(Chicago, Illinois, 1958- )
Lives and works in Chicago
Tony Fitzpatrick is a story-teller,
and has done several hundred portraits of subjects who are most always
misunderstood, disadvantaged victims or underdogs. Fitzpatrick is
often drawn to subjects who, though once heroes and remarkable talents,
are also fraught with ordinary human frailties. Indeed, James "Cool
Papa" Bell (1901-1991) was one of the greatest baseball players
that ever lived, known for his remarkable speed and judgment as a
base runner and his prowess as perhaps the greatest lead-off hitter
in the history of the sport. Fitzpatrick met Bell in St. Louis in
1990, seeing him then as a victim of racist exclusion from Major
League Baseball as much as he was a great athlete. Bell died in 1991,
soon after this work was finished. |
