Art Shay

Hear Art Shay in Madison on May 2

Foreground, from left: Billy Cogran, Florence Shay, Art Shay, at Stephen Daiter Gallery opening reception. Photo by Richard Shay. 

 

The University of Wisconsin in Madison has scheduled Art Shay for an artist talk on Wednesday, May 2. Shay will recap highlights of his seven decades as a photographer, shooting those in the hot spotlight and others in the cold shadows. 

The visiting artist talk is at 4:30 p.m. in the Chazen Museum of Art in Madison.

From the Art Shay bio on the Art Department's website:

In 2007, Shay had his first major retrospective of his black and white photographs which ran for six months at the Chicago History Museum: "The Essential Art Shay: Selected Photographs." In 2008, Shay had a solo show “Traces of a bygone America” in Paris at Gallerie Albert Loeb. Also in 2008, The Museum of Contemporary Art - Chicago held an exhibit of photographs titled “Art Shay: Chicago Accent” which included pieces from between 1949 and 1968 of Shay's work while working with Algren of Chicago's "underclass." 

Since the opening in 1976 of Northbrook Court Mall in Northbrook, Illinois, Shay has been chronicling life at the mall. Shay is also working on a project on the life of Smashing Pumpkin's Billy Corgan. Since the end of 2010, Shay has been writing a weekly photography blog "From the Vault of Art Shay" on Chicagoist.com.

In 2010, Chicago's Thomas Master's Gallery featured Shay's first show of exclusively his color photography "Art Shay: True Colors." The Chicago Tribune named this show as one of the best 2010 Chicago gallery shows.

A showing of Shay's black-and-white work at the Stephen Daiter gallery is on view through Feb. 25. Bill Zwecker reports in the final lines of his Sun-Times column that starts with the latest Kardashian news that sales from the gallery started quickly: 

Rocker Billy Corgan was among the first to snap up a precious early Art Shay photograph — “Dorsal Nude, Simone de Beauvoir” — at the recent Daiter Gallery opening of the latest Shay exhibition. 

A Deerfield review report on the Art Shay exhibit, with photos by Richard Shay of the reception, includes Shay's account of how he took that photo:

But one of his favorite on-the-job memories was photographing Simone de Beauvoir, a French existentialist philosopher and feminist, when she visited Chicago to be with noted American author Nelson Ahlgren.

“Nelson was living in a $10-a-month apartment on Wabansia and asked if I could borrow a bath tub for Simone to use, because she wanted to bathe,” Shay said.

Anyone who wants more of that story will have the opportunity in May, in Madison.

Art Shay at the Stephen Daiter Gallery

Through Feb. 25, the Stephen Daiter Gallery at 230 West Superior in Chicago is exhibiting a group of black-and-white photos, including the image titled Skid Row (above), that capture a core period in Art Shay's career. 

A few works by some of Shay's contemporaries are also on view in the exhibit, called "Art Shay and the Documenting of Mid-Century America." 

At the opening on Friday, Shay was there greeting fans old and new. Many had heard Shay tell stories from decades of assignments for top magazines and corporations. His most recent stop, giving a presentation and slideshow at the Apple Store on the Near North side, drew enough fans shooting their own photos that Chicagoist put together this Thank you, Art Shay montage. 

The Chicagoist editor, Chuck Sudo, attended the Daiter gallery opening, as did Billy Corgan, gallery owners Ursula and R. Stanley Johnson and many photography connoisseurs, friends and family.

At one point, while Art Shay sat to sign autographs (in shadow, below), his wife, the rare book dealer Florence Shay, visited with a grandson, Seth Lavin, and great-grandson, Moses. (family photo by Richard Shay)

Muhammad Ali Photographed by Art Shay

Classic images of Muhammad Ali, including shots of the young boxer then known as Cassius Clay, are on display outside Philadelphia at the Michner Art Museum in Doylestown, through May 15.

Based on an exhibit that was first displayed at Hofstra, the photos of Muhammad Ali include work by the best photographers of the era. From the Bucks Local News report on exhibts of Elvis and Ali:

Ali’s story is one of an American hero who has come full circle in the hearts and minds of people throughout the world, and features more than 50 photographs by such distinguished photographers as Annie Leibovitz, Gordon Parks and Art Shay that capture Ali’s positive public image. Although his braggadocio and vanity flouted conventional ideas about sportsmanship, the overall sense was that Ali was a “good kid” who valued family and community and was using boxing to earn a share of the American dream.

