Mark Rogovin, artist and activist who promoted outdoor murals and social justice, dies
Artist Mark Rogovin in 1971. (Museum of Contemporary Art)
OCT 04, 2019 AT 6:22 PM
Mark Rogovin was an artist and social activist who created outdoor murals and taught mural painting to young people while also being active in various political campaigns and movements.
Rogovin was the founder and director of the Public Art Workshop in the 1970s, which promoted public art, and also a co-founder of the Peace Museum in Chicago, which opened in 1981.
Rogovin, 73, died Sept. 30 in his Forest Park home of complications of frontotemporal dementia, according to Michelle Melin-Rogovin, his wife of 26 years.
Rogovin grew up in Buffalo, New York. His father, Milton, was an optometrist and photographer who focused on social justice issues and whose work is part of the documentary photography collections of the Library of Congress, the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Center for Creative Photography, among other institutions.
Recently, Mark Rogovin served as the head of the Rogovin Collection promoting the educational use of his father’s documentary photography and produced films on his father's work, “Picture Man” and “Be Filled with the Spirit.”
Rogovin earned a bachelor’s degree in fine art from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1968. Soon after, he came to Chicago to pursue a master’s degree from the School of the Art Institute.
Artist Mark Rogovin in an undated photo. (Abe Aronow)
“Mark had a robust art background, even in high school,” his wife said.
He came to know Mexican artists and art through his parents. During his time at Rhode Island, he had an opportunity to work in Mexico City as part of a team working with famed Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros.
“Mark was the most talented of Siqueiros’ disciples in the U.S.,” said muralist John Weber.
Rogovin’s exposure to Mexican artists turned him to an interest in public art "so that people could experience art without going to a museum,” his wife said.
In early 1971, Rogovin, Weber and two other artists had the opportunity to produce indoor murals in the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, then on East Ontario Street, Weber said. The idea was for the artists to work on the lower level of the building in a space where visitors could watch art being made.
“Mark was a terrific negotiator,” Weber said. He got the artists a small fee, but also secured top-notch materials for their work and eventually published artists’ statements in which they could discuss their work. Although the art in that instance was produced indoors, the focus was always on the outdoor urban mural movement, Weber said.
Rogovin’s work at the time was what Weber called a “portable” mural, a movable piece on the theme of freeing political activist Angela Davis.
Weber believes all of Rogovin’s outdoor murals are now gone. He said one of Rogovin’s best was on West Madison Street and titled “Break the Grip of the Absentee Landlord.”
“Just a great mural,” Weber said. "Three stories tall. Mark was really smart and well organized and had a terrific talent.”
Eventually, Rogovin turned from mural painting to help found the Peace Museum, which operated from about 1981 to 2007. For the museum, he helped create exhibits including "Unforgettable Fire,” on the impact of the nuclear bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and “Give Peace a Chance,” featuring the songs of folk and rock musicians.
In 1997, he helped organize a nationwide movement to celebrate the centennial of actor, singerand activist Paul Robeson and co-authored “Paul Robeson: Rediscovered,” his wife said.
Along the way, he worked on political campaigns and was especially proud to help elect Harold Washington mayor in Chicago. He could always be counted on to produce political buttons or banners for any progressive movement or campaign.
Jerri Zbiral, who met Rogovin at the Public Art Workshop in 1975, compared Rogovin to another local artist, Peggy Lipschutz, who died in September, calling them comrades in arms in their activism and devotion to progressive political causes.
“I certainly admired his devotion to principles of social justice," Weber said.
In addition to his wife, Rogovin is also survived by sisters Paula Rogovin and Ellen Rogovin Hart.
Plans for a memorial are pending.
Graydon Megan is a freelance reporter.
"Be Filled With The Spirit" to screen at Talking Pictures Festival, Evanston, IL, this March
Mark Rogovin's short film, "Be Filled With The Spirit" has been selected to run in the shorts program of this year's Talking Pictures Festival in Evanston, IL, which will take place from March 8-11.
Be Filled With the Spirit is a dynamic look into the traditions of the black storefront churches as photographed by noted social documentary photographer, Milton Rogovin. Directed by Mark Rogovin.
The screening of "Be Filled With The Spirit", will take place on Sunday, March 11 at 5pm at the Noyes Cultural Arts Center in Evanston. We hope to see you there!
