Paschke Art Center features Schapiro photo exhibit; Bowie, Reed, Warhol pictures on display through Nov. 15
by BRIAN NADIG
The Ed Paschke Art Center at 5415 W. Higgins Ave. now features a photo exhibit that includes pictures of rock star David Bowie, whose music was among the Chicago artist’s favorite.
Twenty-three works of photojournalist Steve Schapiro are on display at the art center through Nov. 15. The exhibit includes photos of Bowie, pop artist Andy Warhol and musician Lou Reed, including photographs of Reed when he played in the band the Velvet Underground.
Schapiro, a former New Yorker who resides in Chicago, photographed several key moments of the Civil Rights Movement and covered the 1968 presidential campaign of Robert Kennedy. He also was set photographer for several Oscar-winning movies, including “Midnight Cowboy” and “The Godfather.”
The photographs on display at the center show Bowie, Warhol and Reed in a variety of public and private settings, including photographs with German singer Nico, who performed on Velvet Underground’s debut album in 1967. Warhol produced that album.
Center director Vesna Stelcer said that Paschke had a poster of Bowie hanging in his art studio, a replica of which was built at the center. “He would listen to his music while he was painting,” she said.
Paschke, who belonged to a group of artists known as the imagists and whose art was influenced by the pop movement of the 1960s, was a fan of Warhol’s famous portrait of Hollywood star Marilyn Monroe, according to the Ed Paschke Foundation. In “Golden Marilyn Monroe,” Warhol silk-screened a headshot of the actress onto a gold-colored background.
A documentary of Schapiro is being shown continuously at the center. The center, which opened in June, offers free admission and is open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week.
The center features a rotating collection of Paschke’s works, including some which had not been available to the public for years. Paschke, who grew up on the Northwest Side, died at the age of 65 in 2004.
