The Convergence of Form and Conscience Irving Petlin was far more than a mere practitioner of fine art; he was a profound witness to the turbulent shifts of the twentieth century, a painter whose brush was moved by both aesthetic innovation and an unwavering political pulse. Born in Chicago in 1934, his early years were steeped in the energetic and often surreal currents of Chicago Imagism, a movement that would later inform his deep e…