The NOYES CULTURAL ARTS CENTER is located at 927 Noyes St. Evanston, IL 60201 P: 847.448.8260
Mark Rogovin: Live From The Heartland
Mark Rogovin joins us to talk about the photography of his late father Milton Rogovin, and about Mark's book A Day Will Come. Published by the Illinois Labor History Society.
Be Filled With the Spirit, a new film from the Rogovin Collection
A trailer for the short film, Be Filled with the Spirit, Storefront Churches. Photographs by Milton Rogovin. Milton Rogovin interview by Harvey Wang. Photographs from the Rogovin Collection at the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona Foundation. Music used by permission: Courtesy Smithsonian Folkways Recordings © 1957
Director: Mark Rogovin
Camera and Editor: Sharon Karp
RT. 8 min, 46 sec.
"Be Filled with the Spirit, Storefront Churches," © 2011 The Rogovin Collection
The Working Class Eye of Milton Rogovin, Gage Gallery, Roosevelt University
The Working-Class Eye of Milton Rogovin is at Roosevelt University's Gage Gallery through June 30, 2011.
Buffalo, New York-based photographer, Milton Rogovin, 101, had died just two days before the long-planned exhibition, turning the celebration of his art into a celebration of his life.
Exhibit curator and gallery director Michael Ensdorf said the opening is a "celebration of Milton's rich and long life. He said tributes from all over the world came pouring in for Rogovin, on Twitter, Facebook, New York Times, NPR and the Library of Congress blog.
Mark Rogovin, an artist and activist whose accomplishments include founding The Peace Museum, was visibly moved by the outpouring of support, while mourning the death of his father.
Midwest Premiere, May 12th - The Rich Have Their Own Photographers
Midwest Premiere of the Film - The Rich Have Their Own Photographers
Thursday, May 12 at 7:00 p.m.
Roosevelt University, Gage Gallery, 18 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago
“This is not a good film – It’s a great film. I hope people see it all around the world. This movie could change the world.” -Pete Seeger
“The rich have their own photographers. I photograph the forgotten ones.” -Milton Rogovin
Introduction by Mark Rogovin
As a practicing optometrist, and after an assault by the House Un-American Activities Committee, Milton Rogovin began his second career as a social documentary photographer in 1957. His subjects spanned the Storefront Churches of Buffalo, Pablo Neruda’s Chile, the Family of Miners, Working People, the Yemeni and Native American community and the Lower West Side, a Buffalo neighborhood where Milton Rogovin photographed families for thirty years.
Mark Rogovin was an assistant to Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros on his last mural, the March of Humanity. He founded the Public Art Workshop, and co-founded the Peace Museum. Mark now heads the Rogovin Collection with a mission to promote the educational use of the social documentary photography of his father, Milton Rogovin.
This event is free and open to the public.
Sponsored by the Roosevelt University Gage Gallery.
Memorial Service for Social Documentary Photographer, Milton Rogovin (1909-2011)
Photograph of Milton Rogovin by Robart Kalman, © 2010.
You are invited to celebrate the life and work of Milton Rogovin at a memorial for the late photographer, Saturday, May 21, 2011, from 2 - 3:30pm. The memorial service will be held at Upton Hall, Warren Enters Auditorium, Buffalo State College, Buffalo, NY. A reception will follow. No RSVP required, open to the public.
An exhibition of Milton's work will be on view in the gallery adjacent to the auditorium, curated by the Burchfield-Penny Art Center, hours 12pm - 6pm
Milton's Master Collection at Center for Creative Photography
The master collection of 3,500 Milton Rogovin photographs can now ALL be seen online! This archive is at the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona, Tucson.
Curators, students and scholars from around the world will be able to view many of the world's great photography, including that of Milton Rogovin.
Where is the next Milton Rogovin? Gage Gallery opens Working-Class Eye exhibit
People’s World
January 25, 2011 By Teresa Albano
A viewer looks at a set of photos at the Jan. 20 opening
CHICAGO – The gallery was packed, students scribbling on their notepads or taking snapshots with their iPhones, gray-haired and gray-bearded viewers in their winter finery trying to make their way from photo to photo. Hundreds milled around enjoying hot dogs with sauerkraut and jalapeños, kettle chips in a paper cone, New York City’s iconic black and white cookie, and of course, Western New York’s Genesee beer.
