree murder, as well as sec- thing from constitution-making and reform processes to the rights of women and mi- ond-degree manslaughter in the grants. This year, leading the GHRC, she will support indigenous Chilean women in death of George Floyd. Chile’s ongoing constitutional reform process. But in the last five years, Flores has also been working toward police reform in the United States and globally. “Deadly Discretion: The Failure of Police Use of Force Policies to Meet Fundamen- tal International Human Rights Law and Standards,” published by the GHRC in 2020, shared the shocking news that not one of the United States’ twenty largest cities met international human rights standards on law enforcement use-of-force policies. Next month the GHRC will publish a new report, “Global Impunity,” which demonstrates similar shortcomings in the world’s wealthiest nations. 8

JUNE 2021 Newcity 9

Newcity JUNE 2021 Police reform is very much in the news. we developed a grading system that reflect- Yes. Currently, in the U.S., we’ve left it to the It touches on so many issues: What ed compliance with what was required un- states to define laws and rules governing does it mean to serve and protect? der international human rights standards. their law enforcement agencies’ use of What about American culture has force—as well as what happens when there engendered abuse of power? Why Those standards state that in any use of is abuse of those policies. do our laws not require complete force, law enforcement officials must respect transparency and reporting from the principles of necessity (force can be How do international human rights police departments about use of used only when it is necessary to do so for standards on use of force differ from force? But before we dive into these a legitimate law enforcement purpose), pro- the standard in the United States? issues, what prompted you and portionality (force used must be proportion- GHRC to do this report? ate to the threat posed by a suspect), legal- One key difference is that international hu- ity (policies governing the use of force, man rights standards specify that when My interest in police accountability stems including weapons that may lawfully be used, force is used, it should only ever be the min- from doing work on racism, immigrants’ should be set out in national legislation and imum amount necessary. And accountabil- rights and women’s rights—really, from other administrative provisions) and ac- ity is key. As our report found, right now working in all areas of discrimination and countability (law enforcement officials shall in the U.S., we are not only without a com- inequality. Law enforcement is one part of be held accountable for their use of force.) prehensive national legal framework plac- government service that should, and must, ing specific conditions on the use of force, work for everybody, and the consequences (NOTE: These standards are derived from but we have no national mechanisms when it doesn’t are tragic. international human rights law, the 1979 for accountability. Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Offi- The Global Human Rights Clinic is a year- cials, and the 1990 Basic Principles on the Why is it important to use long program where law students learn Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforce- international human rights about international human rights law and ment Officials.) standards as the floor for what our actually do legal work on behalf of clients policies on use of force should be, and partners all over the world. This report, Wow! it took half a year just to rather than just the Bill of Rights? which was researched and compiled be- gather twenty police departments’ tween 2015 and 2018, came out of a part- use of force policies? The international human rights standards nership with Amnesty International, USA. were derived from global human rights trea- Amnesty had previously authored a report, Yes! In the United States, these policies are ties that have been ratified by almost every “Deadly Force: Police Use of Lethal Force in incredibly decentralized. There’s very little country in the world—including the United the United States,” that found the United accountability and even less transparency. States. These treaties are legal instruments States did not comply with international hu- There is no centralized, enforced and re- that set basic standards for what countries man rights law. When Amnesty asked state quired system for states to report instances have agreed to do. If states don’t comply, legislatures for their directives to the police of use of force or use of lethal force by po- there are consequences within the interna- tional human rights system. These treaties We need to ask the lice—that’s why all efforts to are the cornerstones of a system that high- question, “In what collect data have basically ly respects human life and dignity. Notably, situations do we really been made by civil society. these standards are more protective than need law enforcement The United States does not what you find under the United States Con- to be present?” even count the number of stitution. Right now, applicable legal stan- lives lost nationally due to dards for permissible use of force in the on use of force, they were told that those police use of force. United States are just a function of the were found in departmental policies. Am- Fourth Amendment’s prohibition of unrea- nesty asked us to look more deeply into this, So—to be clear—how is sonable seizures. and so, the report was born. “use of force” defined? And what laws do we According to your report, all How did you decide on the scope have that govern what twenty of the largest cities in the of the project? is permissible when it United States failed to meet comes to police use of international human rights We selected the twenty largest cities in the force and use of lethal standards on use of force. You United States by population and spent a force? In many documents, the phrase concluded that U.S. use of force good six months just tracking down police “use of force” defines a range of policies give police “undue discretion department policies on use of force—some actions/implements used by police and insufficient guidance on when we had to request through the Freedom of against individuals when it is deemed lethal force can be used,” and Information Act. Once we had the policies, necessary in self-defense or in fail to establish strong enough defense of another individual or group. accountability measures. Can (That includes firearms, electronic you share a few details on each weapons, explosive devices, chemical of the measures? Legality, first. agents, a baton, blunt instrument, body part or vehicle—that are likely Yes. All twenty cities failed to satisfy the le- to cause harm.) Use of lethal or gality requirement. Columbus, Ohio, didn’t deadly force is the phrase used when even have a state law cabining what city application of force is likely to cause police departments could put in their use- death or serious injury. Correct? 10

of-force policies. Until states enact legisla- We have been contacted by legislators in there is a pretty consistent level of non- tive standards on use of force, police de- different states asking for support and as- compliance with even the most basic stan- partment policies will continue to vary sistance in these areas. But it’s going to re- dards. There is also a complete lack of widely from city to city. quire a really extreme commitment on the data. Governments just haven’t taken this part of state governments to make the nec- seriously and are not holding law enforce- What about the essary changes, and those changes are go- ment accountable. “necessity” requirement? ing to make a lot of people really unhappy. And that’s not an easy thing. Yet, I think we More holistically on police reform, I think Twelve city policies mandate that a threat are at a moment where there is a possibil- we need to ask the question, “In what sit- to which law enforcement officers respond ity for change. I’m very cautious in my op- uations do we really need law enforcement with force must be immediate and that they timism, but I am also more optimistic than to be present?” We’ve brought police into must use that force as a last resort. But the I have ever been before. too many situations where what is actual- other eight city policies included alarming ly needed is something completely differ- exceptions. Indianapolis, for example, failed What was your biggest ent. We also need to look at how police on all three of the necessity subcategories— takeaway after completing are doing their jobs—to be honest and they allow for use of force to prevent a fel- all of this research? reflective about police engagement with ony but don’t specify what kind of felony or communities they are there to serve. Are even the nature of the threat it poses. It is so important that our use of force pol- the police really there for all the people? icies be changed to reflect best practices Are they receiving the right kinds of train- What were the findings and standards for human rights. When we ing? The right kinds of direction? Ultimate- on “proportionality”? use international human rights law as the ly, we want to bring police departments measure, we fall woefully short: We should to a place where they are policing in a Seventeen city policies met the proportion- be the global leaders in our use of force pol- way that respects our Constitution, re- ality standard. Those that did not allowed icies. To put this issue in context, for the spects human dignity and human rights, use of deadly force in a felony without forthcoming report, “Global Impunity,” and reflects the way that American society stating that the threat to the officer should we looked at lethal use of force policies wants itself to be. If the systems we have be proportionate to the force used to meet and legislation in the twenty-nine richest in place can’t do that, then let’s create a the threat. countries around the world. We found that system that can. And accountability? At the time this report was completed, only two cities—Los Angeles and Chicago—made it mandatory that in all instances where law enforcement officials had used lethal force, exter- nal reporting was required. Internal reporting is not enough. For there to be true accountability, independent investigation must be required in all instances where lethal force is used. Your report included a long list of JUNE 2021 Newcity recommended actions that would vastly improve our use of force policies. Some of the big ones include revising 42 U.S.C. S 1983 which permits police officers to use force under a “reasonable- ness” standard, to “only as a last resort, when absolutely neces- sary to prevent death or serious bodily harm.” You’ve also called for mandatory training in de-escalation techniques and asked that Congress require the Department of Justice to collect, store, analyze and make public all incidents involving use of lethal force in the United States. What response have you had to these recommendations from policymakers thus far? 11

