The Scene of the Crime: Warrington Colescott Depicts Dillinger

May 24 – September 6, 2009

Warrington Colescott
The Death of Dillinger, 1964
Color etching
Racine Art Museum, Gift of Karen Johnson Boyd
Photography: Michael Tropea, Chicago

RAM marked the release of the film Public Enemies with an exhibition of prints, based on the exploits of John Dillinger, by internationally recognized Wisconsin artist Warrington Colescott. On November 20, 1933, the legendary gangster of the Depression, John Dillinger robbed the bank that once occupied the Racine Art Museum building. The Scene of the Crime commemorates this historic event.

Featuring the exploits of fabled Depression era outlaw Dillinger, this exhibition of graphics is drawn from RAM’s extensive holdings of work by the Wisconsin printmaker, Warrington Colescott. In the 1960s, Colescott created a series of etchings based on stories he heard about John Dillinger. Many of these prints were in RAM’s collection before the new museum opened on the site in 2003. For added interest, the show was displayed in a space adjacent to one of the bank’s original vaults, still intact inside RAM and rarely seen by the public.

More About the Exhibition

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