The James A. Michener Art Museum is at 138 South Pine St., Doylestown, Pa. More information, visit www.michenerartmuseum.org or call (215) 340-9800. More information from the ArtInfo on the Ali photos or the ArtDaily post on the Ali photos. From the Morning Call review, by Steve Siegel:

One was called "The King," the other "The Greatest." Elvis Presley and Muhammad Ali are the very essence of 20th century American icons — revered, worshiped, beloved, and sometimes, in the case of Ali, even hated.
They shared fame, notoriety, and headlines as their lives unfolded in separate ways, each triumphant and each ultimately tragic.

The Philadelphia Inquirer published an essay on both exhibits by the music critic Dan DeLuca, who singled out one Shay image: "Art Shay's picture of a brash, on-the-rise Cassius Clay in a locker room in his hometown of Louisville, Ky., in 1964 (with his mother, Odessa, close by)." 

Strikingly Ironic Images: Art Shay Reviewed

Writers in Chicago and beyond are discovering the power of Art Shay's images on display at the Thomas Masters Gallery in the new showing of Shay's photography: That Was Then.

Fittingly for the son of a Jewish family originally from Dvinsk (now Daugavpils, Latvia), one of the most salient reviews appears on the website of The Jewish Daily Forward. The post, by David Chesanow, is headlined A Restless Photographer in Chicago.

Here's an excerpt from Chesanow:

A characteristically confident Cassius Clay is shown in Louisville, Ky., in 1961 — three years before changing his name to Muhammad Ali — in his locker room the night of his bout with Alex Miteff. (Clay won by a knockout.) There’s a group of welders on a GATX railcar assembly line, blowtorches alight, looking like so many fiery elves at work in a Tolkien fantasy.
At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968, the wire-meshed windows of a paddy wagon frame the faces of screaming demonstrators as a gaggle of passersby looks on.

Rick Kogan in a Chicago Tribune article about photo galleries starts with the photographer Jack Lane and includes the observation that the Thomas Masters Gallery show of Art Shay photos "runs through Dec. 23 and features many of his finest black and white photographs."

Fotoflow, the blog of Oscar Arriola, also shines a light on the Art Shay show. See the post Art Shay: That Was Then, and the positive comments from Fotoflow readers.

This is now, of course, and there are a few days left to see the exhibit at the Thomas Masters Gallery. Happy holidays! 

Party With Art Shay on Friday at the Thomas Masters Gallery

An announcement from the Thomas Masters Gallery:

The Thomas Masters Gallery, is pleased to announce an exhibition of Chicago's legendary photojournalist, Art Shay - “That Was Then “- December 3- December 23, 2010.
Shay’s work in black and white has often been compared to photographs of such greats as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Walker Evans. The Thomas Masters Gallery is thrilled to present ”That WasThen” where Shay uses his same artful juxtapositions with the keen hand of a superb painter to reveal his life-long connection to Chicago and many of its imporatant personalities.

The popularity of Art Shay's first color photography show -popularity with collectors, with more than 3000 viewers, and with the media- last January at the Thomas Masters Gallery, hasencouraged us to work with the busy 88 year old Chicago and international icon to hang another show- this time including some of his favorite black and whites ( courtesy of Stephen DaiterGallery) - opening Friday Dec 3 and running through Dec.24.

Shay, whose street,celebrity and political photo-journalism has often been favorably compared to the world-class oeuvre of Henri Cartier-Bresson, is currently working with SmashingPumpkins ' rocker Billy Corgan on a three year music project. (Our theme picture shows Corgan momentarily at rest with his tambourine at his secluded Northbrook studio.) Another shows himwith his beautiful young girl friend sleeping as Corgan composes on his guitar. Pictures of new Chicago Literary Hall of Famers-Algren, Hemingway, Bellow and Studs will hang next to some can-dids of the original Mayor Daley and views of JFK on the hustings.Plus young fighter Cassius Clay the night he became "Ali" in a Lousville dressing room with his mother.

Other pictures Art has chosen this time include some "new"Nelson Algren's and Maxwell Street views, plus Marlon Brando and his labrador dog. Also. , Jean Genet bloody at the '68Convention, and some of Art's comic classics.Like a 250 pound nurse trying to convince a 250-pound man to sign up for her hospital's weight-loss program. A sign above the two jumbos pointsout, "You may not be overweight, merely over-fat."

