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.
