Art - Chicago Sun-Times

“Russian War Prisoner” by Egon Schiele is a watercolor painting with shades of green, blue and red on a pencil drawing.

Art

Art Institute argues it legally owns watercolor: 'No evidence' it was 'ever physically seized or looted by Nazis’

The Chicago museum, responding to a motion filed by New York prosecutors, says claims that Egon Schiele’s ‘Russian War Prisoner’ was looted by Nazis from the original owner’s heirs is ‘factually unsupported and wrong.’

By Emmanuel Camarillo

MAMMA-MIA-2.jpeg. Christine Sherrill (Donna Sheridan), and the Company of MAMMA MIA! 25th Anniversary Tour
Photo by Joan Marcus

Things To Do

Things to Do in Chicago April 25-May 1: The Mix

‘Mamma Mia!’ at the Nederlander Theatre, the spring One of a Kind Show at the Mart, and the Joffrey Ballet’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” are among some of the entertainment highlights in the week ahead.

By Mary Houlihan - For the Sun-Times

Ramberg_Waiting Lady.jpeg. Christina Ramberg. Waiting Lady, 1972. Collection of Anstiss and Ronald Krueck, Chicago. © The Estate of Christina Ramberg. Photography by Jamie Stukenberg.

Art

Christina Ramberg retrospective opens at Art Institute nearly 30 years after her untimely death

Stunning and much-deserved, it’s the largest and most comprehensive exhibition ever devoted to the Chicago artist’s work.

By Kyle MacMillan - For the Sun-Times

Chicago tattoo artist Allie Marie gives pets a permanent spot on their owners' bodies

By Katie Anthony

Artist Jason Messinger stands with the murals he created hanging in the Ogden stationhouse at the Illinois Medical District stop on the Forest Park branch of the CTA Blue Line.

Chicago muralist hopes to ease patients arriving at Illinois Medical District CTA station through his art

By Genevieve Bookwalter

Columnists

The art of Lisa Edelstein: 'Messy, imperfect, awkward, beautiful, these people'

Edelstein, a popular actor on TV, mines art from the piles of old photographs that everyone is burdened with eventually.

By Neil Steinberg

Obit Faith Ringgold. Artist Faith Ringgold poses for a portrait in front of a painted self-portrait during a press preview of her exhibition, "American People, Black Light: Faith Ringgold's Paintings of the 1960s" at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, June 19, 2013. Ringgold died Friday at her home in Englewood, N.J., at the age of 93.

Art

Faith Ringgold, pioneering Black artist and author, dies at 93

A founder in 1971 of the Where We At artists collective for Black women, Ringgold became a social activist, frequently protesting the lack of representation of Black and female artists in American museums.

By Associated Press

Art

Amid a sea of paintings and sculptures, Tim Youd makes 'noisy art' at EXPO Chicago

Sitting at a typewriter, the Los Angeles-based performance artist is working on a project to re-type 100 published novels — each one on a single page.

By Stefano Esposito

At the Croatian Cultural Center in Rogers Park, this mural panel depicts the Mirogoj Cemetery in Zagreb, Croatia.

Croatian landscape murals on North Side honor Chicago-based diaspora

By Genevieve Bookwalter

Murals and Mosaics

Art at CTA Red Line stations in Edgewater, Uptown unveiled as part of reconstruction

The artwork will be featured in the Lawrence, Argyle, Berwyn and Bryn Mawr stations, set to reopen next year after years of construction.

By Mary Norkol

Visitors take in artist Wole Lagunju’s paintings during Expo Chicago in 2023.

Art

How to see the art, buy the artwork and hear from the artists at this week's Expo Chicago

It’s the first edition of the Navy Pier festival under new owners with the clout to lure more galleries from around the world.

By Courtney Kueppers | WBEZ

Chicago

Giant sculpture to be moved from Thompson Center by end of April

‘Monument with Standing Beast’ — nicknamed “Snoopy in a Blender” — has stood in front of the former state office building for decades. But Google, the building’s new owner, has begun an extensive renovation.

By Jessica Ma

Artist Erick Chavez painted this mural on the viaduct at North Elizabeth and West Hubbard streets in West Town during the pandemic in 2020.

West Town mural was painted in 2020 to bring color during the pandemic

By Genevieve Bookwalter

Things To Do

Things to do in Chicago April 4-10: The Mix

A Matthew Sweet concert, a one-man show about Chopin and exhibitions by Chicago artists Robert Earl Paige and Christina Ramberg are among the city’s entertainment highlights in the week ahead.

By Mary Houlihan - For the Sun-Times

NatureMuseum-FlightofButterflies-MariaBurundarena-2.jpg

Environment

Larger-than-life butterfly sculptures coming to Chicago’s parks this summer

As part of the “Flight of Butterflies” initiative, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum will install 6-foot butterfly sculptures in city parks in July.

By Erica Thompson

Dina Psihou wants her tattoos to adorn people like "permanent jewelry."

Wicker Park tattoo artist focuses on ancient Greek artifacts inspired by her roots

By Mary Norkol

This Pilsen mural was done by Humboldt Park artist Raul "Rawooh" Ramirez.

Stars on her cheek, the woman in this Pilsen mural is all Chicago

By Sun-Times staff

Obit Richard SerraFILE - Famed American sculptor Richard Serra poses in front of "Slat," a 1984 steel sculpture, after its reinstallation in La Defense, west of Paris, Dec. 15, 2008. Serra, known for turning curving walls of rusting steel and other malleable materials into large-scale pieces of outdoor artwork that are now dotted across the world, died Tuesday, March 26, 2024, at his home in Long Island, N.Y. He was 85. (AP Photo/Jacques Brinon, File) ORG XMIT: NYSS214

Obituaries

American sculptor Richard Serra, the 'poet of iron,' has died at 85

Richard Serra was considered one of his generation’s most preeminent sculptors,known for his large-scale steel structures that he shaped into many forms.

By Associated Press

Auburn Gresham

St. Sabina unveils sculpture of Jesus weeping over gun violence victim: 'I hope this wakes people up'

The life-size sculpture, titled Thou Shalt Not Kill, shows a hooded victim of gun violence face down on the ground, bullet holes etched into his back, while Jesus weeps over him.

By David Struett

Other Views

Why the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events matters to local artists

DCASE produces festivals such as Taste of Chicago. It also supports your neighborhood cultural treasures, whether they’re a local dance organization or your favorite down-the-block singer-songwriter.

By Tonika Johnson, Coya Paz, and 3 more