FEATURE image: Joan Miró, Joan Miró’s Chicago (sometimes Miss Chicago), steel reinforced-concrete, colored ceramics, 1967, Brunswick Building Plaza, 69 W. Washington Street, Chicago. Joan Miró’s Chicago is the Spanish artist’s only monumental sculpture. It embodies the artist’s lifelong commitment to Dada-inspired experimentation, independence, and the transformation of ordinary forms into poetic, imaginative symbols. The sculpture translates Miró’s playful visual language into monumental scale while demonstrating how his art challenged conventional ideas of representation and accepted artistic rules. The sculpture also serves as a landmark expression of Miró’s unique artistic vision within Chicago’s civic landscape. Positioned near the Chicago Picasso, the work brings European modernism into a major American city while remaining distinctly Miró in its combination of female imagery, found-object associations, ceramic color, and dreamlike symbolism. July 2015. 7.04 mb. Author’s photograph.
Joan Miró (1893-1983) is a Catalan who is a major dadaist artist “Dada” is a nonsense word but its artistic movement that started around 1915 in Zürich, Switzerland, has brought into existence many famous artworks by a range of artists. As World War I raged on in Europe between 1914 and 1918, young artists and intellectuals reacted with art, performance, and poetry that was radically experimental, dissident and anarchic. These artists countered the horrors of the war and capitalist culture by moving past a degradation of art to contributing to an anti-art under the banner of “dada.” These ideas and ideals of dada quickly spread to the art capitals of Paris and New York – and beyond.
Joan Miró’s Chicago is the artist’s first monumental sculpture in the world.
Joan Miró’s Chicago is in this dada milieu as it sits in the Brunswick Building Plaza, directly across Washington Street from another Spanish artist’s 50-foot-tall Cor-Ten steel sculpture from the same time (1967): Chicago’s Picasso in Daley Plaza. Miró’s sculpture expresses the neck, bustline, and slim and wasp-waisted hips of a woman’s torso with outstretched arms and a simplified head. She is made of steel-reinforced concrete with brightly colored ceramics that are added to the scooped-out hem of her skirt. Like other of Miró’s sculptures of female figures from the 1950s, the shape of the skirt is that of an overturned broad-lipped cup or chalice. The bronze, crown-like headdress is like the dadaist found objects that populated Miró’s artwork whether paintings, sculptures, ceramics and more throughout his career. Joan Miró’s Chicago possesses qualities evocative of primitive fertility or earth goddesses similar to those found in the ancient Mediterranean world.
One of Dada’s major sculptural forms to emerge and which was masterly accomplished by Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), was the “readymade” which used familiar mass-produced objects (i.e., ceramic urinals, household tools, etc.) for high art pieces. The dada expression of the readymade increasingly asked the viewer to take seriously these consumer items and found objects as high art on an equal platform with lofty traditional productions of a monied arts establishment.
Dadaists experimented boldly with new media such as collage (Jean Arp, 1886-1966), airbrushed photography (Man Ray, 1890-1976) and nonsensical poetry (Hugo Ball, 1886-1927). These art forms freely combined as well as crossed over its categories, i.e., nonsensical poetry interpreted in performance art.
Joan Miró, Barcelona, June 13, 1935, by Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964). Public Domain. This work is from the Carl Van Vechten Photographs collection at the Library of Congress. According to the library, there are no known copyright restrictions on the use of this work. As the restrictions on this collection expired in 1986, the Library of Congress believes this image is in the public domain. The Carl Van Vechten estate has asked that use of Van Vechten’s photographs “preserve the integrity” of his work, i.e, that photographs not be colorized or cropped, and that proper credit is given to the photographer which is the photograph here.
Radical Independence: Miró’s Defiance of the Visible World
Miró’s art refuses to accept the world as it is, explicitly rejecting not only academic dogma but the corporate mechanics of an art market that demands commodified objects for dealers and rapid sales. In the 1930s and 1940s, he bypassed this commercial conveyor belt by constructing loose, playful assemblages from deliberately un-marketable materials like paper, twine, and toothbrushes, later incorporating organic objects such as stones and raw fruit. While many of these fragile compositions were lost to time or destruction, they established a vital philosophical foundation for his work. Miró chose not to transform or repurpose his found objects—whether bells, jars, or vases; instead, by leaving them entirely unaltered, he preserved what he termed their inherent “magical powers.” This deliberate randomness seamlessly filters into his more permanent creations across painting, ceramics, plaster, and bronze, calculated by the artist to reflect nature’s promiscuous progeny. By rejecting established aesthetic conventions, Miró pursued a fierce independence guided by intuition rather than a rigid, market-driven blueprint. His slow, deliberate creative process improbably marries disparate, recognizable forms into singular entities that transcend a single classification, ultimately birthing an artistic realm that does not always belong to this world.
Miró’s Chicago with Chicago’s columned City Hall in background. Author’s photograph. July 2015. 5.77mb DSC_0308 (1)
Though Miró completed a maquette of the sculpture in 1967 (called Project for a Monument for Barcelona), its production into a 40-foot sculpture was delayed until 1979. The hundreds of thousands of dollars for the production and installation of Joan Miró’s Chicago were provided by a private-public partnership in Chicago with the completed piece installed on April 20, 1981, the artist’s 88th birthday.
By translating his early, ephemeral anti-corporate assemblages into a massive, 40-foot public monument made of concrete, bronze, and vibrant ceramic tiles, Miró effectively dragged his intuitive, uncommercialized worldview out of the studio and private galleries and forced it into the heart of a corporate, concrete skyline. Instead of generating an elite luxury commodity to be traded by dealers, he donated his design to the people, erecting a monumental, cosmic earth-deity right on the pavement to ensure that nature’s untamed “promiscuous progeny” would directly disrupt the rigid architecture of the everyday financial world.
