Tony Fitzpatrick, certainly one of Chicago’s most celebrated multidisciplinary artists and a distinguished advocate for town itself, died Saturday of a coronary heart assault. He was 66. Based on members of the family, he was awaiting a double lung transplant and died at Rush College Medical Heart.
Over a number of a long time, Mr. Fitzpatrick was not only a prolific creator of mixed-media collages, drawings and work, he additionally was transformative as a gallery proprietor, poet, essayist, radio host, newspaper columnist, printmaker, and actor in movie, tv, and the stage. His biggest function was representing Chicago, primarily by way of his artwork, which he exhibited within the artwork world’s most prestigious establishments in North America, together with the Artwork Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Artwork in New York, the Philadelphia Museum of Artwork, the Museum of Up to date Artwork in Miami, and the Smithsonian American Artwork Museum in Washington. His work can also be within the personal collections of Martin Scorsese, Invoice Gates, Lou Reed, Harrison Ford, amongst others.
“He was at all times very a lot a Chicago man,” his brother, Kevin Fitzpatrick, instructed the Solar-Occasions. “He accepted it with all its blemishes and all its bruises. He noticed the most effective in it. He would stroll over and see nature within the Humboldt Park Lagoon. He would discover the issues he needed within the metropolis, and he defended all of it the best way to his loss of life.”
His collages centered on issues he cherished throughout his suburban childhood: comedian books, newspaper comedian strips, canine, boxing and baseball. Birds remained a constant theme in his artwork all through his life; in 2021 he instructed an interviewer that his fascination with birds and love of falconry originated from his grandmother, “who couldn’t inform you a cardinal from a blue jay.”
“Each morning she’d toast a few items of bread, unfold some jelly on it, chop it up and throw it out the again door to the birds. I’m certainly one of eight children, , and we by no means wasted meals, and I’d say, ‘Why are you giving all our bread to the birds?’ She appears to be like at me and says do me a favor and be quiet. Give your ears an opportunity for as soon as. And he or she opens the window a bit bit, after which I heard it. I heard swallows and red-winged blackbirds, mourning doves, and she or he mentioned, ‘You realize, birds are the primary music the Irish ever had,’ and she or he mentioned, ‘In the event you’re quiet and also you watch, for a chunk of bread you may hear God sing.’”
Peculiar changing into extraordinary
To his brother, Mr. Fitzpatrick had “a very artistic thoughts.” Artwork was his focus from the start.
“He was a man who might focus whereas not concentrating. He could be in school and a lesson happening which he had little to no real interest in and immediately there could be 400 photographs in his thoughts that may bear on him, and he put all of them in his collages after which he would tie them collectively,” Kevin Fitzpatrick mentioned. “They have been issues that fascinated him, issues that impressed him, issues that occurred to him each day. The peculiar turned extraordinary to him.”
Mr. Fitzpatrick was born in 1958 and was certainly one of eight kids rising up in suburban Lombard. He took formal artwork lessons on the School of DuPage, which he later mentioned had a profound impact on his life. “The best factor is that no person mentioned, ‘You’ll be able to’t do this’ or ‘That’s unimaginable.’ They mentioned, ‘Do it!’” he mentioned throughout a return journey to the college in 2021. “I spotted that COD was a spot about making something attainable.”
His multidisciplinary strategy to artwork was evident early in his profession; within the late Eighties he was showing as an actor in movies and native theater, internet hosting a film overview present on radio, writing for a neighborhood newspaper and had his work accepted at group gallery reveals in New York and Philadelphia.
An early break got here in 1989 when the powerhouse New Orleans R&B group the Neville Brothers employed him to create the duvet of “Yellow Moon.” The album would develop into the group’s international breakthrough and earn them a Grammy. One 12 months later, Mr. Fitzpatrick co-founded World Tattoo, his South Loop gallery that doubled as an artwork collective and efficiency house.
Jon Langford, the punk musician who moved to Chicago in 1992 from his native Wales, first carried out in Chicago together with his band the Mekons on the gallery. In 1993, Mr. Fitzpatrick persuaded Langford to have his first artwork present there as nicely. To Langford, Mr. Fitzpatrick “was very uncommon in that he was very excited by different individuals’s artwork.”
“I can’t consider my artwork with out Tony. He confirmed me learn how to do it. He pushed me. He made me do it,” Langford mentioned. “He gave me confidence.”
