The Back Stairs at the Institute

The art historian E. John Bullard once wrote of the artist: “William Schwedler created a substantial body of work in a coherent and personal style. . . . He painted with maturity and unique individuality. His work consistently displayed an interest in the irrational and surreal, moving from severely stylized urbanscapes to total abstraction.” Dedicated to printmaking as a student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, here Schwedler depicted what was then the back stairs of the Art Institute in multiple perspectives (Georgia O’Keeffe’s Sky above Clouds IV now hangs in this stairwell).