John Pitman Weber

(John is a participant in ParkArt 2000, in Spencer, Iowa)

Summer 1992: Team photo with John Pitman Weber (standing with yellow shirt) and Mirtes Zwierzynski (back left), of the Chicago Public Art Group, working with young muralists outside of Paris, France as part of the renovation of the neighborhood La Croix Petit, in Ville de Cergy. A joint project of the municipality, the public housing corporation, the Neighborhood House (Maison de quartier), and the Sauvegarde Association. Residents, children and young people of the neighborhood participated in the renovation or the spaces of the area under the direction of Henri Marquet, sculptor and general contractor.

Weber, best known as a distinguished public artist, has also been
active in the studio as a painter and printmaker for over 30 years,
and has been exhibited in 27 solo shows. In the 1980¹s he showed
several times in alternative galleries in New York City, in Toronto
and in Washington D.C. while also exhibiting in worship spaces in
Chicago, Milwaukee and New York. His prints were included in the major
exhibit "Committed to Print," by the Museum of Modern Art, 1988. His
prints and paintings have also been seen in New York subways (1983,
SubCulture, Group Material), and in group shows in Berlin, New York
City, Chicago, Milwaukee, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. His paintings and
prints often contain references to current events along with personal
memories and plant forms.
Mr. Weber grew up in the Bronx, New York. He is a graduate of the
School of the Art Institute of Chicago and of Harvard University. In
between the two degrees, he spent two years in France, studying at the
Ecole Superieure des Beaux Arts, Paris, at the legendary Atelier 17
with Stanley William Hayter, and with Jean Helion.
The activism of the 1960¹s was a central experience for Weber. He
participated in the Civil Rights movement and the Anti-war movement.
Weber says that community involvement was a way to make himself "at
home" in Chicago, after he moved there in 1966. He led his first
outdoor mural in 1969, at a church in Cabrini Green, a troubled
housing project, now being demolished. The following year, he met
William Walker, a Black muralist. Together they created the program
which became the Chicago Mural Group, an inter-ethnic, inter-racial
artists¹ group, dedicated to community based public art. He continues
as an active member and board member of its continuation, the Chicago
Public Art Group.
Most of his public work is highly collaborative, often co-leading
projects with a colleague while also involving neighborhood residents,
especially youth. In recent years, he has worked collaboratively with
Nina Smoot Cain, Bernard Williams, and (Brazilian born) Mirtes
Zwierzynski.
His interest in Latin America and involvement with Latino communities
dates to his highschool years in New York City, an interest he renewed
in Chicago, starting in 1970 and continues today.
He has led over thirty community public art projects in Chicago, Los
Angeles, rural Georgia, New York City, Paris, and LaRochelle, France,
and Managua, Nicaragua, including painted murals, concrete reliefs,
sculptures, broken tile mosaics and most recently, carved brick. He
has lectured and led workshops in Mexico, France, the UK, and Belgium.
Photos of his public work have appeared in four international
exhibits, a dozen books, and over 100 other publications.
Weber has also written on public art issues. His book, TOWARD A
PEOPLES ART, co-authored with the late Eva Cockcroft, is the classic
account of the early years of the contemporary mural movement. Written
over 20 years ago, it is again available in a new edition, from the
University of New Mexico Press, 1998, with a new forward by Lucy
Lippard and framing essays by Ben Keppel and Tim Drescher.
Together with his colleague, Nina Smoot Cain, he has been selected by
Spencer, Iowa, (population 12,000) for the prestigious national
program, "Artists and Communities 2000, America Creates for the
Millenium." They will be leading the creation of mosaics for a
landmark plaza they have designed for the entry to the downtown area.
He is the father of four sons. His wife, Elsa, teaches child-development and trains teachers at a branch of Purdue
University.