Art Shay

Renowned Character, Sweet Guy: A Judy Garland Fan's Appreciation Of Art Shay

Martha Wade Steketee has been a script reader encouraging playwrights, a policy analyst with an expertise in privacy and justice issues and a fan of Judy Garland.  

Steketee also publishes the Urban Excavations blog, which reflects her experience with book collecting in Chicago, play going in Philadelphia, street exploring in New York and other metropolitan adventures.

A new post, Art Shay, Judy Garland, takes readers back to the 2007 exhibit of Art Shay photographs at the Chicago Historical Society. Steketee was particularly impressed by a shot of Judy Garland:

In extraordinary company, Garland shines with raw human energy and JOY.  Between Marceau and Brando — mimic and consummate unique acting presence, she pops off the wall.  The first time through this room, I stop and gasp.  For this long time Garland fan and owner of countless biographies and related materials, this is a new image for me.  And stand immobile in front of the image for a full five minutes.

For Steketee, the moment began a personal search, a search that resulted in a meeting with the photographer, an opportunity to begin her own Art Shay collection, and, eventually, a move to New York where the Shay photos are now proudly displayed, a direct connection between a Garland fan and the star herself. 

Art Shay True Colors: Poignancy, Brilliance and Wit

The Art Shay exhibit at the Thomas Masters gallery has been extended through February. The gallery owner, Thomas Masters, said it was a record crowd at the opening and that interest is continuing to grow as the word spreads. 

Ben Schuman Stoler had this to say in the Chicagoist:

. . not only are we shown five decades (!!) of Shay’s photographs, we’re presented with some of the most important moments of the 20th century, framed with all Shay’s poignancy and punny wit.

Whitney Stoepel added this in a review for Gapers Block:

The show is packed with recognizable faces like President Kennedy, Andy Warhol, Johnny Cash, Jimmy Hoffa, and a few wonderfully moving pictures of and about Martin Luther King, Jr. After the assassination of King, Shay talked his way into the building across from the hotel and snapped a photo of the murderer's handprint on the wall, highlighted by police fingerprint dust. It took my breath away.

Jeffery McNary for Chicago Art Magazine used the word "brilliant." Here's more:

Art Shay’s photography is brilliant. And should one be in search of art as solely objects of, and for, aesthetic enjoyment, the exhibition, “Art Shay’s True Colors”, opening Friday, January 15 at the Thomas Masters Gallery, is not that experience. It is not an imagined dream life. It is a collection, an exhibition of the works of a photographer who has managed to crystallize defining moments in the American experience in bright colors, without a bypass, on archive rag paper with digital print..

Michael Weinstein in Newcity Art was captivated by the color and composition:

Always vibrantly alive, Shay’s shots catch the dramatic instants of situations from their dramatic perspectives, as we see in “Burn, Baby Burn,” in which draft cards held aloft by protestors go up in flames in the steel-blue, smoky twilight. Known for his black-and-white images, this show exhibits only Shay’s color work, which is equally bold and insightful, proving that it is not the medium that counts but the eyes and the mind that deploy it.

Don't let the critics have all the fun. Make your way to Old Town and judge for yourself.