Current Exhibits

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Exhibits at the Chicago Public Library

Exhibits at the Chicago Public Library highlight unique CPL collections, Chicago history, local artists and more.

Teenie Harris, Photographer: An American Story
February 4, 2012 – June 4, 2012

Harold Washington Library Center
Congress Corridor
400 S. State Street

Charles “Teenie” Harris was a photographer who worked at the Pittsburgh Courier from 1936 until his retirement in 1975. Harris worked strictly within a circumscribed beat—capturing the everyday lives of the residents of Pittsburgh’s African American neighborhoods, as well as numerous celebrities visiting Pittsburgh. Harris’ body of work is said to be the largest and most complete photographic documentation of a minority community in the United States. This exhibit is an abbreviated selection of black and white prints taken from a larger exhibit on display at the Carnegie Museum of Art.

Teenie Harris, Photographer: An American Story has been organized by Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh. Major support for the exhibition has been provided by PNC Financial Services Group, Inc. and by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Because democracy demands wisdom.

Interpreting Antoni Gaudi: Works by Jessica Gondek
January 6, 2012 – March 30, 2012

Harold Washington Library Center
North Wall Exhibit Case and Flat Exhibit Case, Eighth Floor
400 S. State Street

While spending summer 2008 as an artist in residence at the Can Serrat International Art Center in El Bruc, Spain, Jessica Gondek encountered the fantastical architecture of Antoni Gaudi’s unfinished masterwork, the Sagrada Familia cathedral. The Art Information Center is proud to display the works inspired by this encounter, which merge traditional art forms and technological media in printed works. Of the series Gondek states, “Antoni Gaudi’s highly sculptural architecture inspires me as an artist. The Sagrada Familia represents the essence of being an Imperfect Model, aspiring to an elevation and magnitude never reached during Gaudi’s lifetime.” Gondek is an associate professor at Loyola University Chicago and an Illinois-based artist.

“You Oughta Get a Medal for That!” Metalwork by Elaine Luther
January 6, 2012 – February 24, 2012

Harold Washington Library Center
North Upright Exhibit Case, Eighth Floor
400 S. State Street

“You oughta get a medal for that!” People say it, but does anyone ever actually make the medal? Artist and metalsmith Elaine Luther has been making medals. It started with a misread call for artists. It said make a pin to show your secret identity—Luther made a medal about her “secret identity” as a mother of a child who had died. Only later did she realize the call for artists was for an identity you wish you had. There will be an Artist Talk at 2:00 p.m. Saturday, February 18 in the Art Reference Room on the eighth floor of the Harold Washington Library Center.

One Book, Many Interpretations: Second Edition
Through April 15, 2012

Harold Washington Library Center
Special Collections Exhibit Hall, Ninth Floor
400 S. State Street

The Chicago Public Library’s Special Collections and Preservation Division commemorates the 10-year anniversary of One Book, One Chicago with a juried exhibition in which fine bookbinders and book artists were invited to interpret the 10 most recent One Book, One Chicago selections through the art of bookbinding. The exhibit catalog is online.

Actors, Plays & Stages: Early Theater in Chicago
April 29, 2011 – May 15, 2012

Harold Washington Library Center
Chicago Gallery, Third Floor
400 S. State Street

Experience the origin of Chicago’s rich theater legacy. Highlighting the first 100 years of the city’s playhouses, Actors, Plays & Stages presents memorabilia of the first performance at the humble Sauganash Hotel, the vibrant 19th century theaters and the rise of the Loop’s grand auditoriums. At left, a photo of Joseph Jefferson III as Rip Van Winkle, 1869.

Alfred Appel on Classic Jazz
Ongoing

Harold Washington Library Center
Upright Case, Eighth Floor
400 S. State Street

Alfred Appel Jr., who taught at Northwestern University from 1968 until his retirement in 2000, was a scholarly expert and author of wide-ranging interpretive books on modern jazz and art. One of his titles, Jazz Modernism: From Ellington and Armstrong to Matisse and Joyce (Knopf, 2002), attempted to place jazz in the larger context of the modern movement in 20th century art. The display quotes Appel, who died of heart failure at age 75 in May 2009, on classic jazz, including three of his favorite musicians: Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Fats Waller.

Called to the Challenge: The Legacy of Harold Washington
Ongoing

Harold Washington Library Center
Harold Washington Exhibit Hall, Ninth Floor
400 S. State Street.

This exhibit highlights three themes from Washington’s personal and political legacy – his life, his image and his work. Harold Washington, 42nd mayor of Chicago, was the city’s first African American mayor. He was a reformer who changed Chicago politics and a person who never lost sight of the place from which he came and the influences that inspired him. This exhibition is drawn largely from the Harold Washington Archives & Collections of the Special Collections and Preservation Division of the Chicago Public Library.

Chicago Alliance of African-American Photographers Presents a 10-Year Retrospective
Ongoing

Carter G. Woodson Regional Library
Vivian G. Harsh Research Collection Gallery
9525 S. Halsted Street

The Chicago Alliance of African-American Photographers (CAAAP) presents a retrospective look at individual members’ photographic works. CAAAP was founded in 1999. Some of their members are established professionals, while others are hobbyists, but all share a common passion for the art of photography and its power to inform, educate and record history. Their membership includes three past Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalists. They are: former Chicago Tribune photographer Ovie Carter, recipient of the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting; Milbert Brown, Jr., member (with Carter) of the Tribune’s team that won the 2001 prize for Explanatory Reporting; and Chicago Sun-Times photographer John H. White, who won the 1982 Pultizer Prize for Feature Photography.

Howlin’ Wolf: A Chicago Blues Legend
Ongoing

Harold Washington Library Center
South Wall Case, Eighth Floor
400 S. State Street

Howlin’ Wolf, born Chester Burnett in White Station, Mississippi in 1910, was one of the loudest and most memorable of all the classic Chicago blues performers. Country singer Jimmie Rodgers was his childhood idol, but instead of emulating Rodgers’ rhythmic yodeling, he did more of a growl, or, as it became known, a “howl.“ Wolf formed his own blues band around 1948 and made his first recordings for the Chess label in 1951. Unlike many other blues musicians during that era, Howlin’ Wolf was financially successful during his career.

Partner Exhibits

Morbid Curiosity: The Richard Harris Collection
January 28, 2012 – July 8, 2012

Chicago Cultural Center
Exhibit Hall and Sidney R. Yates Gallery
78 E. Washington Street

This wild and wonderfully eclectic collection of Richard Harris is brought together from all corners of the world to present a wide-ranging survey of art about mortality and death. The Chicago Public Library offers a Death Bibliography (PDF) in conjunction with this exhibit.