Art in bars may sound like a funny idea — shouldn’t art be in museums or on the walls of fancy manors? But in a number of places in Chicago, you can get a shot of something visual along with your beer and whiskey.
It makes good sense businesswise. Artwork can make guests feel comfortable, stay longer and drink more, says Elizabeth Weiner, owner of an eponymous art gallery in New York City. She’s also an art consultant whose clients include resorts, hospitals, museums and luxury hotels, such as the Four Seasons Hotel Chicago, which has much fine art on display.
“You don’t have to hang all that much, but you have to have some ‘wow’ moments,’’ Weiner said. “Less is more, plus ‘wow’ moments makes for a good collection.”
And there are wow moments to be had, whether it’s an entire wall at The Cove Lounge turned into a lively and somewhat surreal mural of Hyde Park life that stars a giant portrait of former President Barack Obama, or a statue of young Elvis captured in full performance that greets patrons entering The Inner Town Pub in the Ukrainian Village neighborhood, or the sophisticated meeting of fashion and safari in photographs by David Kent in the cozy bar at the Four Season’s Allium in the Gold Coast. There’s enough creative, interesting and often beautiful work out there to turn an ordinary pub crawl into an art lover’s gallery stroll. Not only can you get up and personal with the art, you can do it with beer or whiskey or Diet Coke in hand.
“In bars, you can touch the art,” says Alison Gass, director of the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art, with a laugh, when asked about the differences between art in bars and art in museums.
Gass was sitting in The Cove Lounge, the mural featuring Obama (and saxophonist Von Freeman) stretching out behind her. Art in bars also differs from art in museums, she said, in that bar art can come as a surprise whereas museumgoers come at it with a certain mindset. Art in bars is also a backdrop and not a focus, she added, but art can “set a mood and bring people in.”
“Art in bars can give you a flavor of what the bar is,” she said. “It can be chic and fancy, or hip and new, or deeply rooted to its place, which is very much what this mural behind me is about.”
What makes for good art in bars? There’s no one way to look at it, Gass said, and opinions can differ.
“I think good bar art should be funny because if it’s too serious, I don’t think it mixes well with alcohol,” said Anya Chatterjee, who was tending bar at the Old Town Ale House, an Old Town neighborhood bar known for its portraits of locals and celebrities ranging from Roger Ebert to Gilda Radner. You’ll find plenty of wow moments behind the bar, where sharp, satirical paintings take aim at various public figures, including former Gov. Rod Blagojevich with his prison jumpsuit pulled down and, most famously, a naked Sarah Palin painted during her unsuccessful Republican vice presidential run in 2008.
“What makes good bar art is good art,” says Michelle Fire, whose Big Chicks bar and adjoining Tweet restaurant in Uptown offer art of museum quality — and quantity — to patrons. “If the art is fabulous, it’s a pleasure to look at, no matter where it’s at, whether it’s at a museum or a bar.”
Fire, who has been collecting for decades, divides her collection between the two spaces according to theme.
“On the Big Chicks side, it’s images that relate to concepts about women,” she said. “So, even if you see a picture of a naked man, it’s a naked man making a statement about what he thinks women are about. On the other side, on the Tweet side, I’ve really curated it to be more of a rural or urban interior/exterior landscape. … Basically, not everyone wants to look at naked pictures when eating brunch. I’m trying to be respectful. Bars are different. People are much more forgiving.”
Tressa Smeltzer, a longtime bartender at Gallery Cabaret, speaks of variety and having more than one artist on display. The art changes monthly on the south wall of the Bucktown bar’s collection. “I like it when there’s a theme and people are telling a story, and sometimes just having bright colors is enough.”
Smeltzer, an artist herself, sometimes hangs her work up at the Gallery Cabaret. She doesn’t always identify it as hers, and when she asks people what they think of it, not all customers like it. She’s OK with that.
“The point in doing art is you want a reaction. You want to connect with people,” Smeltzer said. “Even the terrible art or the disturbing art is good on one level.”
Asked about “bad” art, Fire said that wasn’t for her to decide. But she did note she’s become “much more forgiving” since her art school days.
“In the soul of everybody is the ability to create,” she said, adding that art can elevate people’s lives and make them feel special.
“You don’t have to be living on Lake Shore Drive in a penthouse to have a collection and have three people a year see it,” Fire said. “All we have to share is here and now. This is it. This is all we’ve got. We might as well be generous in our moment, generous and grateful. I can enjoy this artwork, and I do, but why not have everybody enjoy it?”
Twitter @billdaley