And so went the opening of “The Working-Class Eye of Milton Rogovin” at Roosevelt University’s Gage Gallery here, Jan. 20. Buffalo, N.Y.-based Rogovin, 101, had died just two days before the long-planned exhibition, turning the celebration of his art into a celebration of his life.
Exhibit curator and gallery director Michael Ensdorf said the opening is a “celebration of Milton’s rich and long life. He said tributes from all over the world came pouring in for Rogovin, on Twitter, Facebook, New York Times, NPR and the Library of Congress blog.
from left to right, Erik Gellman, Mark Rovogin, Mike Ensdorf and Jack Metzgar at the Gage Gallery. (Giacomo Luca/The Torch)
Ensdorf worked with Roosevelt labor historians Erik Gellman and Jack Metzgar and combed through1,000 images housed currently at Mark Rogovin’s, Milton’s son, Forest Park home.
Ensdorf introduced Mark by saying his biography keeps Milton’s “spirit of arts and activism” alive today. Rogovin, an artist and activist whose accomplishments include founding The Peace Museum, was visibly moved by the outpouring of support, while mourning the death of his father.
Mark paid tribute to his mother, Ann, who died in 2003, as a true partner in his father’s art. “Mom was integral in everything my dad did, except work in the dark room.”
As he presented a few family slides, Rogovin shared a particularly ironic and funny story, about waiting for his father’s hospice caregivers at his Buffalo home. “We were waiting for the caregiver to arrive and heard the doorbell. As we opened the door, the woman standing there said, “Hi. I am Jo McCarthy.”
Milton and Ann Rogovin, like thousands of others at the time, were attacked for their political beliefs during the dismal days of Joe McCarthy’s communist witch-hunts. Milton’s optometry business was ruined by the relentless redbaiting, FBI hounding and attacks in the media. He was called to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee and refused to name names or answer the un-constitutional question, “Are you a member of the Communist Party?”
The headline in The Buffalo Evening News the next day read: “Rogovin Named as Top Red in Buffalo, Balks at Nearly All Queries,” which was just one of five redbaiting articles in the newspaper that day.
In Milton’s obituary, that same newspaper reports without remorse “the repercussions on the Rogovins and their three children, Paula, Ellen and Mark, were devastating.”
Yet, somehow, out of the devastation, the Rogovins turned to the working class people of Buffalo and Western New York – Black, Italian, Puerto Rican, Native and Arab Americans – for solace and inspiration, and found a unique artistic voice in photographing the lives of the unsung.
“The rich have their own photographers. I photograph the forgotten ones,” Milton Rogovin liked to say. And so launched an incredible journey that is just now gaining the recognition it deserves.
The Rogovins’ journey took them beyond the East and West Sides of Buffalo and Lackawanna steel factories and foundries to Appalachia, Chile, Zimbabwe, Spain, Mexico and Cuba, where in black and white Milton captured the global commonalities of working people and the human spirit.
Mark Rogovin said his father was not a trained photographer and did not study other social realist photographers like Walker Evans, but was influenced by the art of Kathe Kollwitz, Vincent Van Gogh, Honore Daumier and Francisco Goya, all of whom had “love and respect for the poor.”
However, Mark said, his father did receive technical help from his friend and photographer, Minor White.
The Gage exhibit includes Rogovin’s first social documentary series, “Storefront Churches – Buffalo,” completed in 1960. After receiving less than stellar feedback from some African American friends, Milton Rogovin wrote to the towering intellectual and activist, W.E.B. Du Bois, “to ask if I could show him my photographs and get his opinion about my ‘Storefront Church’ series” because the criticisms “troubled” him.
Du Bois invited Rogovin to his Brooklyn home and “expressed great interest” in the series and offered to write an introduction to them. The introduction and series appeared in the photography magazine, Aperture. In the introduction, Du Bois frames the series by quoting from his own 1903 book, “The Souls of Black Folk”:
“The music of Negro religion is that plaintive rhythmic melody, with its touching minor cadences, which, despite caricature and defilement, still remains the most original and beautiful expression of human life and longing yet born on American soil.”
Du Bois’ introduction appears with the series Gage exhibition, as does Rogovin’s favorite poem, “A Worker Reads History” by Bertolt Brecht.
