Windy City (Snow Storm)

Windy City (Snow Storm) — Emil Armin. 1928.

Medium: Linocut in black ink on cream Japanese paper. Dimensions: Image: 23.1 × 17.7 cm (9 1/8 × 7 in.); Sheet: 27 × 21.2 cm (10 11/16 × 8 3/8 in.).

Collection record: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

Born in Romania to a devout Jewish family, Armin emigrated to America in 1905, settling in Chicago. In 1913 he visited the controversial Armory Show when it was exhibited at the Art Institute, and he fell under the sway of European and American modernism. In Windy City (Snow Storm) we can barely comprehend the policeman crossing the street. In a visual pun on Chicago’s nickname, a man loses his hat to a forceful gust of wind and two women are almost obscured by the heavy snowfall.

Description: © Art Institute of Chicago, original record, CC BY 4.0. HTML formatting removed; wording retained. Other artwork metadata: CC0.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.