Advocate for artists
As a gallery proprietor, Mr. Fitzpatrick typically advocated for individuals who didn’t essentially comply with the normal artwork faculty trajectory however who he felt nonetheless had a beneficial voice.
In 2018, Mr. Fitzpatrick inspired John Soss, a buddy, to exhibit images that Soss would periodically add to Fb of discovered objects he collected alongside the Lake Michigan shoreline. Soss turned him down twice. The third time, Soss mentioned, Mr. Fitzpatrick “was not asking.” Soss’ first present went up at The Dime, Mr. Fitzpatrick’s gallery in Wicker Park. Two subsequent reveals adopted in recent times.
“He noticed one thing there that I didn’t remotely see myself,” Soss mentioned. “In the event you take a look at what I did for the primary present and the way issues hit a greater degree on the second and third reveals, his encouragement and his perception in me helped me work tougher and do higher work.” Soss mentioned his expertise was much like many different individuals who flourished by way of Mr. Fitzpatrick’s advocacy.
“I can’t think about anybody who’s a training artist who additionally took the time and had the beneficiant spirit to prop individuals up and provides them a shot to do no matter he might to get individuals to the present,” Soss mentioned. “I don’t even know the way he pulled it off over and again and again. He was certainly one of a form that manner.”
Mr. Fitzpatrick notably mentored youthful artists, resembling Danny Torres, a Chicago-based painter 30 years his junior. As Mr. Fitzpatrick recuperated within the hospital from a coronary heart assault in 2015, a nurse instructed him about Torres, her nephew, who was on the time in graduate faculty for artwork. As soon as dwelling, Mr. Fitzpatrick reached out. They turned rapid pals. “He walked the trail I at all times needed to stroll,” Torres mentioned.
Primarily, Mr. Fitzpatrick taught Torres a code of ethics he believed each artist ought to comply with: “In the event you work exhausting, you’re constant, you share your work, good issues will occur,” Torres mentioned. “Together with that, deal with individuals with respect and be pleasant to everyone — it doesn’t matter who. Everybody’s vital.”
In later years, Mr. Fitzpatrick typically held court docket amongst, not simply artists, however journalists, theater makers, restaurateurs, teachers, amongst others. His prolific artwork output was matched solely by the largesse of his character — one which matched the legendary bravado of town he cherished.
“He was an enormous connector of individuals,” mentioned Bob Chiarito, a buddy. “Being with him at his studio or a restaurant at all times felt to me like I think about being with Hemingway in Paris would have been like. He at all times attracted a forged of characters, at all times handled everybody with respect, from the bus boy to the studio government. He really was an irreplaceable individual,” he mentioned. “This can be a large loss for the complete metropolis of Chicago.”
Mr. Fitzpatrick wrote a number of poetry collections and produced many artwork books. Beginning in 1989, he additionally appeared as an actor in Hollywood movies, together with “Mad Canine and Glory,” “Philadelphia,” “Chi-Raq,” and “Primal Worry.” He lately had a reoccurring function within the tv sequence “Patriot.”
His workaholic tendencies needed to do with understanding that point was treasured, he as soon as mentioned.
“You solely get one experience across the fountain, after which it’s into the ditch,” he instructed an interviewer in 2021. “There’s a poem by Mary Oliver, ‘What is going to you do with this one treasured life you may have?’ Nicely, I selected this. It’s advanced over 45 years, and I nonetheless get pleasure from doing this each day. I nonetheless get pleasure from making artwork largely about Chicago.”
Final fall, Mr. Fitzpatrick started emailing periodic diary entries to pals; each included a picture from his artwork, in addition to a reminiscence or his tackle the day’s headlines. In June he shared an illustration of a chook and wrote about how Chicago’s parks present a wealthy sanctuary for wildlife. They want it, he famous, as a result of the present administration in Washington has little curiosity in defending the atmosphere. To Mr. Fitzpatrick, dedication gave life its which means.
“Birds are price combating for, as are people, as are all dwelling issues,” he wrote. “The world will probably be saved if individuals present up.”
Mr. Fitzpatrick is survived by his spouse, Michele, and their kids, Max and Gabrielle Fitzpatrick, and their prolonged household. The household says no public memorial is deliberate presently.