Other series at the Gage include Appalachia and portraits from the untitled Working People series, 1976-81. In the Working People series, you see foundry workers, miners and mold makers at work and at home. It helps uncover the multi-dimensional answers to “why a worker works” and who a worker earns money for.
One Black foundry worker poses in front of and with his hand on an industrial-size bucket, perhaps used to carry and pour the molten steel, and at home, looking older with his revealed thinning and graying hair, covered up in the work photo by his head protector. But the same hand is now holding his grandchild on his lap next to a table of Christmas cards with a portrait of Jesus on the wall above.
Rogovin said he let his subjects decide on the poses, but in one work/home portrait of a white mold maker, you would think the photographer positioned his subject for the symmetry of the two shots. Sitting sideways on what looks like a huge mold, the worker is framed by his tools, an air gun, goggles, earphones, and dust mask. At home, he sits sideways on a table surrounded by Elvis posters and album covers and a picture of the Last Supper.
Another worker at Shenango Ingot Mold was interviewed about his job as a chipper. He says, “A chipper tries to make them perfect, cut the bumps off them. It’s my job to make it right … A good chipper knows more about what should be done than the boss.”
Rogovin interviewed many steelworkers, and son Mark said they have 16.5 hours of digitized interviews available for researchers, history teachers and others. The Rogovin family has built a user-friendly website with folios and teacher’s guides to help a new generation learn about issues of race, working-class people, social photography and the 1960s-1980s.
History it is, as most of these jobs have disappeared, and a “chipper” must sound as ancient as a” muleskinner” to some. Which begs a critical question, where are the contemporary work/home portraits? And who are the next generation of artists to digitally capture them?
Where is the next Milton Rogovin?
For more People’s World stories on Milton Rogovin, click here.
Parting Glance:Milton Rogovin, 101
Fred R. Conrad, The New York Times
By David W. Dunlap Jan. 18, 2011 for the New York Times
Milton Rogovin, an empathetic social documentarian who — like Jacob Riis — put a face on the faceless poor, died Tuesday, a month after celebrating his 101st birthday. Benjamin Genocchio has written the obituary for The New York Times. Mr. Rogovin himself narrated an audio slide show of his pictures, “ The Compassionate Eye,” which appeared in April 2009 on Lens, accompanying “Voices Silenced, Faces Preserved,” with text by Randy Kennedy and pictures by Fred R. Conrad, in the Arts & Leisure section.
At a time when middle-class America was fleeing from its decaying inner cities and turning its back fearfully, Mr. Rogovin plunged in, beginning with the Lower West Side of Buffalo. “This ‘fear’ does not figure in Mr. Rogovin’s pictures,” the critic Hilton Kramer wrote in The Times (“Rogovin Photographs of Buffalo Are Shown,” Feb. 21, 1976), when his work was given its first extensive showing in New York, at the International Center of Photography.
He sees something else in the life of this neighborhood — ordinary pleasures and pastimes, relaxation, warmth of feeling and the fundamentals of social connection. He takes his pictures from the inside, so to speak, concentrating on family life, neighborhood business, celebrations, romance, recreation and the particulars of individuals’ existence.
If Mr. Kramer had an objection to Mr. Rogovin’s work, it was that he did not photograph the terrors of life in the disintegrating central city. “This is the limit of his realism — the limit of a sweet, old-fashioned liberalism — but within that limit,” Mr. Kramer wrote, “he has given us something very fine.”
The last time Mr. Rogovin’s name had appeared in the pages of The Times was 19 years earlier (“Inquiry Into Reds at Buffalo Ended,” Oct. 5, 1957), when he was described as the “chief Communist” in the Buffalo area. That was the beginning of his journey into becoming one of the most revered and respected photographers of his generation.
https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/18/parting-glance-milton-rogovin-101/
Milton Rogovin Passes away at 101 years old
Milton in the darkroom. Photo © Diane Bush, c.1982
Milton Rogovin, Social Documentary Photographer and Activist, passed away today, January 18, 2011. He was 101 years old.
We are saddened by the loss of such a wonderful human being and photographer. Milton touched many peoples lives and documented an important piece of our history. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.
The Working-Class Eye of Milton Rogovin at Gage Gallery in Chicago
January 20 - June 30, 2011
Opening Reception: January 20, 5 - 8 p.m., with presentation by Mark Rogovin
HOURS: Monday – Friday, 9-6 p.m., Saturday, 10-4 p.m.