A rarity will be on sale for the first time. In 1960-61, Art shot the baseball trading cards on the back of Post Cereal boxes.Out of loyalty to his native Bronx, Art gathered his New YorkYankee cards into a tableau for his own wall...It will appear with the above.

ArtSlant has the Art Shay exhibition detail. The Thomas Masters website includes the Cassius Clay photo.

You are all invited to the opening reception, on Friday, Dec. 3, from 6 to 9 p.m. Details from the Chicago Reader. 

Cultural Treasure With A 'Keen Sense of When to Click'

An airplane loses lift if it doesn't keep moving and Art Shay has an equally persistent need for action. Donald Liebenson presented Chicago Tribune readers with an evocative portrait of Shay and his latest projects under the headline The latest nudes from Art Shay, a reference to a book in progress inspired by a Shay photo of Simone de Beauvoir. 

In one of the most telling passages of Liebenson's article, he quotes Thomas Masters, the art gallery owner:

"He's one of our cultural treasures," said Thomas Masters, owner of Masters Gallery in Chicago, which hosted Shay's first show of color photographs earlier this year, and will mount a follow-up exhibition of color and black-and-white works with a focus on Algren in November.

"Art's work is this great travelogue through the 1950s to the present," Masters said. "It is almost like reading a novel. He has a remarkably keen sense of when to click. That's a gift that can't really be taught." 

Stay tuned for more details on that November exhibit. We will have the information here as it becomes available.

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.

Art Shay's True Colors -- Invitation to a Gallery Opening

Gallery opening on Friday evening, Jan. 15.

Here is the announcement:

The Thomas Masters Gallery is pleased to announce the very first all-color exhibition of Chicagoʼs legendary black and white photographer Art Shay - “Art Shayʼs True Colors” - running January 15th - February 21, 2010.

Incorporating his known poetic punch and blunt bravery, Shayʼs True Colors exhibits the peaks of our history with life's softer moments and fresh perspectives of fleeting irony. From a man joyous and green working on the el to mourners over Martin Luther King's open casket, we see Shayʼs roaming, unceasing perspective upon more than five decades.

The exhibition includes Shayʼs vantage point of Martin Luther King Jr.; from Soldier Field, to his death, to mourners peaceful and riotous. We see political moments: Khrushchev chumming with Iowans, Nixon emanating from crowds, Robert F. Kennedy aglow in 1968, John F. Kennedy empathetic and momentous and Shayʼs classic vision of the 1968 Democratic Convention.

Some Chicago greats framed by Shay include Daley, Oprah, Jordan, Ditka and Algren. Beyond icons, we view Shayʼs iconic vision in the ordinary and the beautiful.

Shayʼs work in black and white has often been compared to pictures of such greats as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Walker Evans. The Thomas Masters Gallery is thrilled to present “Shays True Colors” where Shay uses his same artful juxtapositions with the keen hand of a superb painter.

Born in Bronx in 1922, Shay survived as a navigator of 52 bombing missions during WW II to become Lifeºs youngest bureau chief in San Francisco at age 26 in 1948. That year, an argument with then Vice Presidential candidate Earl Warren landed him in Chicagoʼs Life office. In the Seventies, the head of the photography department at IIT called Shay “the best photo-journalist Chicago ever produced.”

Shay has photographed 1000s of assignments for Life, Sports Illustrated, Fortune, Newsweek, Time, New York Times and others. Shay's work is collected at the Art Institute of Chicago, The National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC, The Museum of Contemporary Art along with private and corporate collections all around the world.

Please attend the opening reception on Friday, Jan. 15, 2010, 6 pm to 9 pm.

Exhibit continues through February 15, 2010

thomas masters gallery

245 w. north avenue, chicago

312 440 2322

Art Shay And Color, Brightening The Chicago Winter

An exhibit of Art Shay's color work will open at the Thomas Masters Gallery, 245 W. North Ave., starting on Jan. 10.

Rick Kogan wrote about a collection of Art Shay's work on Nelson Algren and other subjects and about the Masters Gallery show in a piece on Sunday in The Chicago Tribune: Picture This.

"We are really excited to exhibit Art's work," said Masters, as he was readying his gallery for the Friday opening of an exhibition of the stunning paintings of Tim Anderson. "Most people are familiar with him only in black and white. This will be his first exhibition in color. It will be a slice of history reaching into the 1950s and 1960s, with a real focus on Chicago. I imagine there will be an Algren or two, but there's also this amazing shot of Jack Kennedy with Bozo the Clown."

Click for the full Tribune article on Art Shay.