Guide to Chicago's Murals

Chicago is a city known for its fabulous architecture and public sculpture by artists such as Picasso and Calder, but anyone who has seen the gorgeous lunettes in the Auditorium Theater or the South Side's Wall of Respect, which inaugurated the city's contemporary mural movement, knows that Chicago has an equally rich tradition of mural painting. Through these murals, the history of Chicago and the nation is writ in churches and lobbies, on viaducts and school walls. Mary Gray's "A Guide to Chicago's Murals" is the first definitive handbook to the treasures that can be found all over the city.

With full-color illustrations of nearly two hundred Chicago murals and accompanying entries that describe their history – who commissioned them and why, how artists collaborated with architects, the subjects of the murals and their contexts – "A Guide to Chicago's Murals" serves both a general and a specific audience. Divided into easy-to-read geographical sections with useful maps for walking tours, it is the perfect companion for tourists or Chicagoans interested in coming to know better this aspect of the city's history. Gray also provides crucial information on lesser-known artists and on murals that have been destroyed over the years, filling a gap in the visual record of the city's development.

Gray also includes biographies of more than 150 artists and a glossary of key terms, making "A Guide to Chicago's Murals" essential reading for mural viewing. From post offices to libraries, fieldhouses to banks, and private clubs to street corners, Mary Gray chronicles the amazing works of artists who have sought to make public declarations in this most social of art forms.