Newcity JUNE 2021 InsLtiivAtuintgion The organization came into being through the same ded- icated belief in these artists that has kept it going all these The South Side years. In the late 1930s, a group of artists, gallerists and Community Art Center art enthusiasts came together to create an institution that Celebrates Eighty Years would support Black artists on Chicago’s South Side. This as a Force in founding group chose to collaborate with the Communi- African American Art ty Art Center initiative of the Federal Art Project (FAP), one of the many programs that grew out of the Works by Alisa Swindell Project Administration—the federal New Deal agency es- tablished to help citizens and communities throughout On the near South Side of Chicago, on the 3800 block of the United States recover from the Great Depression. The South Michigan Avenue in the historic Bronzeville neigh- FAP funded part of the renovations and the salaries of borhood, is a beautiful Classical Revival building that, for the Center’s first staff, but it was up to the organizers and just over eighty years, has housed a community-based or- the community to raise the money needed to purchase ganization dedicated specifically to Black artists: the South the building that would give the Center the stability that Side Community Art Center. The artist, curator and for- has enabled it to weather eighty years of change. The mer executive director Faheem Majeed describes the Cen- South Side Community Art Center is the only FAP-fund- ter as a microcosm of the Black art world and of Chicago’s ed art center still operating in its original location. South Side. For eight decades, this art center has champi- oned the work of African American artists while serving Fundraising began in 1938 and was supported by com- as a gathering space for not only artists, but the broader munity leaders and local businesses, and was bolstered South Side community. It’s a legacy that continues, with by the philanthropic efforts of women’s organizations, es- recent exhibitions featuring emerging and mid-career art- pecially middle-class Black women. The successful fund- ists such as David Leggett, Krista Thompson and James T. raising from major donors to people on the street proved Green, as well as Majeed. the community’s support of the project. In 1940, the South Side Community Art Center was opened and peo- ple were welcomed into the renovated building. In 1941, then-First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, a major supporter of the arts, would cut the ribbon for the official dedication of the building as the site of the Center. Though federal support would end two years later, the South Side Com- munity Art Center resides in that same building, desig- nated a historic landmark by the city and a National Trea- sure by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and placed on the National Register of Historic Places. It still actively provides space for emerging artists to experiment, collaborate and learn their history. The most recognized founder was visual artist and ed- ucator Dr. Margaret Taylor-Burroughs. She was in her early twenties when and the other founding members started the Center. So deep was her investment in the South Side Community Art Center that her contributions would extend to collecting funds on street corners, as- sisting with the physical labor of readying the space, as well as teaching and exhibiting her artwork. Also the founder of the DuSable Museum, Taylor-Burroughs set the stage for African American visual art education and an artist-driven scene that is active to this day. The South Side Community Art Center has been a key force in African American art as an incubator for many artists who would go on to define African American visu- al arts production. When lists are made of the great Afri- can American artists of the twentieth century, key figures always appear: Elizabeth Catlett, Gordon Parks and founding members Archibald Motley and Charles White. These artists, along with more locally renowned Chicago art luminaries, were founding members with Motley, 12





White and Taylor-Burroughs were founding members with Eldzier Corter, William Carter and Joseph Kersey. They were part of a community that taught classes, learned from their peers and exhibited at the Center in their formative years. White created many of the early works included in the “Charles White: A Retrospective,” a major traveling exhibition that opened at the Art Institute in 2018, during his time at the Center. Catlett developed and exhibited her linoleum prints alongside those of Taylor-Burroughs at the Center. It was work done through the South Side Community Art Center and his contacts there that would lead to Parks being award- ed the Rosenwald Fellowship, which set the trajectory for the rest of his career. The building is a unique space. Unlike the white box gallery that most art patrons are used to, the Center’s exhibition space has wide, wooden plank walls and dark, choco- late-colored floors. The walls cannot be re- paired and made to look unused between exhibitions. Instead, other Chicago arts organizations. This includes artist talks, classes and three exhibitions: “Just Above My Wall” curated the walls show the history of the art that has been hung there. by Ciera Mckissick, will run through the end of June; a Whit- field Lovell solo exhibition in the summer, in collaboration When a young artist in the twenty-first century sees their with Smart Museum and in conjunction with the fortieth anniversary of the MacArthur Fellows Program; and the year work hanging in this space, they know that the nails holding wraps up with a Black Women’s Art Collective curated by artist Kyrin Hobson. Her work will help a new generation of it up might be in the same hole a nail was placed to show artists at the same age and stage in their careers as their now-famous forebears were when they were part of the paintings by Motley or a drawing by White. This unique de- South Side Community Art Center. The Center will also take part in the Terra Foundation’s Re-Envisioning Permanent sign is the serendipitous result of another piece of Chicago Collections grant program, with the forthcoming exhibition “Love is Universal.” The exhibition will examine the intersec- cultural history, the founding of The Institute of Design in 1937 tions of Chicago’s LGBTQ and Black art histories, focusing “primarily on the Black gay male artists who were closely by German immigrant and Bauhaus member László Moho- connected with the center between its founding in 1940 and into the 1980s,” according to the Terra Foundation. ly-Nagy. Two of the members of the New Bauhaus school, A rising artist on the Chicago scene herself (she was a Hin Bredendieck and Nathan Lerner, reportedly working 2019 Newcity Breakout Artist), Zakkiyyah Najeebah Du- mas-O’Neal spoke to me about what it has meant to her as through the Works Progress Administration, designed the a Black woman artist to be a part of an organization that has such a long- and well-established history of women in Center’s gallery space in the school’s unconventional style. leadership roles and those who have found artistic success through the Center. “The space itself was spearheaded by Majeed, whose passion for the Center is contagious, a Black woman, Dr. Margaret T. Burroughs, which I believe instilled quite a legacy for other Black women to follow,” she speaks about the opportunities that the South Side Com- says. She provides examples such as Elizabeth Catlett, Gwendolyn Brooks, Joyce Owens, Yaoundé Olu and the munity Art Center has provided him over his seventeen-year Black women artist collective “Sapphire and Crystals.” The collective was conceived by artists Marva Pitchford Jolly relationship with the organization. He speaks the most elo- (who was a supporter and volunteer of the Center) and Fe- licia Grant Preston, and held their first exhibition at the quently about the intergenerational knowledge that has been South Side Community Art Center in 1987. shared with him and other young artists when they spend In the tradition of women’s leadership, in December of 2019 the board named Monique Brinkman-Hill as their lat- time at the Center and join its decades-long legacy. He calls est executive director. Brinkman-Hill is a former member of the board and an avid art collector with a strong background it “a living institution that connects the future to the past.” This is central to the ethos that has been a part of the institution since its inception. It is a community center based around art, not a museum. It is designed to allow learning through art and gathering and to serve the needs of local artists, but also to ensure that the community is served by art. Zakkiyyah Najeebah Dumas-O’Neal is the organization’s manager of public engagement, who in the way of small in- stitutions also does public re- lations work and curation at previous page: the Center. She is excited South Side Community about the breadth of exhibi- Art Center tions and programs that are left: planned, which she hopes JUNE 2021 Newcity Eldzier Cortor visit to SSCAC will bring more artists and cultural workers into the fa- above: cility and create more oppor- Painting class with Charles tunities to collaborate with White and Gordon Parks, 1942 15

in finance and leadership as a former senior vice president and managing director at Northern Trust and president and founder of MBH Coaching and Consulting LLC. This experience will be useful, as the Center was awarded a $2 million grant from the State of Illinois to make renovations that will revitalize the organization and help ensure its contin- ued success in serving the South Side as a community-based arts organization. An exec- utive director with Brinkman-Hill’s level of business knowledge is well positioned to use the gift for long-term strategic success. “A building that houses so much history must be preserved and maintained,” Brinkman-Hill says. This is exemplified by the theme that has been selected for the Center’s post-pandemic year, “Preserving the House that Art Built.” The kickoff is June 17 and the delayed eightieth-anniversary celebrations will culminate with their Annual Art Auction. The South Side Community Art Center was founded not only to provide exhibition space for artists, but more essentially to provide darkroom and printmaking spaces, class- es for community members, and a space for African Americans producing and interested in cultural produc- tion on the South Side of Chicago to gather in their own neighborhood. What is created there goes out into the world in new ways, taking the knowledge gained and above: Newcity JUNE 2021 the traces of those who came before. The Center has Black artist portrait faced McCarthyism, economic fluctuations in the neigh- outside SSCAC/Photo: borhood where it is located, new organizations that of- fer competing programs for the community’s youth, yet Jonathan Romain it remains active and supported by the community in which it has thrived for over eighty years. right: Faheem Majeed at his exhibition, “From the Center,” 2021/Photo: Abena Sharon 16



WHO I AMTHISIS The Story Behind the Largest Presentation iionnf tFFhoreirdtCayhKYiecaaahrglsoo'sAWreoarks by David Hammond Newcity JUNE 2021 Standing in the long line outside Casa Azul, Throughout her life, Kahlo’s talent was ob- the blue house that was once home to Mexican scured by that of Diego Rivera, the well-known artist Frida Kahlo, a friendly tourist tells me Mexican muralist whom she married—twice. that this former residence is now the most pop- If you buy a ticket to visit Casa Azul, you also ular museum in Mexico City. That checks out get a free ticket to Diego Rivera’s museum, based on my experience, as the place is packed Anahuacalli, which is worthy but much less with visitors who want to experience the space traveled. In the past half-century, Kahlo’s art once occupied by the woman who was to be- has eclipsed that of her partner and she has come one of the most recognizable female art- become the iconic stuff of folklore, movies and ists of the twentieth century. many tattoos. 18





