The Midwest is not the part of the country one usually finds those not given to conformity, but then Chicago has always had its own style. This high tech town with towering skyscrapers feels miles away from Illinois or Kansas. This is very true of Chicago art as well. Artists from this city have followed their own souls wherever it lead them. Jazz, modern influences, and even the dark and mysterious have been a part of the Chicago art scene.
An example of those who followed their heart and not conformity was Georgia O'Keefe. Long before many women were accepted into colleges O'Keefe enrolled at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, but rejected the traditionalist stance taken by the instructors and the Chicago art community at the time. Later in 1912, she was introduced to the Japanese system of lights and darks used by innovated artist like Arthur Wesley Dow. Her abstract work became world famous, as did the artist known for his realist paintings. Richard Este's paintings contribution to the Chicago art community is being the founder of the type of work known as the photorealist paintings. His work depicting sharply focused realism that looks much like contemporary digital photography have been on exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, and the Whitney Museum.
Perhaps what makes it hard to describe the Chicago art community or scene is that there is no one theme or style that predominates. There are Neo-Conceptualists, abstract artists, and realist styles with no one factor overriding another. Robert Guinan is a good example of this independent style. Even through he was heavily influenced by Toulouse-Lautrec's conception of night life in Paris Guinan's work is unique. Gritty street faces, Chicago's harden or sweet barflies, and musicians are given a spirit in his paintings. Ironically, while he is not well known outside the Chicago art community in the United States, he is admired in France.
Guinan's son Robert is now known in the Chicago art community for the newer medium of comics. Mixing mediums is another aspect of independence in this community. Tony Fitzpatrick for example is a writer of plays, a poet, former radio host, and is well known in the Chicago. The writer of The Time Traveler's Wife Audrey Niffenegger teaches art at the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts. She is also the creator of several visual books including The Spinster in 1986, and Aberrant Abecedarium published the same year.
Keeping up with the artist's community in this town is tough. This is a fast moving, and diverse art scene with many facets. Finding a single source for art information is one method to keep track and sites that can keep up with fast paced such as Visual Art Source are a better resource than other types of media. The Chicago art community is worth every effort to keep up with, as its members are often on the cutting edge or far ahead of the current trends.