RESIST!: A VISUAL HISTORY OF PROTEST
Catacombs Gallery
August 2, 2024 to September 13, 2024
Resist: A Visual History of Protest is an exhibition of original artwork by renowned Chicago artist Franklin McMahon (b. 1921 - d. 2012). As an artist-reporter, McMahon was front and center, documenting protest movements that changed America
In 1955 McMahon covered the Emmett Till Trial for Life Magazine. The 1960’s began with McMahon drawing the construction of the Berlin Wall and continued with his art coverage of Dr. Martin Luther King’s peaceful protests, including the march from Montgomery to Selma across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and the Chicago Eight Conspiracy Trial
Five decades of social change are documented in his brilliantly painted graphite-on-paper images through to 2008 when Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton debated. In capturing historic events through art or major publications from the Chicago press to national publications, McMahon chronicled current events that nudged society in a more just direction.
Click HERE for more information on gallery hours and private appointments.
RESIST!: A VISUAL HISTORY OF PROTEST
Catacombs Gallery
August 2, 2024 to September 13, 2024
Resist: A Visual History of Protest is an exhibition of original artwork by renowned Chicago artist Franklin McMahon (b. 1921 - d. 2012). As an artist-reporter, McMahon was front and center, documenting protest movements that changed America
In 1955 McMahon covered the Emmett Till Trial for Life Magazine. The 1960’s began with McMahon drawing the construction of the Berlin Wall and continued with his art coverage of Dr. Martin Luther King’s peaceful protests, including the march from Montgomery to Selma across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and the Chicago Eight Conspiracy Trial
Five decades of social change are documented in his brilliantly painted graphite-on-paper images through to 2008 when Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton debated. In capturing historic events through art or major publications from the Chicago press to national publications, McMahon chronicled current events that nudged society in a more just direction.
Click HERE for more information on gallery hours and private appointments.
Born in Chicago in 1921, Franklin McMahon (d. 2012) was an artist-reporter working on assignments that took him all over the world. He was at the opening day of Vatican Council I, in Mission Control, Houston, for the first landing on the Moon, and covered Democratic and Republican Conventions since 1960. His reports on the European Common Market and World Agriculture were published by Fortune and World Book Yearbook.
After graduating from Fenwick High School in Oak Park, McMahon worked as an apprentice and freelance designer in Chicago until his enlistment in World War I. He trained as a pilot with the Navy and became a navigator of B17's over Germany, was shot down and spent the last months of the war in a prison camp. After the war he and his wife Irene Leahy McMahon attended classes and lectures at Chicago's Bauhaus with Lazlo Maholy Nagy. Using the Gl Bill, he attended a series of night classes at the Institute of Design, The Chicago Academy of Art, American Academy of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
McMahon was soon exhibiting his drawings and encaustic paintings in Chicago at the Art Institute and in other cities and working for various publications. The editors of LIFE saw his drawings and asked him to go to Sumner, Mississippi to report on the Emmet Till trial. This led to his coverage of other aspects of American Civil Rights: voting rights demonstrations in Selma, Alabama, the presidential campaigns of the Reverend Jesse Jackson and the 1995 Million Man March on the Capitol in Washington D.C.
McMahon’s coverage of the Catholic Church includes Pope Paul VI in Jerusalem, and Pope John Paul II in the United States, Mexico, and Poland. In the 1990s, he covered the Parliament of World's Religions in South Africa, published by U.S. Catholic magazine. He suggested Goose Hunting in Cairo, Illinois to Sports Illustrated and this led to coverage of the San Diego-Acapulco Yacht Race, the Royal Bangkok Sports Club, Partridge Hunting in Spain, and other sports stories.
A series on presidential politics includes Adlai Stevenson, Eleanor Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Barry Goldwater, and Richard Nixon, extending to the inauguration of George W. Bush in 2001, and Barack Obama at the 2004 Democratic Convention. In 2008, McMahon drew Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama debating for the office of President of the United States.
Franklin McMahon’s art is in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Smithsonian, Library of Congress, Princeton University Special Collections, and the National Air and Space Museum. His recognitions include three Emmys and a Peabody for films and videos, induction into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame, Martin Luther King Award for Civil Rights Achievement and honorary degrees from Loyola University and Lake Forest College. His films have been broadcast by PBS: WTTW and CBS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_McMahon
Born in Chicago in 1921, Franklin McMahon (d. 2012) was an artist-reporter working on assignments that took him all over the world. He was at the opening day of Vatican Council I, in Mission Control, Houston, for the first landing on the Moon, and covered Democratic and Republican Conventions since 1960. His reports on the European Common Market and World Agriculture were published by Fortune and World Book Yearbook.
After graduating from Fenwick High School in Oak Park, McMahon worked as an apprentice and freelance designer in Chicago until his enlistment in World War I. He trained as a pilot with the Navy and became a navigator of B17's over Germany, was shot down and spent the last months of the war in a prison camp. After the war he and his wife Irene Leahy McMahon attended classes and lectures at Chicago's Bauhaus with Lazlo Maholy Nagy. Using the Gl Bill, he attended a series of night classes at the Institute of Design, The Chicago Academy of Art, American Academy of Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
McMahon was soon exhibiting his drawings and encaustic paintings in Chicago at the Art Institute and in other cities and working for various publications. The editors of LIFE saw his drawings and asked him to go to Sumner, Mississippi to report on the Emmet Till trial. This led to his coverage of other aspects of American Civil Rights: voting rights demonstrations in Selma, Alabama, the presidential campaigns of the Reverend Jesse Jackson and the 1995 Million Man March on the Capitol in Washington D.C.
McMahon’s coverage of the Catholic Church includes Pope Paul VI in Jerusalem, and Pope John Paul II in the United States, Mexico, and Poland. In the 1990s, he covered the Parliament of World's Religions in South Africa, published by U.S. Catholic magazine. He suggested Goose Hunting in Cairo, Illinois to Sports Illustrated and this led to coverage of the San Diego-Acapulco Yacht Race, the Royal Bangkok Sports Club, Partridge Hunting in Spain, and other sports stories.
A series on presidential politics includes Adlai Stevenson, Eleanor Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Barry Goldwater, and Richard Nixon, extending to the inauguration of George W. Bush in 2001, and Barack Obama at the 2004 Democratic Convention. In 2008, McMahon drew Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama debating for the office of President of the United States.
Franklin McMahon’s art is in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, Smithsonian, Library of Congress, Princeton University Special Collections, and the National Air and Space Museum. His recognitions include three Emmys and a Peabody for films and videos, induction into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame, Martin Luther King Award for Civil Rights Achievement and honorary degrees from Loyola University and Lake Forest College. His films have been broadcast by PBS: WTTW and CBS. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_McMahon