A New Museum at College of DuPage Starting June 5, twenty-six of Kahlo’s works will be on display in “Frida Kahlo: Timeless,” at College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn This will be the first time in forty years that a comprehensive collection of orig- inal works by Kahlo will be presented in the Chi- cago area. The pieces in Glen Ellyn are on loan from the Dolores Olmedo Museum, which holds the largest private collection of Kahlo’s work. To qualify to house this summer’s exhibit, the College of DuP- age’s Cleve Carney Art Gallery in the McAninch Arts Center (MAC) had to be transformed from a simple gallery into a museum space outfitted with environmental and security technology. Justin Witte, the exhibition’s curator, says the museum will conform to standards set by the American Association of Museums and Galleries. “We’ve installed motion detectors and a microwave grid that can detect a mouse if it tries to cross the floor,” he says. Diana Martinez, MAC director, says the center put $500,000 into hardware and infrastructure, and another $350,000 into twenty-four-hour se- curity. “We needed to prove to the Olmedos that we were the right place for these paintings.” A Communist in Conservative County I grew up in largely conservative DuPage County, Frida was a people’s artist. This is not just twen- previous page: JUNE 2021 Newcity an unlikely place to present the works of a radical ty-six works of art hung in a locked-up room. We’re who asserted the wisdom of communism, wore a going to produce events around the exhibit. We Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait hammer and sickle on her plaster bustier, and, wanted the Olmedos to feel confident we could with Small Monkey, 1945, oil from all accounts, had an affair with Soviet revo- manage this and market it, and we are all about lutionary Leon Trotsky, who lived with Kahlo and engaging students as well as members of the larg- on masonite, Collection Rivera at Casa Azul for a time after he fled Russia. er community.” Museo Dolores Olmedo, Xochimilco, Mexico © 2020 “It suited her at certain times to be a socialist, but Beyond Museum Walls Banco de México Diego you have to remember her time period,” Martinez says. “She came to the United States during the This presentation of Kahlo's work and related Rivera Frida Kahlo Great Depression, when there were vast dispari- events was originally set for 2020, but was re- Museums Trust, Mexico, ties between rich and poor, so she was interested scheduled; in 2021, the event will be held with safe- D.F. / Artists Rights Society in social justice and civil rights. The idea of every- guards in place. one being equal appealed to her. Still, they took (ARS), New York commissions from the Rockefellers, and they did The college started community outreach in Sep- like to run—and be seen—in those circles. tember 2019 with Frida Fest, designed to educate left: and engage the public with events related to Kah- “She’s relevant today, progressive in her thinking. lo that are strongly rooted, as was her art, in His- Frida Kahlo, The Broken She broke boundaries all the time, on so many dif- panic heritage. There were tours of prints by Jose Column, 1944, oil on ferent levels, including her fashion style. She never Guadalupe Posada, who popularized the calaveras, masonite, Collection was afraid to carve her own path, present herself the familiar dancing and cavorting skeletons, and as who she was, and explore things like sexual iden- accompanying workshops on printmaking and Museo Dolores Olmedo, tity, fashion and art. That’s why people gravitate to- Xochimilco, Mexico © 2020 ward her, because she was unapologetic. There’s something about her that is very liberating.” Banco de México Diego Rivera Frida Kahlo Who Kahlo was, and what she represents, is in sync with the goals of College of DuPage. “We Museums Trust, Mexico, are a community college,” says Martinez, “and D.F. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York above: Frida Kahlo. Photo by Hulton Archive/ Getty Images 21

Newcity JUNE 2021 face painting. Salsa and cooking lessons were “’Broken Column’ is one of the most immediately open to the public, as well as performances by identifiable of Kahlo’s pieces as it specifically relates Ballet Folklorico Quetzalcoatl and a mariachi to her struggles with her health and the strength band from Mexico City. Then in February 2019, with which she presented herself through these there was the “For the Love of Frida Gala,” featur- challenges,” Witte says. “That’s something people ing food from Rick Bayless, who has done as much are drawn to. In the painting, you see a lot of char- as any Chicago chef to educate Chicagoans about acteristics common to many Kahlo paintings. She the diversity and wonder of the country’s cuisine was drawn to the folk art being made in Mexico at and culture. the time. Frida is wearing one of her corsets in the painting, and her chest is open, and you see the col- One of the exhibition's donors, Ball Horticultur- umn, shattered to reference her shattered spine, al, is designing an outdoor garden which will in- with her head resting on top. And unlike paintings clude all the plants featured in the paintings on of martyrs and saints who are looking to the heav- view. The plants will be grown in Mexico and re- ens, she’s looking directly out at the viewer, con- planted in Glen Ellyn. frontational and defiant. There are tears, and she’s not afraid to show her pain, but she defies the When the Ball Horticultural folks saw Kahlo’s viewer to see her as a victim. Her face is not con- “Portrait of Luther Burbank,” Martinez tells us, the torted, and though she is crying, her stare is strong. group were excited, asking, “Do you know who he Mexican painting at the time was violent, with im- is? Luther Burbank is the father of modern horti- agery related to death, because that line between culture. He’s our idol.” life and death is more open in that culture.” “Portrait of Luther Burbank” “I have a background in improv at Second City,” Martinez says, “and what we tell the actors is, ‘dare “The painting of botanist Luther Burbank, which to offend.’ Kahlo was bold. Think about the thirties Kahlo did in San Francisco, is a pivotal piece be- and where women were at that time, in Mexico, cause it’s one in which her visual language is com- where there’s a lot of machismo. The courage ing together,” Witte says. “The roots of the tree are to paint herself bare-chested—talk about bold- tied around a dead body, underscoring the insep- ness!—and in such pain. There’s a certain progres- arability of life and death. Pictorially, it’s similar to siveness about her that may be hard for a contem- her late self-portraits, where you have this non-dis- porary audience to understand. When you look at tinct, fantastic background.” her life, it’d be hard to find someone who doesn’t respect her for what she’s overcome, her talent, Although Kahlo’s mother was Roman Catholic, the adversity she faced and her significance in the her father was German Jewish, and Kahlo appears art world.” to have related more to pre-Columbian spiritual images than the European religious beliefs that “The Broken Column” and similar paintings show crashed into Mexico starting in the sixteenth cen- Kahlo as both vulnerable and strong, and that com- tury. Still, there is unmistakable Christian iconog- bination of almost antithetical personal traits has raphy reflected in this painting of Burbank. The proven highly attractive in other cultural stars, in- hard vertical in the center, with Burbank at the top, cluding American actors like Judy Garland and is a tree that connects with a skeleton-like figure Marilyn Monroe and writers like Maya Angelou and below ground, reflecting the conventions of many Sylvia Plath. medieval and renaissance artworks that depict the crucifix directly above the skull of Adam, growing “Self Portrait out of it. Instead of Christ on the crucifix, however, with Small Monkey” we have Burbank, looking content, holding what appears to be one of the plants he hybridized, giv- “Frida and her work were so interconnected, that it ing new life to the world in a way analogous to is impossible to separate one from the other,” Witte what was offered by Christianity’s favorite son. says. “Her presence is still strongly felt in every piece in the exhibition.” “The Broken Column” Much of Kahlo’s work is clearly autobiographi- Much like the “Portrait of Luther Burbank,” Kahlo’s cal. A horrific childhood accident on the trolley that “Broken Column” presents a strong vertical, this led to crippling injuries is referenced throughout time a shattered metal shaft going up through her oeuvre. In paintings like “Henry Ford Hospital,” Kahlo’s body. There are references to Christian ico- which will be in the exhibition, she shows herself nography in the nails in her body, and her pain on after a miscarriage, in pain, splashed with blood… a column recalls renaissance paintings of Christ’s but enduring. flagellation and St. Sebastian’s arrow-riddled body, also usually mounted on a tree or column. In “Self Portrait with Small Monkey,” Kahlo steps away from her more visceral works to suggest the influences on her artistry, including the natural 22

world, both tamed, like the domesticated hairless dog, and less tamed, like the mon- key. The traditional cultures of Mexico are represented by small pre-Columbian figu- rine in the right corner. The nail in the upper left corner is the only reminder of the accident that shattered her body, a symbol of not only her suffering, but the fact that her broken body was held to- gether with pins. Like “The Broken Column,” Kahlo herself is at the center of the painting—as she is in so many of her works—looking out at the au- dience. The golden thread woven throughout reflects the connection between human and natural worlds. This connection is further re- inforced by the monkey’s arm, thrown casu- ally around Kahlo’s shoulder, such that the dark hair of the monkey merges into the dark hair on Kahlo’s head and her upper lip. “She painted herself with such a brutal honesty,” says Martinez. “Photographs show her to be much more attractive than her paintings; her mustache in the paintings is exaggerated. She’s not afraid to say, ‘This is who I am, and these are my flaws.’ That’s one of the reasons women like her to this day. She isn’t trying to portray perfection.” “She had a very contemporary under- standing of personality and image,” Witte says. “Identity, disability and nationality were always top of mind.” Frida’s Distinctive Attire “We have a complete costuming department, above: JUNE 2021 Newcity where Frida’s traditional costumes can be made,” In Oaxaca’s city of Tehuantepec, there’s a Witte says. “They generated a copy of Frida’s head Frida Kahlo, Portrait of market ruled by women, a reminder of the on a 3-D printer, and a life-size mannequin is used Luther Burbank, 1931, oil on matriarchal society that once held sway in to model and present her clothing. They are going this region of Mexico. In that coastal society, down to the stitching on her embroidery and the masonite, Collection having a gay son was—and is—considered exact patterns.” Museo Dolores Olmedo, a blessing, even among a culture steeped in Xochimilco, Mexico © 2020 machismo, because such a son could be re- “Frida Kahlo: Timeless” Banco de México Diego lied upon to stay at home and help at the will be on view June 5–September 6, 2021, market. At home and in the market, women were Rivera Frida Kahlo in charge, and a tall metal statue of a woman in at the College of DuPage Cleve Carney Museums Trust, Mexico, Tehuana dress welcomes visitors to the town. Such Museum of Art in the McAninch Arts Center, D.F. / Artists Rights Society highly elaborate, boldly colorful attire is seen in many Kahlo paintings, and her dress is intimately 425 Fawell Boulevard, Glen Ellyn. (ARS), New York connected to her identity. For more information: frida2021.org. Kahlo may have “used dresses to hide certain physical deformities,” Witte says, but “she also used her strikingly personal though thoroughly tra- ditional attire to project and broadcast her power- ful personality to the world.” At Casa Azul, some of the stunningly colorful and daring outfits—one is tempted to call them “costumes”—that Kahlo was fond of wearing are on view. The College of DuPage is creating accurate, hand-crafted facsimiles of Kahlo’s wardrobe. 23





















