Drawing

Chicago’s School of Representational Art offers a classical art education in a modern world. by Mark G. Mitchell Tartanby Steve Ohlrich, 1999, charcoal and pastel on white paper, 25 x 19. On the top floor of an old factory warehouse in the arts district that lies just north of the Chicago River, art students work on charcoal renderings of plaster casts. They plug away in small individual cubicles that are swathed in black fabric. Jet-black curtains surround the classroom. The isolation is for focus. The curtains cut down on reflected light so the students can see the values correctly in…