Stories by Marc Vitali

The sudden loss of Prince has the world talking. We hear from the Chicago photographer who took iconic pictures of Prince before he was a superstar.

As a guitarist, singer and songwriter, Toronzo Cannon drives the sound of Chicago blues from the city to blues clubs and festivals around the world.

We take a peek inside the mind – and bedroom – of Vincent Van Gogh in an exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago that runs through May 10.

Meet the Dutch artist and engineer who makes giant beach animals out of plastic tubing as we revisit his exhibition at the Chicago Cultural Center – a harmonious union of art and engineering, imagination and reality that's open through May 1.

Acclaimed Midwestern photographer Kenneth Josephson has created innovative pictures of Chicago from the 1950s until the 21st century. We take a look at the man behind the lens and his conceptual photography.

We get perspective on the business of interviewing from Mark Bazer, host of "The Interview Show," which airs Friday nights on WTTW starting this week.

“Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin” returns to Chicago’s Royal George Theatre this week. Pianist and actor Hershey Felder joins us in conversation and performance to demonstrate the timeless appeal of the great American songwriter. 

Paintings of Chicago by Robert Guinan, who died Saturday, are sought after in Europe and have been exhibited in Rome, Vienna and Paris.

Chicago Sun-Times theater critic Hedy Weiss appraises the first performance staged in the recently opened Writers Theatre and the humorous one-man show, “Where Did We Sit on the Bus?” Get her take on these plays and others on currently on stage in Chicago. 

Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland meets with Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, despite the GOP leadership's refusal to meet with an Obama nominee. We speak with WBEZ's Tony Arnold on the implications of this first courtesy call to a Republican senator.

In the Loop, a photographic feast is now being served. To celebrate its 40th anniversary, the Museum of Contemporary Photography combed its archives to find the pictures that best reflect the character of the museum. What they found were dramatic images from the 19th century to the 21st.

In 1958 a Navy sailor from Chicago was briefly onshore in Cuba while the revolution was underway. The sailor, named George Klauba, became first a tattoo artist and then a painter. For years now, he has focused his artistic energy on remembering a moment in history and putting his dreamlike impressions on canvas.

We take a peek inside the mind – and bedroom – of Vincent Van Gogh in the latest exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago. 

A prominent work of art has been out of the public eye for almost five years. Titled “Above and Beyond,” the installation commemorates American soldiers who lost their lives in the Vietnam War, and it's now back on display at the Harold Washington Library.

Toronzo Cannon is just your typical CTA bus driver who moonlights as a sought-after Chicago blues musician. As a guitarist, singer and songwriter, he drives the sound of Chicago blues from the city to blues clubs and festivals around the world.

Dionne Warwick stops by to reminisce about a WTTW "Soundstage" recording from 1980 – and what it's like to see an actress portray her on stage.

Art and science intersect at an historic – and controversial – look at race. Tour the exhibition "Looking at Ourselves: Rethinking the Sculptures of Malvina Hoffman."

Surrealism is the focus of a show at the Museum of Contemporary Art. We'll get a tour of the weird and the wonderful.

It is a harmonious union of art and engineering, imagination and reality. Dutch artist Theo Jansen is a kind of Dr. Frankenstein, giving life to inanimate objects. His massive creations arrived this month at the Chicago Cultural Center, and “Chicago Tonight” spoke with the artist on the eve of his first exhibition in the city.

In the 1950s, a loose affiliation of Chicago artists haunted by World War II tried to capture emotional intensity in their creations. Dubbed "The Monster Roster," a collection of their work is on display at the Smart Museum of Art on the campus of the University of Chicago. We take a tour.

The new, original PBS show “Mercy Street” is a sprawling Civil War drama set in a hotel in Alexandria, Virgina that has been commandeered by the Union Army as a hospital. The six-episode series blends fiction with historical settings in a town where Confederate and Union soldiers mingled with a slaves and free people. We talk with two of the show's producers. 

A yearlong international arts festival underway in Chicago celebrates the legacy of William Shakespeare and commemorates the 400 years since his death. Barbara Gaines of Chicago Shakespeare Theater and Anthony Freud of Lyric Opera Chicago join us to discuss the festival and the Bard’s legacy.

In the Loop, a photographic feast is now being served. To celebrate its 40th anniversary, the Museum of Contemporary Photography combed its archives to find the pictures that best reflect the character of the museum. What they found were dramatic images from the 19th century to the 21st.