Arts & CultureChicago Comics: 1960s To Now Ivan Brunetti, “The Leaning Tower of Ivan,” 2011/Photo: Angela Scalisi An exhibition celebrating Chicago’s decades-long cartooning history.Opens June 19 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

Art Zehra Khan, \"I Let The Fur Grow Out,\" acrylic paint on self, 2010 Trust Your Gut I went to Skidmore College, graduated in 2004. Then I got my MFA from the Massa- Multidisciplinary Artist Zehra Khan Embraces the Spontaneous chusetts College of Art & Design in 2009, at a low-residency program at the Fine Arts Work By Nicole Mauser Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts. After graduating, I moved to Provincetown full-time \"I focus on the body as part, and apart, connective tissue of their shared work. for ten years, where I made art and worked JUNE 2021 Newcity of the environment. While I try to integrate with Newcity spoke to Khan about this multidi- odd jobs mainly as an artist assistant, which the environment, the conditions of being mensionality, which is a thoughtful reflection is what I still do. human limit me.\" — Zehra Khan of a rich, material-driven, and generous approach to a restless studio practice. I love attending art residencies and have I was introduced to Zehra Khan’s artwork been to a dozen or so. In 2018 I attended prior to the lockdown in 2020, at \"Fakeries,\" Where did you spend your forma- an art residency at Ox-Bow, which her solo exhibition at Tiger Strikes Asteroid tive years? How long have you been based introduced me to many Chicago artists. Chicago. I was taken with the gilded and in Chicago? How does either inform the They convinced me it was possible to live fairytale-like yet humorous and accessible work you make, or not? in the city and find an artistic community.  nature of her hot glue and gold leaf wall I was born in Indonesia in 1983. My Pakistani I moved to Chicago a couple months later. tapestries. I was also impressed with a father was working as an architect, and my reading event programmed in conjunction mother was a diplomat from Idaho. Moving for Jaclyn Jacunski was my studio mate, with Khan’s exhibition, “Praxis + Liberation, my parents’ professions led us to Paris for seven which has sparked a friendship and a reading,” produced by Char Lee, as a years, Switzerland for three, before moving to artistic dialogue. conversation about practice, which is the Lexington, Massachusetts at age eleven. I originally connected to Chicago by meeting Julia Klein at a residency at the 35

ART TOP 5 \"Golden Culprit,\" Zehra Khan, acrylic paint on hot glue, 24 inches x 23 inches, 2019. Newcity JUNE 2021 1 Frida Kahlo: Timeless. Vermont Studio Center in 2012. (Julia Klein reminders to trust my gut, and the process Cleve Carney Museum of Art. founded Soberscove Press in 2009, a informs my work in every medium. For the first time in forty years, a Chicago-based independent press that comprehensive display of Kahlo's publishes books about art and culture.) Julia Animals evoke fairytales, fables, religious works are on view in the Chicago volunteered to be a performer in a project I deities and ceremonies. Using animals as area, paired with historical objects was working on at the time, \"Johnny Flea protagonists allows for the viewer to that add context to the artist's and his Merry Maniacs Present The Circus,\" distance themselves. My creatures act like fascinating life. Opens June 5 and later I created a children’s book with her humans, with the same habits and foibles. publishing company, Soberscove Press, Rats became a particular favorite subject 2 Edie Fake. Western with the book \"A Sunny Day for Flowers.\" because of the strong reaction they cause Exhibitions. The Chicagoland in the viewer. Seeing one creature as native, known for his electrifying What are your current interests? Or opposed to a swarm. geometric conventions, takes over what are you looking at, reading, both galleries in this solo exhibition. smelling, eating, or listening to that you What materials do you work with? Opens June 5 are excited about? How is this inform- I like to use materials available on hand: ing your work? found materials, trash around my studio, 3 Planting and Maintaining a and recycled paper and cardboard. I favor Perennial Garden. Hyde Park I’m continually watching \"RuPaul’s Drag low-tech materials and practices. I love the Art Center. Faheem Majeed will Race.\" Fascinated by the presentation of uniqueness inherent in objects that are activate the gallery space with gender. I am very interested in what makes made by hand; that reveal the mistakes events throughout this show, part a woman or what is valued as feminine… As and deviations. of the artist's ongoing inquiry into RuPaul says, “We are all born naked and the South Side Community Art the rest is drag.” What are some recent projects that you Center. Through July 24 participated in? I thought your recent Painting on friends creates a social and online performance, presented by The 4 The Red Wedding. collaborative side to making art. I wanted to Moving Company and organized by Ruschman. This ambitious break out of my solitary painting practice Essex Flowers, looked really interesting group exhibition, curated by former and engage with people differently in my and I'd love to learn more about that. Newcity Art Editor Matt Morris and studio. I always doodled and drew on I participated in a performance Zoom-shar- featuring work by Vaginal Davis, myself and friends as a way to play and be ing event. It was very interesting creating a embodies a future-oriented feminism. informal, and as an act of trust and affection. performance in my home, as opposed to in Through July 3 a studio or gallery. My performance was Body-painting puts immediate constraints on called \"Indoor Light Making.\" I painted on 5 Just Above My Wall, (To The the painting session: work fast, react to the myself with acrylic paint, in an attempt to Right). South Side Community needs of the painted person or environment, integrate within a nest of paintings and Art Center. Curator Ciera Mckissick and embrace the spontaneous. These are drawings on bedsheets. pairs work from thirteen collectors with pieces from SSCAC's collection, connecting Black artists from the past and present. Through June 30 36

I’ll try to describe your live virtual weaving materials, experiences, and emphasizing abstract patterns. performance: painting dots on relationships together fluidly. yourself while immersed in a nest of I started painting on people long ago, and I created a similar project during my art sheets covered in a hand painted realized that the act itself was intensely residency at Tiger Strikes Asteroid last polka-dot or pointillist style. As you personal, and normally a private studio February, when I installed hot glue shapes paint dots on your body they begin to practice. I began experimenting with onto the window of the gallery. My vibrate against the patterned drapery. painting on people with an audience, inviting upcoming project in the library offers a The proliferation of dots in the them into a kind of surreal look at my artistic completely different view… A wide vista of foreground and background become process. In effect removing and divulging the Chicago skyline. camouflage and edges between my process. I have done three live figure and space blur. It creates a performances at art openings, starting with And you have invited artist Jaclyn rich and confounding virtual space one at Gallery Ehva in Provincetown, Jacunski to have a solo exhibition that that flattens 2D and 3D space. It Massachusetts in 2010. Kusama is a huge opened in May 2021 at Tiger Strikes reminds me of Yayoi Kusama’s Body influence with her surreal playfulness. I am Asteroid Chicago. Tell me more about Festival \"polka dot happenings\" and very interested in intimacy and home, which what you see in Jacunski’s work and painting on women’s bodies. I found led me to work on bedsheets, blankets and why you selected it for TSA. this to be a playful yet intimate and make quilts. Jaclyn’s work demands interaction. I was interactive response to the quaran- immediately drawn to her work with tine and remote nature of the past What are you working on now? reflective surfaces and bedazzled chain link year. Also the way you make eye I’m working on a Chicago cityscape fences. Jaclyn explores the visual language contact with the camera or viewer project for installation in the MANA library of barriers, and is influenced by the politics makes me aware of my own looking windows. I have always been fascinated by inherent with living in Chicago. or gaze, I am drawn to art that pulls the make-up of the city, the stacking and me out of myself to have awareness clashing shapes of buildings, scaffolding \"Jaclyn Jacunski: Burning Oneself Out\" is at of my perception. I am impressed by and bridges. My hot glue shapes mimic Tiger Strikes Asteroid Chicago, 2233 South your unique way of organically the skyline seen from the window, while Throop, Unit 419, through June 26.  Carmenza Banguera May 27–Oct 1 JUNE 2021 Newcity 37

