Photograph of private reception celebrating Ivan Albright’s Picture of Dorian Gray at Riccardo’s Restaurant and Gallery, Chicago, February 26, 1946. Ric Riccardo, owner of Riccardo’s, stands at the center. Ivan Albright and William S. Schwartz are seen in conversation at left, with Rudolph Weisenborn and Malvin Albright directly behind them. (Image and historic memorabilia courtesy of Film Police)
September 6 - December 19, 2022
"The Chicago restaurant-gallery's everything-including-the-kitchen-sink approach to art, dining, community, and life"
Press Release
Artworks
Flash In The Pan by Alex Cornacchia
Madron Gallery presents Palette and Palate, an exhibition celebrating Chicago, its artists, and one of the city’s most unique and beloved artist-run spaces of the mid-twentieth century, Riccardo’s Restaurant and Gallery, once called the Montmartre of the Midwest. On view from September 6 through December 16, 2022, Palette and Palate features paintings depicting Chicago street scenes from the Madron collection alongside The Seven Lively Arts, a group of seven enormous paintings by seven Chicago artists commissioned by Ric Riccardo in 1947 to hang behind his palette-shaped bar at 437 N. Rush St. Each work depicts a different allegorical scene of an art form (Literature, Drama, Sculpture, Painting, Architecture, Dance, and Music); in Riccardo’s heyday, the paintings were considered by many to be the restaurant’s centerpiece. The exhibition is accompanied by Flash in the Pan, an essay by Alex Cornacchia exploring the restaurant-gallery combination that developed in Chicago in the late 1940’s as well as the oft-overlooked attributes that make Chicago galleries stand apart from other American gallery communities.
Artworks
The Seven Lively Arts from Riccardo’s Restaurant and Gallery, on loan from the Estate of Seymour H. Persky, installed at Madron Gallery. From left to right: Literature by Rudolph Weisenborn (1881-1974), Painting by Vincent D’Agostino (1896-1981), Drama (Mephistopheles) by Ivan Le Lorraine Albright (1897-1983), Architecture by Aaron Bohrod (1907-1992), Sculpture by Malvin Marr (“Zissly”) Albright (1897-1983), Dance by Richard (“Ric”) Riccardo (1903-1954), and Music by William S. Schwartz (1896-1977). All 1947, oil on canvas, 89 x 41 1/4 inches. (Image courtesy of Madron Gallery)