Tristan Meinecke

[1] His widely varied body of work explored abstract expressionism, cubism and Surrealism, and included the invention of the split-level painting technique.

[2][3] In collaboration with architect Robert Bruce Tague, Meinecke built and rehabilitated many properties in and around Lincoln Park, Chicago.

[3] After attending the University of Michigan for four years, when he was just a few credit hours short of earning a bachelor's degree,[5] he relocated to Chicago in 1942.

There, Tristan Meinecke met and wooed Lorraine Johnson, better known as television and radio actress Angel Casey.

[8] However, the majority of his creative efforts fell into three categories: visual arts (including painting and sculpture), architecture and music.

By 1955, Meinecke had already abandoned the watercolor medium and developed his own abstract style: a creative use of mixed media and intentional exploration beyond the boundaries of conventional composition, which Fred Sweet, then-curator of American painting at the Art Institute, praised as "very strong and powerful and dynamic".

[9] That year, one of his mixed-media compositions was included in the Art Institute's Chicago and Vicinity Show.,[12] which brought him further into the public eye.

[24][25] In 1975, a chance encounter with Meinecke's son brought Chicago Surrealists Penelope and Franklin Rosemont into the artist's studio.

This serendipitous meeting resulted in a lifelong friendship,[6] and incidentally Meinecke's inclusion in the Chicago Surrealist Group's 1976 exhibition, entitled "Marvelous Freedom - Vigilance of Desire".

"Heterogeneous Icons", his last show while still living, was co-curated by John Corbett (writer) and experimental musician Hal Rammel,[27] and held at the Art Institute's 1926 gallery in 2003.

[5] Since he was entirely self-taught, Meinecke needed a licensed architect to sign off on the plans he created, and an acquaintance got him in touch with former Keck associate Robert Bruce Tague.

When his father gave him a clarinet as a gift at the age of 19, he took a few lessons to learn basic fingerings, then immediately began to play by ear and to improvise.

[5] Though he did not self-identify as a Surrealist, in part because the movement was political as well as artistic,[5] he had great respect for it, saying Surrealism had "a profoundly democratic tendency".

Instead, he had a very specific vision of the direction in which American culture was headed: "you will all go screaming and howling and spinning into the horrible eternity of continuous entertainment, madly grasping at dizzily whirling three-foot red letters which still spell security and truth to your frenzied flock."