EXHIBITIONS THE ARTS CLUB OF CHICAGO EPIPHANY CENTER FOR THE ARTS 201 East Ontario Street 201 South Ashland Avenue 312 787 3997 312 421 4600 [email protected] / www.artsclubchicago.org [email protected] / epiphanychi.com/exhibitions Tues–Fri 11-1 | 2-6, Sat 11-3 By appointment only, email [email protected] (subject to change due to COVID-19) to schedule an appointment. April 9–August 7 Hurvin Anderson: Anywhere but Nowhere April 16–July 16 American Roulette (Group Exhibition - Chase Gallery) June 7–April 2, 2022 Garden Project: Chicago Mobile Makers May 7–July 18 Juan Arango Palacios: Payasadas (The Guild Room) May 8–July 11 Chicago: Home of House (The Catacombs) THE BLOCK MUSEUM OF ART May 21–July 25 Wangari Mathenge: The Expats Studies: Impressions At Northwestern University on Paper (The Sacristy Gallery) 40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, IL 847 491 4000 GRAHAM FOUNDATION [email protected] / blockmuseum.northwestern.edu Visit our website and follow us on social @nublockmuseum for online 4 W. Burton Place cinema, programs, tours, and resources for teaching and learning with art. 312 787 4071 Search our newly launched collection database of over 6,000 artworks. [email protected] / www.grahamfoundation.org https://blockmuseum.emuseum.com/collections Visit our website and follow us on social media @grahamfoundation April–August Behold, Be Held (outdoors and online – beholdbeheld.org) Artist-in-residence: Anna Martine Whitehead, FORCE! CARL HAMMER GALLERY an opera in three acts 740 N. Wells Street GRAY 312 266 8512 [email protected] / www.carlhammergallery.com Richard Gray Gallery, Hancock: 875 N. Michigan Avenue, 38th Floor Tues–Sat 12-5 Mon–Fri 10-5 Through July 4 In From The Cold: Celebrating The Outsider Artist, Gray Warehouse, 2044 W. Carroll Avenue featuring Bill Traylor, Eugene Von Bruenchenhein, Tues–Fri 10-5, Sat 11-5 Simon Sparrow, and Howard Finster 312 642 8877 DEPAUL ART MUSEUM [email protected] / www.richardgraygallery.com May 28–July 24 Theaster Gates: How to Sell Hardware At DePaul University 935 W. Fullerton Avenue KAVI GUPTA GALLERY 773 325 7506 [email protected] / artmuseum.depaul.edu Kavi Gupta | Washington Blvd., 835 W. Washington Boulevard Fri–Sun 11-5 or visit online at artmuseum.depaul.edu Kavi Gupta | Elizabeth St., 219 N. Elizabeth Street January 7–August 15 LatinXAmerican By appointment only, email [email protected] to arrange February 18–August 15 Claudia Peña Salinas: Quetzalli 312 432 0708 [email protected] / www.kavigupta.com Visit online at https://website-kavigupta.artlogic.net/ Through June 27 Kour Pour (Kavi Gupta | Washington Blvd., Floor 2) Through July 3 Manuel Mathieu (Kavi Gupta | Elizabeth St., Floor 2) Opening May 22 Mary Sibande (Kavi Gupta | Washington Blvd., Floor 1)

LOGAN CENTER EXHIBITIONS AND THE NEUBAUER COLLEGIUM THE DEPARTMENT OF VISUAL ARTS FOR CULTURE AND SOCIETY University of Chicago at the Reva and David Logan Center At the University of Chicago 915 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637 5701 South Woodlawn Avenue 773 834 8377 773 795 2329 [email protected] / loganexhibitions.uchicago.edu [email protected] / neubauercollegiumgallery.com Please check the gallery’s website for details on hours Open by appointment and procedures for visiting May 27–October 1 Carmenza Banguera: The Visible, May 21–June 27 MFA Thesis Exhibition the Laughable, and the Invisible LUBEZNIK CENTER FOR THE ARTS POETRY FOUNDATION 101 W. 2nd Street, Michigan City, IN 219 874 4900 61 W. Superior Street [email protected] / lubeznikcenter.org 312 787 7070 Mon, Wed–Fri 10-5, Sat–Sun 11-4, Tues closed [email protected] / poetryfoundation.org Please check LCA’s website for more details. Check poetryfoundation.org/visit for updates on our Through June 5 Lost and Looking current exhibition and hours. June 14–October 15 Phyllis Bramson/ Robert Indiana/ Mayumi Lake RHONA HOFFMAN GALLERY MONIQUE MELOCHE GALLERY 1711 W. Chicago Avenue 451 N. Paulina Street 312 455 1990 312 243 2129 [email protected] / www.rhoffmangallery.com [email protected] / www.moniquemeloche.com Tues–Fri 11-5 Open by appointment, Tues–Sat 11-6 Please schedule an appointment through Tock: Through June 12 Ebony G. Patterson and Brittney Leeanne Williams exploretock.com/rhonahoffmangallery June 26–August 14 Karen Reimer and Antonius Bui May 14–June 19 Judy Ledgerwood: New Ceramics May 14–June 19 Gordon Parks: Home In The Wilderness MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY PHOTOGRAPHY SMART MUSEUM OF ART At Columbia College Chicago At the University of Chicago 600 S. Michigan Avenue 5550 S. Greenwood Avenue 312 663 5554 773 702 0200 [email protected] / www.mocp.org [email protected] / smartmuseum.uchicago.edu Tues–Wed 10-5, Thurs 10-8, Fri–Sun 10-5 Please contact museum for current information and hours. Subject to change. Please visit mocp.org for up-to-date information April 8–June 13 Lust, Love, and Loss in Renaissance Europe and to reserve a free ticket. June 3–August 29 Much Unseen is Also Here: An-My Lê WRIGHTWOOD 659 and Shahzia Sikander 659 W. Wrightwood Avenue June 3–August 29 Martine Gutierrez 773 437 6601 [email protected] / wrightwood659.org Fridays and Saturdays through July 31 reservations required. Tickets at wrightwood659.org Through July 31 Yannis Tsarouchis: Dancing in Real Life

Design Photo: Isa Giallorenzo Pause and Smile happiness, joy and playfulness. That makes you pause and smile, or think differently Shopping at Ponnopozz Studio is the Cure for Pandemic Blues about something.\" By Isa Giallorenzo It all started in the summer of 2019, when Hawthorne decided to rent a Penske moving Newcity JUNE 2021 Walking into Ponnopozz Studio is like artwork,\" she says. \"It’s an ever-evolving truck to showcase her artwork. She named it entering another dimension—an exuberant piece of performance art, between the way \"PenskePozz,\" paying homage to Ponno and jungle of saturated colors and lively prints. it's set up, to the products I decide to carry Pozzer—her two imaginary childhood friends. \"Shopping at Ponnopozz is a whole experi- or stop carrying, to the work I create there, to \"I had a ton of original art for sale at the time ence,\" says owner and artist Adrianne the customers that fill it each weekend. When and wanted to have a show but I didn’t want Hawthorne, who painted a huge mural that you visit my shop, you’re entering a piece of to do it in a traditional way. I’d always thought greets customers with her signature motifs. my world, something very special and dear to of doing something in a moving truck \"My shop is truly an extension of me and my me that I hope brings you feelings of because they are such utilitarian vehicles— why not reimagine one as something fun and exciting? I do believe the 'PenskePozz' show 40

Photo: Isa Giallorenzo led to me finding and leasing my studio and accessories cost $5 to $100. Hawthorne's ONE JUNE 2021 Newcity store just two weeks later. The truck was like own art prints start at $25, and original works RECOMMENDATION a tiny boutique on wheels and I had a blast at $100. She also sells pillows, stationery, getting it set up. The turnout was fabulous clothing (in collaboration with local brand Lilla Chicago Comics: and gave me the boost of confidence I Barn), and iPhone cases featuring her 1960s To Now needed to finally sign for a shop of my own.\" designs, which often depict abstract plants Museum of Contemporary Art. and landscapes in bright colors paired in An exhibition celebrating Chica- Hawthorne, who always dreamed of having a unexpected ways. Some of the brands go’s decades-long cartooning boutique of her own, opened her storefront in Ponnopozz carries are Nooworks (clothing history, the creative community’s November of 2019, not too long before from San Francisco, California), Piecework thinkers and makers, as well as COVID-19 hit. Her shop was closed from Puzzles (from Indianapolis), Night Moves the medium at large. Chicago March until July 2020, and she used that Atelier (accessories from Ontario), and Halo Comics: 1960s To Now also break to focus on her art projects. The fact (skincare from Port Washington, Wisconsin). highlights the work of under- that she is a User Experience Designer at There are a lot of items from Chicago as well; recognized BIPOC and women Google helped her navigate the crisis: \"I find Hawthorne highlights the work of local, comic artists—an invaluable [having another job] gives me a healthy sense Black-owned brands like body butters by contribution to the evolution of of balance. The income relieves the stress of Olije Body Care, earrings by Vintage Royalty, cartooning beyond the city’s relying on Ponnopozz for everything—with and leather jewelry by K~FLEYE. limits. Opens June 19 that stress removed, I have the space in my brain to create art and other fun things.\" \"I always look for things that are colorful, fun When Ponnopozz reopened, Hawthorne and playful,\" she says. \"I don’t carry things spotlighted BIPOC artists every Saturday. from large brands—everything in my shop is Then last November she launched her online from a small brand or a local, independent shop, which brought in a lot of holiday sales. maker. I strive to carry a range of products \"People are excited and ready to support local and to spotlight women-led and BIPOC-led businesses and that’s one positive thing that businesses.\" Hawthorne is excited to offer came out of last year. I’m looking ahead this such a selection: \"I am grateful that I can year and have hopes to expand the store and express myself through my art and through the store’s hours sometime in the late fall of my curation of an experience—a shopping 2021,\" she says. experience. It’s very fulfilling and a creative outlet that I cannot imagine living without. At Ponnopozz Studio, Hawthorne currently Owning a shop has been eye opening, fun, offers an array of clothing, accessories, scary and very satisfying—I’m thrilled that I books, puzzles, stationery, cards, cosmetics, finally did it!\" and home goods—besides her own artwork, in both prints and originals. Her prices are Ponnopozz Studio and Store, 4824 North affordable, considering nothing in her shop is Damen, Suite 1, Thursdays 4-7 pm, mass-produced. Clothing prices range from Saturdays 10-5 pm, Appointments by $35 to $175, masks average $12, and request via email 41

