Randolph Street

Charles Turzak's colorful print Randolph Street depicts Chicago's lively entertainment district at night, when the artificial light of signs throws a dramatic glow over an otherwise ordinary city streetscape. Against the dark green backdrop of the twenty-two-story Masonic Temple Building to the east, a Chicago landmark erected in 1892 at Randolph and State streets, two towering theater signs ablaze with neon lettering and decorative flourishes vie for prominence. The Oriental Theater advertises "stage acts," while on the south side of Randolph Street the marquee of the United Artists Theater, a movie palace, proclaims the 1934 comedy Palooka. In the distance, another sign is emblazoned with the name of the popular Chicago drug-store Walgreen's, which had recently developed into a national chain when Turzak made this print. At street level, cars whiz by a crowd clustered on the sidewalk beside a traffic light and gathered under the movie marquee. At the lower right, a newsboy with arms upraised strives for attention amid the many distractions of Chicago's theater quarter, around Randolph, State, and Dearborn streets in the so-called Loop, the city's central business and cultural district.

Randolph Street (also known as Palooka) was part of "Chicago Moods in Color," a series of four color woodcuts in which Turzak captured familiar Chicago views and landmarks. Randolph Street places the viewer at street level to emphasize the spectacle of competing signs, with their broadcast slogans and bright lights that compete with the glow of car headlights and the traffic light. Fritz Eichenberg took a similar approach in his black-and-white view of the heart of New York's theater district, City Lights (TF 1996.17), which also features a traffic light and shouting newsboy.

Visions of a Nation: Exploring Identity through American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, August 10, 1996–January 12, 1997.

On Process: The American Print, Technique Examined, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, January 13–March 2, 2001.

Terra Collection-in-Residence, Ashmolean Museum of Art & Archaeology, Oxford, United Kingdom, September 15, 2022–September 30, 2026.