Robert Guinan

Robert Guinan (1934 – April 3, 2016) was an American painter based in Chicago. The subject matter of his work includes but has not been limited to street performers, musicians, barflies, historical scenes, landscapes and building structures. Lauded in Europe but widely unknown in his native Chicago, Guinan's work reflects a documentary quality that has been compared to "that of the Parisian demi-mondes as chronicled and interpreted by Toulouse-Lautrec".

Toulouse-Lautrec was in fact an influence on Guinan; as a young man he saw the film "Moulin Rouge" and felt like Toulouse-Lautrec, the 19th-century French painter known for his portraits of night life in Paris.

Public collections include Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris; Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon; Musée de Grenoble; Musée du dessin et de l’estampe originale, Gravelines; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Sintra Museu de Arte Moderna, Collection Berardo, Sintra, Portugal.

Guinan's work has been featured in exhibitions as follows:

Group Exhibitions

Robert Guinan's life and work has been the subject of two films including the 1995 documentary "Division Street U.S.A.: while following Robert Guinan" (Frederic Compain, 52 min, Coproduction Dune, Leapfrog Production, Arte - G.E.I.E.) and the 2006 documentary "Robert Guinan, un peintre en marge du rêve américain"(Albert Loeb and Nicole Sérès, 48 min, Les Films Lazare)

Guinan was born in 1934 in Watertown, New York. His mother, the late Dorothy M. Guinan, encouraged his interest in art. Because formal art instruction was not offered at Immaculate Heart Academy (IHA), night classes were arranged beginning at age 13 or 14 with Mary Morley, an art teacher at Watertown High School who was mentioned in Who's Who of American Art.

Guinan's first exhibition occurred when he was just 15 at the Watertown library. A critic in the Watertown Daily Times called the show "a most creditable exhibit for an artist of his age and training" and said of his work the following: "slightly on the impressionistic side, his paintings display a fine sense of color rendering, theming and composition, although still lacking a little in delineation." That show led to annual exhibits of his works through his high school years. Times writer David F. Lane wrote in 1950 that his paintings were "of such character in composition, coloration and brush technique as to definitely forecast a promising future for him in the field of art." He praised the 16-year-old artist's "rare genius for capturing action in tense moments, and in rendering facial expressions which accurately represent the mood and thought of the character..

Guinan graduated from IHA in 1951, and initially worked a day job in a dental lab. He lived in a YMCA hotel. In 1953, Guinan enlisted in the Air Force after considering a potential Army draft during the Korean War. He served as a radio operator in North Africa and Turkey while continuing to practice drawing and painting.

In 1959 Guinan began living and working in Chicago after enrolling in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. "I would go out in the joints and draw, Guinan is quoted as saying. "One joint was called the Green Mill, a name which Guinan appreciated due to its correlation with a painter he'd been inspired by. "Toulouse-Lautrec hung out at the Moulin Rouge, the Red Mill..

In 1972 Robert Guinan was introduced to Parisian art dealer Albert Loeb. Beginning in 1973, Guinan worked regularly with the Albert Loeb Gallery. As of 2010 he is represented locally in Chicago.

Guinan continues to live and paint in his home on the north side of Chicago. One son, Paul, is a comic-book artist and creator of the fictional character Boilerplate. Another son, Sean (b. 1970), is a film maker and musician known for prize-winning films including "Teplitz; the Tyranny of Paradox" and "Flipping the Whale", and his cabaret-style band, Candy Town.