Mood—Drinks 1 Blu Dot brand 1 2 Longday Bar Cart in Carbon, $599 4 bludot.com 6 8 2 Flavia Del Pra at Orange Skin Mix and Match Trays, $330 - $650 orangeskin.com 3 Takumi Shimamura at Luminaire Woodum coasters, $10 luminaire.com 4 Gabriella Crespi at Casati Gallery Silver plated and lucite vase, price on request casatigallery.com 5 zakrose at Dock 6 Collective Major Bar Cart, $3,700 dock6collection.com 6 Alison Berger at Holly Hunt 3 Glass Vessels, price on request hollyhunt.com 7 Greta de Parry The Coleman Bar Cart, $1999 gretadeparry.com 8 Jayson Home Brass Hand Bottle Opener, $36 jaysonhome.com 9 Chicago Bar Store “T” Style Draft Beer Tower, $510 chicagobarstore.com 10 Tina Frey at Norcross and Scott Stainless Steel Ice Bucket with leather handles, $184 norcrossandscott.com 11 Martin Kastner at Morlen 5 Sinoway Atelier Crucial Detail Nip Glass Set, from $50 morlensinoway.com 12 Taikkun Li at Pagoda Red \"Shan Shui\" Blue and White Cola Bottle, $458 pagodared.com 13 Ralph Lauren at Primitive Bond Carbon Fiber Tic Tac Toe Set, $595 beprimitive.com 14 Eichholtz at Primitive Wine Cooler, $395 beprimitive.com 15 Shiro Kuramata at Luminaire Steel Pipe Drink Trolley, $1,715 luminaire.com 16 Roy’s Furniture 7 34545 Bar Cart, $399 shoproysfurniture.com 17 Xenia Taler at Neighborly Porcelain coasters, $38 neighborlyshop.com Newcity JUNE 2021 18 William Sawaya at Casati Gallery Le Diable en Tete and Le Diable au Corps pitchers, price on request casatigallery.com 19 Jader Almeida at Luminaire Teca Bar Cart, $3,448 luminaire.com 20 Currier & Roby at 1stdibs Art Deco Sterling Silver Cocktail Shaker, $1,150 1stdibs.com 42

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 JUNE 2021 Newcity 43

D&rDininkiinngg Surprise and Comfort Chef Jonathon Sawyer Reimagines the Everyday for Adorn Bar & Restaurant in the Four Seasons By David Hammond Chef Sawyer, photo Haas and Haas Photography “Surprise and comfort are both parts of warm fat. Mariners used to do something beef fat, luxurious and flavorful, made even our ethos,” says Chef Jonathon Sawyer, of the similar, when they’d burn their candles of more delicious with a sprinkling of coarse salt. reopened Adorn in Chicago’s Four Seasons, whale, lamb or beef fat and they would dip My father would recall the lard and bread which launched in October 2020, only to be their bread into all that warm fat. I thought it sandwiches he ate while growing up in forced a few weeks later to close its doors. was amazing that no one had ever thought of Hamtramck, Michigan. Sawyer tells us that edible candles, and I started buying can- when he was a kid, he was similarly inspired Born in McHenry, Sawyer returns to Illinois dle-making supplies, like molds and wicks. to use such “fifth quarter” meat products. “I from Cleveland, where he earned James Now we use unbleached butcher’s twine for grew up in a family of Eastern Europeans, Beard recognition as Best Chef Midwest, the wicks. We render the fat from the meat with powerful matriarchs who gardened and based on his work at Greenhouse Tavern. trimmed in our kitchen—a combination of didn’t throw anything away. I came from wagyu and grass-fed beef—then clarify it, put those early experiences with a love of You can spot Sawyer’s dual focus on his it in a ramekin and let it cool. After it’s served, simplicity, an appreciation for ingredients, and menu, with surprises popping up at the start it takes about eleven to seventeen minutes for an understanding of hospitality, entertaining of the menu and the comfort food-type the candle to melt onto the plate.” and feeding people in their homes.” options resting quietly in the entrée section. Newcity JUNE 2021 If this sounds gimmicky, well, maybe so, but Sawyer digs deeper into his origin story: During a recent dinner for local media at in the words of the late Homaro Cantu of “When I was being born, it was a long labor, I Adorn, we started with the bread and edible Chicago’s groundbreaking Moto, “What’s was a big baby, and my dad left halfway candle service. “This dish goes back to me wrong with gimmicks?” We go to restaurants through the labor to get a sandwich. All of a being a nerd,\" Sawyer says. \"I was looking up for many reasons, and one of them is to be sudden, here I come! So, when he comes the history of how the sandwich was invented, entertained, so if a surprising starter is set back, he grabbed me for the first time, and a and some sources trace it back to poor before us, cool, we’re into it. Of course, it dollop of mayonnaise fell from the sandwich people’s food, where you take two-or-three- must taste good, and we were delighted to and anointed my forehead. Anyway, that’s the day-old bread and soak it in warm water or dip Publican Quality Bread into the melting family story.” 44

ONE RECOMMENDATION Teeny Tiny Croissant Cereal, Haas and Haas Photography Run for Beer The Illinois Brewery Running Series kicks off June 2 at 630pm, with a Run for Beer. Everything starts at the Goose Island Beer Company (1800 West Fulton), and many of us will likely be ending our runs right there, too. Because Sawyer was excellent at math, his interior, so the meat stays tender and falls off The pandemic has seen many dad wanted him to be an engineer, but the bone, like on a confit duck.” Chicagoans becoming bigger Sawyer recalls that “I’d been cooking since I (with stress-eating and drinking) was thirteen, just to have a job, and I loved Biting into the skin of Sawyer’s chicken wings, or maybe smaller (with lots of the energy and the immediacy of serving the flavor explodes outward, released from time for exercise). Now, those people and making people happy through beneath the pellicle to reveal soft, super-lush twin outcomes of the lockdown food and conversation. So, I’m in my second meat beneath. There’s a slightly hot chili come together in the Goose year at the University of Dayton, I was sauce on the chicken, balanced with fresh Island Run for Beer, a “5K-ish” working in a kitchen where we had a crudités and umami-rich blue cheese. dash for physical fitness and, traditionally trained French chef—you know, of course, tasty brews. pan-throwing, swearing, super-mean. He As part of the hotel restaurant, Sawyer’s was a caricature of the chef you’d see in kitchen will be responsible for brunch and “Weave through the surrounding sitcoms. One day, I was making a vinaigrette, soon, breakfasts, where he has some fun area at whatever pace you like,” and he grabbed me by the arm and said, planned. “During quarantine, my kids got into the Run for Beer website ‘You know Jon, you are not a bad cook,’ the food videos on TikTok, and they were reassures, “no matter what, which was huge; it was the first compliment bugging me to get onto it. I actually did find there’s a beer waiting for you I’d ever heard him bestow on someone. I just some inspiration there, and now we’re doing at the finish line.” said, ‘Yes, Chef,’ but inside I was smiling our take on the teeny tiny cereal craze. We from ear-to-ear. I was already questioning my make miniature laminated-dough croissants— For running in the casual event, career choice as an engineer. It was so finger-rolled—and then we glaze them in you receive a free craft brew, dreadfully boring. I didn’t think I could do cinnamon sugar. We put about thirty-seven a collector’s pint glass or forty years at a desk. That compliment from teeny-tiny croissants in a bowl of cereal. For seasonal swag, a chance at the chef came at just the right time to help milk, we make an in-house blend of oat milk door prizes and “access to me make up my mind. I dropped out of and pea blossoms, so the milk comes out event festivities, games, college and went to culinary school. robin’s-egg blue.” goodies and giveaways.” Twenty-seven years now I’ve been in the kitchen, and I love being a chef.” In addition to fun foods like the edible candle, This will be a good time— JUNE 2021 Newcity confit chicken and teeny-tiny croissants, and a safe time: COVID You can spot the influence of this early Sawyer’s menu has comforting standbys like precautions are in place with training under a tyrannical French chef—as a dry-aged prime beef burger and the social distancing, reduced well as Chef’s enduring playfulness–in such \"Lobster & Spaghetti “Joe Beef” Style,\" which contact and mask dishes as the Crispy Confit of Chicken Wings. is a petite, powerfully flavorful portion of the requirements in the taproom. “Wings prepared ‘our way,’” Sawyer says, crustacean and bucatini, with lardons, basil “were revolutionary in that they combined the and cognac butter, just fantastic. We also French bistro practice of duck confit with the enjoyed the Pickle Brine River Trout, with Americana of the Buffalo wing. We get the cauliflower, capers and gummy-bear raisins, wings in, we cure them in a mix of juniper, a solid preparation of a well-sourced fish. black pepper, balsamic, bell pepper, bay Like many of Chicago’s best chefs, Sawyer leaves, sugar and coriander. Curing seasons procures his produce from local producers the chicken all the way through, and it including Klug, Gunthorp and Victory Farms. loosens the skin a little. We let the chicken sit in that cure for twenty-four hours, and then In these strange times, as we tentatively we confit it at 180 degrees for six-ish hours. emerge from the darkened caves of our We pull the chicken out and let it air dry, so it hibernation, you may tend toward the forms a pellicle [a kind of cuticle over the entertainment or comforting ends of the skin]. When we drop it in the fryer, the fat Adorn menu; or both, as we did; either way, crisps the skin, but it never penetrates the it’s a good time. 45

