A bang or a whimper?

Roy Lichtenstein, Pistol, 1964.

One night in February, we found Barack Obama in a snowbound alley in the Loop—not the President-elect himself, but his spray-painted silhouette holding a microphone connected to an outline of the U.S. Created by Chicago graphic designer Ray Noland, a.k.a. CRO, the portrait popped up all over the city as part of “Go Tell Mama! I’m For Obama,” Noland’s unsolicited, pro bono advertising campaign for his hometown candidate, which yielded plenty of other bold street art and posters that rivaled Shepard Fairey’s in popularity.

The presidential election and the 40th anniversary of the Democratic National Convention protests made 2008 a uniquely exciting year for art in Chicago, as institutions large and small tackled hot-button political subjects. (Jenny Holzer’s LED transcriptions of torture memos keep blinking at the Museum of Contemporary Art through February 1.) Not all change was good, however: Illinois’s budget woes and the faltering economy forced some spaces to close. Chicagoans must be vigilant if they want to avert further damage.

At least 1968 offers plenty of inspiration for the D.I.Y., grassroots art spaces and initiatives that distinguish the city: In August, the University of Chicago’s DOVA Temporary Gallery presented “Looks Like Freedom,” which explored the South Side’s artistic response to the era. The show highlighted the artists’ collective AfriCOBRA, which expressed Black Power’s aims in bold posters and paintings. “Looks Like Freedom” also recalled the Wall of Respect, a mural of black heroes and scenes from the civil-rights movement that was painted on a building at 43rd Street and Langley Avenue. Although the site was demolished in 1971, the mural’s influence remains visible in street art like Noland’s, the Chicago Public Art Group’s community-based projects, and Hyde Park and Pilsen’s historic murals.

DePaul University Art Museum’s “1968: Art and Politics in Chicago” emphasized how artists manifested their objections to the Vietnam War and then-mayor Richard J. Daley’s abuses of power. As pieces such as Ellen Lanyon’s portrait of President Lyndon Johnson as a puppet and Roy Lichtenstein’s Pistol (1964) critiqued the nation’s willingness to condone violence, they seemed disconcertingly similar to 2008’s many artworks about the war in Iraq. In June, FLATFILEgalleries displayed Virtual Jihadi, former SAIC instructor Wafaa Bilal’s hacked version of an Al Qaeda video game. The Iraqi-born artist made the game’s main character a suicide bomber who wants to assassinate President George W. Bush. Bilal himself condemns murder; he says he devised the twice-censored game to give Americans insight into Iraqi insurgents’ motives.

While the presidential candidates avoided discussing immigration, the National Museum of Mexican Art kicked off three years of programming on the topic this summer with the group show “A Declaration of Immigration.” At Roosevelt University’s Gage Gallery, “The Border Film Project” featured photographs taken by both illegal Mexican immigrants and the Minutemen chasing them. Columbia College’s “Secrets” and the Spertus Museum’s “Imaginary Coordinates” smartly addressed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—until the Spertus’s trustees shut down the latter exhibition two months early. But art’s power to foster dialogue remained on display in Loyola University Museum of Art and the Chicago Printmakers Collaborative’s “The Art of Democracy.” Even the Field Museum jumped into the fray, characterizing global warming as fact rather than socialist theory in its visual-art show “Melting Ice.”

Yet bad news kept intruding on the healthy dialogues and communal spirit these and other provocative exhibitions generated. In February, the Illinois Arts Council announced that Gov. Rod Blagojevich wouldn’t increase its budget, which had been cut by $4.5 million, or 23 percent, between fiscal 2007 and 2008—hammering already cash-strapped nonprofits. During the summer and fall, several respected galleries, including Lisa Boyle and NavtaSchulz, closed for financial reasons. We doubt they’ll be replaced anytime soon.

Architecture and design fared little better: In October, construction on the Chicago Spire screeched to a halt as starchitect Santiago Calatrava, architect-of-record Perkins + Will and structural engineers Thornton Tomasetti filed liens against the project’s developer. If completed, the 2,000-foot residential tower will be the tallest building in the U.S., but for now, all we have is an iconic 76-foot hole in the ground. At the end of November, yet another state budget shortfall forced the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency to close Frank Lloyd Wright’s landmark Dana-Thomas House in Springfield. The economy will only get worse in 2009, so we’ll have to keep voting—with our feet and dollars as well as our ballots—for the art we value.

NEXT> Ten reasons why Chicago art and design should survive the recession