Midwest Museum of American Art

Two close-up photos show young Black children holding “Black Lives Matter” signs at a Chicago protest this year. Like a cross on a wall, they flank two hand-colored lithographs of a white boy and girl with their hands folded in prayer, both published by Currier & Ives in 1890.

And the blockish image of a former mayor, “Pixel Pete,” hangs down the exhibit from a cross formed out of chrome bumpers, back when you still found chrome on cars.

Museum Director Brian Byrn didn’t just arrange 150 years’ worth of art with a wide range of political and religious messages in the “Politics & Religion” exhibit at the Midwest Museum of American Art. He purposefully grouped them so that they’d “jostle people to think.”

The eclectic array of 129 pieces from 32 living artists and 17 historical artists, some borrowed and some from his own personal collection, are on display through Oct. 2. Byrn says he started conceiving of the exhibit three years ago, but not with a political agenda. He did want to time it, though, before the November elections and on the 100th anniversary of women’s right to vote.

“The museum should be seen as a safe, neutral environment where people can engage on any level,” he says. “I want both Republicans and Democrats and libertines to come to the museum to think about the markers that artists have been thinking about for a long time.”

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