WHERE: Gage Gallery, Roosevelt University, 18 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago
Exhibition made possible by generous financial support from Susan B. Rubnitz.
Sponsored by Roosevelt University's College of Arts and Sciences, the Chicago Center for Working-Class Studies, and the Labor and Working-Class History Association.
FOR INFORMATION: www.roosevelt.edu/gagegallery
Happy 101th Birthday to Milton
December 30th will mark Milton Rogovin's 101st Birthday!
In honor of his birthday, Milton has requested that you make donations to the Western New York Peace Center or Military Families Speak Out. Our contributions together will really help further the cause of Peace.
We'd also like to share the remarkable documentary film, "Milton Rogovin: The Forgotten Ones," Winner of Tribeca Film Festival for Short Documentaries by filmmaker Harvey Wang.
This short film celebrates the life's work of photographer Milton Rogovin, who was 93 when this film was shot. After being blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s and subsequently losing his optometry practice, Rogovin dedicated his life to photographing the residents of a depressed six-block area in his hometown of Buffalo, New York. Rogovin's first series of portraits of Lower West Side residents was completed in 1972. Over the next twenty years, Rogovin returned two more times to re-photograph his subjects. The film follows him as he returns one more time to the Lower West Side to take a fourth in his series of once-a-decade portraits.
Best Documentary Short
2003 Tribeca Film Festival, New York, NY
Co-Winner
2003 The One Show Film Festival, New York, NY
"Picture Man" Wins 1st Prize in Short Documentary Category
We are very pleased to announce the film "Picture Man the Poetry of Photographer Milton Rogovin" has won 1st prize for short documentaries in the Bayou City Inspirational Film Festival.
Congratulations to the star of the show, Milton Rogovin, and the film's crew: Sharon Karp (Director/Editor), Jerri Zbiral (Production Managerl, Mark Rogovin (Producer), Isadore Bleckman (Cinematography), and Sheera Bleckman (Assistant Editor).
The festival is presented by the PROGRESS Arts Group Inc., a non-profit charitable arts and education organization whose mission is to educate and create opportunities through the arts - worldwide.
Milton Rogovin Honored for Lifetime Contributions
On December 30th of 2009, Milton's 100th birthday was celebrated with family and friends. Milton received international felicitations and recognition including a personal letter from President Barack Obama.
June 4, 2010 - The Center for Study of Working Class Life
honored Milton Rogovin with its Award for Lifetime Contributions to Social Justice for Working People.
This award was presented at the bi-annual "How Class Works" conference at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, on Friday, June 4, 2010.
The Rich have Their Own Photographers - Finally Available!
"This Movie Could Change the World!" - Pete Seeger
In 1957, Milton Rogovin was declared “The Top Communist in Buffalo”. In reality, he was an optometrist active registering Black voters. Refusing to be silenced, he found a new political voice, a camera. Milton began to document Buffalo’s poorest and working classes, and eventually, the world’s. Collaborating with Pablo Neruda and others at the forefront of justice movements, documenting those he considers, “The Forgotten Ones”. Through his photographs, Rogovin depicts the extreme inequalities that exist and conveys that message through beautiful works of art. But for Rogovin, his prints are his protests, his only concern is the continuing fight for social justice. Watch the trailer here:
Directed by Ezra Bookstein
Produced by Telling Images Films, LLC in association with MUSE Film & Television
www.tellingimagefilms.com
Milton's Work on Exhibit at the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum
Milton's Work on Exhibit at the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum
From the Western Door to the Lower West Side with photographs by Milton Rogovin and poetry by Native American Eric Gansworth will be on exhibit at the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum in Salamanca, NY.
Exhibit Dates: April 14 - July 10, 2010
An opening reception will take place on the April 14th, exact times TBA. Milton Rogovin plans to be at the reception.
This exhibition coincides with a new publication of poetry by Eric Gansworth of Canisius College, Buffalo, NY, illustrated with Milton Rogovin’s photographs of Native Americans of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) community of Western New York and Ontario, Canada. The photographs are documents of contemporary life and the social history on the reservations outside of Buffalo, near the Cattaraugus, Tonawanda and Tuscarora reservations and the Lower West Side of Buffalo. Specific tribes include the Seneca, Mohawk and the Tuscarora. The photographs were taken between 1963 and 1993.