The Mural Movement and the Black Arts Movement

The Mural Movement and the Black Arts Movement” focuses on murals in the early 1970s. The program begins with a ten-minute program of short films by painter Don McIlvaine, many of them emphasizing his West Side murals Into the Mainstream andBlack Man’s Dilemma. Next, Kartemquin’s film Viva La Causa (1974, 12 min.) documents a mural created by Ray Patlán in Pilsen with neighborhood children. Finally, recently rediscovered footage from the archives of the DuSable Museum of African American History, labeled simply “Murals Contemporary Art Gallery,” documents the work of muralists painting in the Museum of Contemporary Art’s galleries in the 1971 “Murals to the People” exhibition. Included is footage of William Walker’s Wall of Love, which was installed at the SSCAC, where its fragments are still housed, as well as works by Mark Rogovin, John Pitman Weber, and Eugene “Eda” Wade. read more