Film Water Worlds didn't necessarily seem like he would first nestle, then burrow into his role as a poet of Christian Petzold's Mythical Romance Undine unease, a painter of the so-specific and yet-so-elusive. His movies, fourteen of By Ray Pride them—nine theatrical releases and five that originated on television— transfix beyond his Newcity JUNE 2021 Christian Petzold is one of a nearly lost economic initiatives. Plus, they had stories to elemental way with plot and metaphor. His tribe: European filmmakers with a signature tell, and lyricism would leak through, just cool complexity suggests a familiar world with both specific and elusive who were once because specificity in personal observation will ease as simple as breath. “Transit” (2018), for counted on to deliver films every year or two almost always suggest universality without instance, is both trick and fugue: familiar that fit both the marketplace and their own having to lean upon stark proclamations or cinematic worlds, even the eras the characters recognizable concerns. brutally obvious themes. move through, become unmoored (yet ever-tactile) with the oneiric ease that only Filmmakers such as Almodóvar, Bergman European directors continue the struggle to moving pictures can provide. and Chabrol and Varda had runs like that, as capture the modern world as it enfolds us. have, in briefer spans, filmmakers like Wenders Christian Petzold has had at least one book Petzold’s mentors at the German Film and and Herzog and many others we could name. written about his work, and it’s almost a Television Academy Berlin (dffb) included These European authors (not “auteurs”) were decade old. The American art-house profile of non-narrative filmmakers like Hartmut supported by financing schemes within their the sixty-year-old German writer-director has Bitomsky and Harun Farocki, who became a own countries, from European broadcasting only grown since then: in 2000, when his first collaborator across many years. Petzold’s cool entities and larger European Union cultural and feature was released, “The State I Am In,” he precision as a director of design—architectural, spatial, emotional—partakes of non-narrative 46

glimpses that define the states of his today. The first is about water, next will be characters, who are at once levers of his narra- about fire, and the third is about earth.” His latest film, the “Undine” (2020) is water, and tive conceits, but also characters unwittingly it’s also fire. Petzold remains an anatomist of pinned to the screen. FILM TOP 5 the unsettling, the unbearable, the human In each successive feature in a filmography heartbeat. Water is constant in his work—the that includes “Jerichow” (2008); “Barbara” windswept seaside of “The State I Am In,” (2012); “Phoenix” (2014) and “Transit,” (2018), the pools in “Something To Remind Me,” the 1 Zola. Opens Wednesday, June Petzold has grown into the role of a master of stern waters of “Yella”—translucent or 30. A viral Twitter skein gets the the cumulative power of elegant drama—the opaque; battering or still—and “Undine” dives A24 spotlight, directed by Janicza into watery myth that dates back to the Bravo (“Lemon”) and written by Bravo layers of fantasy these characters create for and Jeremy O. Harris (“Slave Play,” themselves are epic but tangible—but also of Greeks, although in a modern setting: Berlin, “Daddy”), based on tweets by a city of vast historical currents, built upon a A’Ziah-Monae “Zola” King and the the smashing payoff. Petzold, a director of article by David Kushner, “Zola Tells quietly dynamic frames, warms and tends to swamp. Undine (Paula Beer) is a historian of All: The Real Story Behind the urban development whose cool is broken by Greatest Stripper Saga Ever Tweeted.” story and his actors in a cumulatively With Taylour Paige and Riley Keough. a man’s betrayal. Petzold blurs the worlds: devastating way. At the time of “Barbara,” 2 In The Heights. Opens Friday, Petzold wrote, \"We wanted to capture on film how much is real? Is Undine really a water June 11 in theaters and on HBO nymph? How true is the myth that draws her Max for thirty-one days. After years of that specific space between people, with failed efforts, the Lin-Manuel Miranda toward water, toward the lake in the forest of musical triumphantly makes it from everything that has built up, everything that stage to the big screen. had made them so mistrustful, everything they legend? Can she avoid falling into the echoes of Hitchcock’s “Vertigo”? Could another man, 3 The Sparks Brothers. Opens trust, reject and accept.\" June 18. Neophyte documentary an industrial diver working on Berlin’s director Edgar Wright’s Sundance success pokes into the career and He cited Fassbinder’s 1972 “Merchant of redevelopment, show her how to let go of lives of the Mael brothers to answer that elemental query, what is Sparks? Four Seasons” as iconic for him, in terms of love betrayed? What does the detonation of 4 Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who how all these formal concerns would that colossal fish tank in a café-bar augur for Decided To Go For It. Opens Friday, June 18. The eighty-nine- coincide with the historical forces at play in a man and a woman who’ve only just met? year-old Puerto Rican supernova and co-star of “West Side Story” (1960) his own work in each of his features. “The “The myths and fairytales, men’s myths, leave and “West Side Story” (2021) talks about her decades-long career. East Germany of the fifties is so present in [Fassbinder’s] film: in the split rear window of Undine a pitiful dearth of leeway,” Petzold says 5 F9. Opens Friday, June 25. of Undine’s state. “Undine is a woman who CAN THIS BE THE END SAY a VW Bully, in the echoing emptiness of a IT’S NOT SAY—Oh, hello Dom, hello bare backyard, in the cramped confines of a needs to escape the work of male projection. Letty, hello… I’ve always been interested in the people born Formica kitchen,” Petzold said in reflection. a hundred years too soon who stand for “It’s never a backdrop, but more of a spatial something that hasn’t yet had its day.” Once experience where people love, argue and more, the politics lie quietly under the practical become silent. And this atmosphere thick with loving, arguing, and silence just sticks to devices of narrative. He says almost offhand- everything and remains hanging in the air and edly, “Maybe Undine is also one such character who criticizes her curse too soon on the walls. The past never passes but and is forced to fight.” extends far into our present.” That’s a lot to expect from cinema, especially Still, Petzold sups at illogic and the simply JUNE 2021 Newcity to be conveyed in such transparent, even unpredictable: love, myth, city, dream, water, effortless fashion. His actors, especially Nina longing. “I wanted to make a film in which you Hoss (“Jerichow,” “Yella,” “Barbara,” “Phoe- see how love develops and remains,” Petzold nix”) are quietly stellar, gems set within says of his modern urban fairytale but does formidably apt settings. Petzold's images are not let go of the weight of his other features, hushed, interiors and compositions in painterly where the naturalistic settings and simmering geometry that holds beauty that gratifies the performances and narrative underpinnings rest eyes but becomes disturbingly clinical in on historical foundation. “There’s no such thing accumulation. The real becomes spectral as an unpolitical story,” Petzold assures. “The before these backdrops and in these spaces. political always slips into the narrative.” Still, Big doings are conveyed in simple gestures these are lovely dreamers, pinned to ninety and images. minutes of striated story and hyperreal images but always anxious to rise, to float, to float Petzold hinted at the time “Transit” was away into ethereal beauty. released that his current fixation would be “a new trilogy about German romantic subjects \"Undine\" opens in theaters Friday, June 4, of the nineteenth century, which still works as well as on demand. 47

Virtual with The Book Cellar Women & Children First Book Cellar Book Club Kayla Ancrum is proud to be a part of Chicago’s June 2, 7pm CST “Darling” vibrant lit community. in conversation with Amelia Brunskill Northwestern MA/MFA Graduate June 23, 7pm CST In-store Browsing: Tuesday thru Sunday Noon to 6 p.m. and Faculty Spring Reading Curbside Pickup: Every day from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Trystan Reese Books & Magazines; Cards & Gifts; Weekly Storytime June 3, 7pm CST Virtual Author Events; Book Clubs “How We Do Family: From 5233 N. Clark, Chicago, IL 60640; (773) 769-9299 Julie Ryan McGue Adoption to Trans Pregnancy, womenandchildrenfirst.com What We Learned about Love “Twice A Daughter” and LGBTQ Parenthood” ConWsideeCrianngHDeivlpo.rce? in conversation with Susan Conner June 24, 7pm CST June 9, 7pm CST COLLABORATIVE | PRENUPTIAL Outdoor Sit & Sign FAMILY | DIVORCE | MEDIATION Larry Watson with Tracy Clark “The Lives of Edie Pritchard” and Lori Rader-Day June 10, 7pm CST June 26, 2:30pm CST Afterwords Book Group Tracy Clark June 14, 5:30pm and 7pm CST “Runner” Tricia Brouk in conversation with Lori Rader-Day June 29, 7pm CST “The Influential Voice: Saying What You Mean for Lasting Legacy” Brenda Myers-Powell in conversation with Pamay Bassey June 16, 7pm CST “Leaving Breezy Street” June 30, 7pm CST Leslé Honoré “Fist & Fire” in conversation with Regine Rousseau June 18, 7pm CST Go to our website for virtual event details, book clubs and more! Your Independent Book Store in Lincoln Square! 4736-38 N. Lincoln Avenue, Chicago 773.293.2665 • bookcellarinc.com VIRTUAL CONSULTATIONS AVA I L A B L E . CALL TODAY. Strategic support, creative guidance, effective leadership: these are the qualities we offer our clients as they work through their challenges. CHICAGO & EVANSTON 847-733-0933 | [email protected] BrigitteBell.com | BrigitteSchmidtBellPC

