By Matthew Amyx

As the guests entered the Tudor-style home on 2357 W. Chase Ave., their jaws dropped while their eyes swam in the waves of color, geometry, and contrast washing over them. Evocative paintings, sketches, and sculptures adorn nearly every inch of free space. Each turned corner reveals a different medium expertly mastered and innovated with: charcoal, pencil, oils, wood, spray paint, even crumpled canvas and road tar. This menagerie for the senses could reasonably be thought the product of an army of different artisans, but they are astoundingly all the work of the prolific Chicago Renaissance man Tristan Meinecke (1916-2004), whose massive genius and impact are inversely proportional to his meager present recognition. The Rogers Park/West Ridge Historical Society, with the gracious blessing of Tristan’s sons Brad and Scott, hosted a spirited evening of conversation, art appreciation, wine, and music in the gallery that was the home of Tristan and his equally remarkable wife, Chicago TV and radio star Angel Casey – a home that, sadly, will be lost to the Meinecke’s and north Chicago’s art scene by April of this year.

Event guests admire some of Tristan's split-form pieces. L-R: Peter Neville, filmaker Tyler Pistorious of the Underground Multiplex, Matthew Amyx, and Robert Case.

Event guests admire some of Tristan’s split-form pieces. L-R: Filmmaker Tyler Pistorious of the Underground Multiplex, Matthew Amyx, Robert Case, and Peter Neville.

About three dozen people attended the showing, including artists, musicians, and filmmakers. Brad and Scott Meinecke enthusiastically shared stories of their parents’ lives, including how the flexible Tristan discovered a new method after throwing a hammer in disgust at a painting, and how the stunning Angel performed 1500 live radio play readings in one year. Although largely (and oddly) obscure today, the Meineckes once held legendary parties at their home on 2022 N. Cleveland, attended by celebrities, journalists, and junkies alike. While the Meineckes had only moved into the Chase Ave. house in the 1990s, it too has a rich history as a British social club. Unfortunately, determined efforts by Tristan and Angel’s sons to raise funds to keep the space as a gallery have failed. Sometime in April the new owners will sell the space and the magnificent, revolutionary art may all go into ignominious storage. One goal of the event was to increase awareness and attract interest from galleries and buyers to find homes for at least some of these incredible pieces.

Born in 1916, Tristan Meinecke revealed his artistic aptitudes at an early age, as seen in the detailed figure drawings from the 1920s and 1930s placed throughout the house. He was already an accomplished jazz musician when he began studying painting and ceramics at the University of Michigan in 1938. In 1942, his watercolor piece City Landscape featured at the Art Institute of Chicago, and the following year he moved to the Windy City, playing jazz clarinet on the south side, designing storefront displays on the Magnificent Mile, and dating local radio star Lorraine Johnson, better known as Angel Casey. Through the decade, he bent his blindingly bright talent towards writing short stories and composing music. (Examples of his avant garde music are available on the YouTube channel “Meinecke Artspace”.)

Tyler Pistorius and Joseph Lewis from the Underground Multiplex talk art with RP/WRHS member Emily Gross. The little girl had to be assured the mannequin statues were not haunted.

Tyler Pistorius and Joseph Lewis from the Underground Multiplex talk art with RP/WRHS member Emily Gross. The little girl had to be assured the mannequin statues were not haunted.

In the 1950s, Meinecke focused more directly on visual art, and pioneered the form known as ‘split-level’, where two or more layers of painting show. Throughout the evening, Tristan’s sons Brad and Scott showed the historical society’s members and guests the piece Open Rebellion, quoting one critic as saying, “Even its shadows have shadows.” The gallery includes many examples of split-level artwork, a form now commonly seen in art museums but that Tristan arguably invented in 1955. Tristan rebelled against banality, and his wide range of accomplishments came partly from his refusal to replicate styles that no longer interested him. He was furthermore disgusted by the politics and phoniness he saw in the professional art world, and largely abandoned it in the 1960s, instead teaching himself architecture and partnering with Robert Bruce Tague in the urban renewal of Lincoln Park. In 1976, Meinecke befriended art critic and Chicago Surrealist Group co-founder Franklin Rosemont who frequently included Tristan’s work in his exhibitions and writings. Tristan continued producing works for shows throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and when his aging hands could no longer control a brush he simply began innovating with spray paint. This indomitable spirit finished his final painting in 2000 at the age of eighty-four.

Revolutionary spirits decades ahead of their time, Tristan and Angel suffered setbacks due to the lack of progress around them. Tristan exhibited symptoms of bipolar disorder – which would have been called manic depressive in the mid-century, and weeks of mind-boggling productivity in which he barely rested would end in a crash and long periods of sleep. With the medical community’s lack of understanding regarding his condition, Tristan was subjected to numerous experimental drugs that failed to treat him properly. Angel Casey established herself as a pioneer in Chicago TV with her children’s program Angel’s Play House that ran from 1953 to 1956, but she received death threats and was eventually cancelled because she was the first to feature minority children on a public television show in Chicago. Despite these setbacks, Angel and Tristan built a happy, fulfilling life of art and love around them. While records of Angel’s career are sadly few (given America’s general backwardness about preserving our film history), Tristan has thankfully left Chicago with one of the most varied and thought-provoking collections of art produced in the modern age – a collection that looks regrettably fated to obscurity for at least the near future.

More information on Tristan and Angel is available online at tmeinecke.com and angelcasey.com. If you have any leads on galleries that might want to show Tristan’s work, or to make an appointment to view the home, please call 773-425-2820. And if events like this sound like something you would enjoy attending, please visit the Rogers Park/West Ridge Historical Society’s events page on our website at rpwrhs.org. Other frequent events include (but are not limited too) house walks, historic neighborhood tours, and lectures from local professional and amateur historians. You can also visit the society’s own library and museum at 7363 N. Greenview Avenue near the Jarvis Red Line stop.