Tony Fitzpatrick Mural Will Be Installed Outside Steppenwolf Theatre Company This Week

A mural created by Chicago artist and actor Tony Fitzpatrick will be installed outside of Steppenwolf Theatre Company's new arts and exhibition center, Chicago Sun Times reports.

The mural, which will measure 12 feet high by 76 feet long, is a personal tribute to former Steppenwolf artistic director Martha Lavey, who died in 2017. It's Fitzpatrick's largest work to date and his first outdoor mural. It also may be one of his final pieces.

"I think it's time for guys who look like me to get out of the way. My show coming up in October at the [College of DuPage] will be my last museum show. This will be my final public artwork for the city of Chicago," he said. "I'm still going to do gallery shows all over the world, I just feel like,... when you get to the top of the hill, you pull the next person up. I think there needs to be more room for artists of color, for LGBTQ artists and for female artists."

The pieces Fitzpatrick selected for the mural feature floral or tree themes. It will be titled "Night and Day in the Garden of All Other Ecstasies", which he sees as similar to the creative process of a play.

"I knew based on conversations with Martha that leading a theater company is like tending a large, unruly garden," he said. There are thorns, there are blooms, there are explosions of unexpected color, and there are constantly more seeds available. Every play blooms into its own unexpected beauty but like a garden, it's fraught with peril as well. There are thorns, there are weeds, there are invasive species."

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