Trenchant Lit Warfare A Comprehensive New Exhibition Explores the Legacy of Cartoonist Bill Mauldin By Brian Hieggelke As a young boy in the seventies, I was craft at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts in It's hard to comprehend how much military obsessed with cartoons and comic books. life influenced American culture and attitudes I used to spend hours in the Joliet Public his late teens, just before the war. Seeing Library, where I must have checked out every in the 1940s without understanding how collection on the shelves. I soaked up the his early, much rougher work and its quick collected \"Dick Tracy\" and \"Little Orphan evolution under the influence of the profession- pervasive military service was then. More Annie\" comic strips, and burrowed my way than sixteen million Americans served in the through the history of Sunday funnies in als who taught him in Chicago, is one of anthologies, where I discovered \"Little Nemo many highlights of the exhibition. Just before military during World War II, compared to less in Slumberland,\" \"Gasoline Alley\" and \"Li'l than 1.4 million currently serving, and this in Abner.\" And I remember the Bill Mauldin the United States entered World War II, single-panel cartoons, which, at the time, a nation with a population less than forty were synonymous with how American Mauldin enlisted and quickly established soldiers in wartime were depicted. himself as a cartoonist depicting the concerns percent of what it is now. With most American of the average infantryman, first in a publica- families having at least one member putting JUNE 2021 Newcity As much as Mauldin was then a household their life on the line, the market for positive name, universally recognized for his artistic tion for his unit, the 45th Infantry Division, output and his \"Willie and Joe\" characters, depictions of soldiers was vast, from Holly- he's receded from public consciousness and soon for the influential and widely since his retirement in 1991, a victim of a distributed Stars & Stripes military newspaper. wood films to Mauldin's cartoons. But while cultural recalibration regarding military matters Hollywood veered toward propaganda (with and the waning role of political cartoons in Before he left the Army, he'd won a Pulitzer American newspapers. A new exhibition at the notable exception of 1946's Oscar-winning the Pritzker Military Museum & Library aims Prize. His book published at the end of the to rectify this. The PMML owns the largest war, a collection of drawings and stories, \"Up \"The Best Years of Our Lives\" and its depiction collection of Mauldin's original cartoons and, of the postwar letdown of returning soldiers), in conjunction with the Bill Mauldin Estate, Front,\" was a bestseller and, at the age of has just opened a massive, yearlong solo Mauldin's strips were gritty and focused on exhibition of his work, including 125 original twenty-three, he was rich and famous. drawings, another thirty-five reproduced images and more than twenty artifacts. Bill Mauldin was one of those great American rags-to-riches stories, according to the exhibit's curator James Brundage, who has built a well-designed exhibition that manages the difficult feat of being organized both chronologically and thematically. Born in 1921 to a family of limited means in New Mexico, Mauldin knew he wanted to be a cartoonist early on, and came to Chicago to study his “It was designed as a flag, buddy - not as a blindfold.” Chicago Sun-Times, 1969,courtesy The Pritzker Military Museum & Library 49

the lowest-ranking soldiers, often depicting the original, even when they were harshly their superiors, or the top military brass, as unfavorable to their subject. Those were incompetent or out of touch. different times. Newcity JUNE 2021 LIT TOP 5 The reality that Mauldin captured, and one While it's possible to see his cartoons that he would return to year after year, and collected in books, the originals in this show 1 Heather Corinna. Women war after war, was that the day-to-day life of are revealing, offering a glimpse at the details and Children First. The the soldier in the trenches was excruciatingly of the cartoonist's craft in those pre-computer Chicago-based queer feminist boring, even as the threat of death was always days, where whiteout was used to move activist launches their book, “What hanging in the air. In one cartoon, Willie ink lines, where captions were roughed in Fresh Hell Is This?: Perimenopause, and Joe, two scruffy but combat-ready before final inking, likely to allow for editors Menopause, Other Indignities, and soldiers, are talking. \"I got a hangover. Does to review, and cryptic notes and numbers You,” in conversation with Mona it show?\" reads the caption, a conversation told the press room how to size the work. Eltahawy. June 1, 7pm likely repeated millions of times in millions of places over the years, which is the point. And the artifacts, especially the letters, shape 2 Archie Bongiovanni and Army life was just life. a fuller portrait of the man. In one particularly Tristan Jimerson. Bookends surprising letter home to his parents near the and Beginnings. The authors The size of his audience, which included not end of the war, Mauldin wrote: discuss their book “A Quick & Easy only soldiers but millions on the homefront Guide to They/Them Pronouns” where his cartoons were syndicated across \"I noticed in one of your letters that you wish in a conversation co-sponsored the nation, was not lost on the \"brass hats,\" the German people would realize that Hitler by the Evanston Public Library. as he called the leadership, which was forced is the cause of their troubles, and get rid of June 8, 7pm to tolerate his warts-and-all narrative. Only him so the war would be over. Let's hope General George Patton tried to interfere in the rest of the world realizes that Hitler is 3 Romi Crawford. Seminary his work, enraged over the depictions of simply a symbol of the German people, and Co-Op. The editor celebrates unkempt enlisted men, which ran counter to that the world will get rid of them so the war the launch of her “Fleeting his orders. When he tried to get Mauldin's will be over… Monuments for the Wall of cartoons pulled from Stars & Stripes, General Respect,” an anthology of over Eisenhower overrode him and sent Mauldin \"Germany as a nation or as a group should thirty artistic responses to the to meet the legendary Patton. Grievances be wiped out, because as long as ten legendary work of public art on were aired, but the work did not change. Germans are together they will find another the South Side. June 10, 4pm Hitler or Kaiser or Bismarck. If they can't be After the war, Mauldin guided his characters separated or broken up and absorbed, then 4 K. Ancrum. The Book Cellar. into a return to civilian life, reflecting a similar they should be destroyed as any predatory The Chicago writer launches sort of disillusionment seen in \"The Best animal should be destroyed. Never say her YA “postmodern retelling of Years of Our Lives.\" And he became increas- forgiving things about Germans to people Peter Pan in modern-day Chicago,” ingly critical of military and government who have seen them first hand.\" “Darling,” in conversation with leadership, especially in matters of race Amelia Brunskill. June 23, 7pm and civil liberties, which made his work less Fortunately for Mauldin, social media did not appealing to cautious newspaper editors in exist then, though he did ask his parents to 5 Brenda Myers-Powell. an era that was migrating from wartime keep his sentiments confidential. And years The Book Cellar. The patriotism into the troubling waters of the after the war, he'd be recognized by onetime co-founder and executive director red scare and McCarthyism. He wrote more opponents for his fairness in their depiction. of the Dreamcatcher Foundation books, dabbled with ultimate disappointment Perhaps this letter was penned at a particularly discusses her memoir, “Leaving in the film adaptation of his work, and ran difficult time. Breezy Street,” recounting her for Congress in New York and lost. rise from her days as a teenage Mauldin retired in 1991 when the Sun-Times prostitute in Chicago. June 30, 7pm In 1958, after a decade on hiatus from decided not to renew his contract; he died cartooning, he signed on with the St. Louis in 2003 at the age of eighty-one. 50 Post-Dispatch, where he won his second Pulitzer Prize, in 1959. He jumped to the The role of the political cartoon, one of the Chicago Sun-Times in 1962, where he great vessels of satire and dissent since the created his most iconic piece, in the wake dawn of this republic, has grown smaller of the JFK assassination: a full-page drawing ever since Mauldin's demise. In its place, of the Lincoln Monument with Abe's statue, we've suffered the rise of cable news and head in hands, weeping. No text was the mendacity-fueled air-fillers of the pundits, necessary. When James Meredith, a Black all proving that more is less. You can't visit veteran, enrolled at the University of Mississip- this exhibition and not be struck with the pi in one of the pivotal events of the civil resonance of so many of these cartoons, rights movement, only Mauldin and the literary created fifty or more years ago, with the editor of the paper were there to represent events of the last five years. We need another the Sun-Times. Bill Mauldin, now more than ever. His widely syndicated work reached the Today, Mauldin's longtime home, The Chicago highest corridors of power. The exhibition Sun-Times, does not publish editorial cartoons. includes original letters from several presidents, or would-be presidents, including “Drawn to Combat: Bill Mauldin & the Art of Johnson, Nixon and Humphrey, commenting War,” Pritzker Military Museum & Library, 104 on specific cartoons and usually asking for South Michigan. May 14 through Spring 2022