Yesterday we looked at some lost murals in Hyde Park, which were whitewashed a couple years ago to make room for new ones. The north wall of the viaduct is now covered with a mosaic-mural bricolage in the style of the North Side murals at Foster and Bryn Mawr, and the south viaduct wall includes more local imagery like a Metra train and prominent black Chicagoans Jean Baptiste Point DuSable and Gwendolyn Brooks. The new murals are gorgeous, no question, but we're still sad to have lost the old ones. more ›

Until a couple years ago, the viaduct at 47th and Lake Park, just on the north edge of Hyde Park, was covered in murals that were more reminiscent of street graffiti than the narrative, community-painted murals we’ve previously covered in Pilsen and Hyde Park. The slightly recessed concrete rectangles formed natural canvasses, and a number of muralists took part in the project (which seems to have been completed in the late 90s or early 00s). Most of the murals boasted a street graffiti style, with spray painted words bleeding off the edges of blackened concrete. Some of the murals were beginning to flake and fade, and some had suffered vulgarities at the hands of late-night passersby with cans of cheap spray paint. more ›

We've written before about the Spirit of Hyde Park, a South Side mural painted in 1973 under the guidance of artist Astrid Fuller. The mural had been crumbling away for years, slowly disappearing behind peeled paint and weather-eaten concrete. So we were thrilled on our last trip to Hyde Park when we saw that the Chicago Public Arts Group had come to the rescue and given Spirit some much-needed attention. more ›

Laura continues her series on murals of the South Side by focusing on the crumbling The Spirit of Hyde Park. more ›

Nothing is lost in translation at the National Museum of Mexican Art’s Translating Revolution: U.S. Artists Interpret Mexican Muralists. One of the loveliest exhibits we’ve seen in a while, Translating Revolution showcases American artists who were influenced by Mexican muralists. Through the Works Progress Administration program, many American artists went to Mexico in the 1930s and 40s to learn from mural masters like los tres grandes, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros. The subsequent paintings often reveal Marxist revolutionary underpinnings that give voice to the working class, strong lines and colors typical of the Mexican mural masters, and a surprising number of Chicago connections. Several artists in the exhibit studied at the Art Institute, and others, like Charles White (who was involved with the founding of the South Side Community Arts Center), were deeply ingrained in Chicago’s cultural past. more ›

Our South Side mural series continues this week in Hyde Park, where a series of iconic murals are painted in four panels along the Metra underpass at 56th Street and Stony Island. Children of different racial backgrounds are painted as enormous Venn diagrams, their circular heads overlapping each other in a multiracial celebration. These murals have been there since 1977, and have benefited from two restorations, including one just last year. The murals have been so well restored that the only bit of original paint is a green drip on the sleeve of one of the children's sweaters, which has been carefully painted around during the restorations. more ›

Pilsen is gaining traction in Chicago as an arty neighborhood, with popular events like the 2nd Fridays Gallery Night (next one is April 9!). But the neighborhood itself is practically an outdoor museum, concrete and brick walls splashed with paint everywhere you look - and some places you might not think to look. With Spring upon us, we thought we'd make some suggestions on how to spend an afternoon in this colorful neighborhood. (And don't forget to bring your camera and add your photos to the Chicagoist Flickr Pool). more ›

Today we wanted to show you some of our favorite viaduct murals in the city, the ones that run along the 53rd Street underpass in Hyde Park, only to find that they've been mostly covered up. But it’s not all bad news, because the Chicago Public Art Group (CPAG) has installed temporary murals in front of the old ones along the 53rd Street Metra viaduct in Hyde Park. These temporary panels feature large format digital prints by Chicago artists Terry Evans and John Himmelfarb (a total of four artists are represented under the 53rd and 55th Street underpasses). more ›

The first blossoms of Spring mean we’ve reached the time of the year when it’s too warm to spend a free afternoon indoors and too chilly to head for the beach. But it’s perfect weather to explore some of Chicago’s outdoor public art. Over the next few weeks, we’ll take you to street murals from Hyde Park to Pilsen to Edgewater, as well as indoors (the bad weather’s not over yet, folks) to introduce you to art around town. This week, we headed down to Hyde Park, where the Metra viaduct walls provide ample canvas for murals of every persuasion—mirrored mosaics, social critiques from the 1970s, and newly installed temporary art exhibits beneath the tracks. more ›

Chicagoist Flickr Pool contributor Curtis Locke (a.k.a. Find a City To Live In) captured and shared some great shots of street art in the city's Lower West Side. more ›

In Chicago, murals can sometimes convey a culture or a neighborhood's feel better than the businesses and residents. Stretching across the north and south walls of the Foster Street underpass at Lake Shore Drive is a new addition to one of the city's most recognized artistic traditions: a mural entitled "Indian Land Dancing," more ›