SOURCES:
Artland Magazine. “What Is Dadaism?” Accessed June 29, 2023. https://magazine.artland.com/what-is-dadaism/. Bach, Ira J., and Mary Lackritz Gray. A Guide to Chicago Public Sculpture. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1983. Mink, Janis. Joan Miró. Cologne: Taschen, 2006. Weelen, Guy. Miró. Translated by Robert Erich Wolf. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1989.
FEATURE Image: The Worker, Willow Springs, Illinois. June 2018. Author’s photograph 6mb.The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) stands as one of the most successful and far-reaching initiatives of FDR’s New Deal, providing vital economic relief during the Great Depression while leaving a permanent legacy of environmental conservation and infrastructural development that is beautifully commemorated today by The Worker statue in Willow Springs, Illinois.
FDR’s “Tree Army” Arrives in Illinois
The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a cornerstone program of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, engineered to combat the devastating economic and social effects of the Great Depression. Affectionately dubbed “Mr. Roosevelt’s Tree Army,” the initiative established over 50 camps and launched more than 1,000 special projects across Illinois.
The camp at Willow Springs was among the very first wave of camps established under FDR’s vision. According to the Civilian Conservation Corps Legacy, Camp Chicago-Lemont, Company 612 officially opened its doors in Willow Springs on June 4, 1933.
Commemorating the Legacy of Company 612
To honor the unwavering dedication and work ethic of the young men—aged 17 to 28—who served in the CCC, a commemorative monument was dedicated on June 3, 2001. This larger-than-life bronze sculpture, titled The Worker, stands proudly at the intersection of Archer Avenue (Route 171) and Willow Boulevard in the Willow Springs Woods. Today, it serves as a striking local landmark and stands as one of many identical tribute statues scattered across the American landscape to honor the enduring spirit of the CCC.
A Blueprint for Economic Relief
As one of the New Deal’s most successful “alphabet soup” agencies, the CCC served a critical, multi-faceted purpose. Its immediate motivation was to combat staggering national unemployment rates that soared to 25% following the catastrophic Wall Street crash of October 1929. By providing meaningful manual labor jobs to young men, the program injected vital financial relief directly into struggling families who had spent years facing severe economic hardship.
Established on June 4, 1933, Civilian Conservation Corps Legacy, Camp Chicago-Lemont, Company 612 was one of the nation’s very first CCC camps located in Willow Springs, Illinois.
The Worker portrays a young man standing firmly atop a stone plinth in a setting of forest greenery. He is depicted with a muscular, bare chest, rolled-up work trousers, and heavy boots, capturing the demanding nature of manual field labor required for $30 a month government salary. In his right hand, he holds a standard planting spade or shovel resting on the ground, while his left hand holds a cloth work cap against his hip. His facial expression is determined and forward-looking, wearing a wide-brimmed campaign hat. June 2018. Author’s photograph. 6mb DSC_9132 (1)
This specific monument—dedicated on June 3, 2001—stands as a lasting local and national reminder of how manual civic labor rescued a generation of American boys from urban poverty while structurally rebuilding the country’s natural landscape. June 2018. Author’s photograph. 12.87mb.
CCC plaque, Willow Springs, Illinois. June 2013. Author’s photograph. 3.33mb
Life in the Camps and the $30 Promise
As the program expanded, camps quickly proliferated across every state in the nation. Over its nine years and three months of operation, the CCC employed upwards of three million young men. In exchange for their manual conservation labor, enrollees received essential provisions: food, clothing, lodging, and both medical and dental care.
They were also given a paycheck of $30 a month (equivalent to roughly $600 today), with a strict legal caveat: $25 of that sum had to be sent directly home to support their struggling families. Each camp housed around 200 men. While the lifestyle was notoriously basic and disciplined, for most enrollees, it was a far better alternative to panhandling on city streets. Consequently, the program enjoyed immense public and bipartisan support.
FDR during a presidential radio broadcast in 1933. Library of Congress. Public Domain.
The First 100 Days and the Mobilization of a Nation
The legislative foundation for the program began during the famous Emergency Session of the 73rd Congress, which FDR called on March 9, 1933, just days after taking office. Roosevelt boldly promised that if granted emergency powers, he would mobilize 250,000 men into field camps by the end of July. Senate Bill S. 598 was introduced on March 27, passed both houses swiftly, and was signed into law on March 31—less than a month into FDR’s first term.
The initiative faced early friction from Big Labor leaders, who worried this massive influx of non-union workers would undercut the private job market. Undeterred, the Roosevelt administration went ahead with a peacetime mobilization of men, materials, and transportation on a scale never before seen in American history. On April 15, 1933, Executive Order 6101 officially authorized the program, appointing labor leader Robert Fechner as its first director. Backed by an advisory council spanning the War, Labor, Agriculture, and Interior departments, the CCC became a hallmark achievement of FDR’s legendary “First 100 Days.”
Transforming the American Landscape
Operating primarily on public and government-owned rural lands, the federal program left a permanent environmental and physical mark on the country. CCC workers are widely credited with saving and renewing America’s decimated timberlands, planting an astonishing three billion trees between 1933 and 1942. Simultaneously, their labor laid the groundwork for modern infrastructure by building parks, fire towers, and access roads where none had existed before.
Despite its overwhelming popularity, the CCC came to an abrupt end following the attack on Pearl Harbor and America’s entry into World War II. With the establishment of the military draft and the rapid wartime mobilization of domestic manufacturing, the economic need for government-subsidized labor relief evaporated. By mid-1942, the final CCC camps were dismantled or repurposed as training grounds for the U.S. Army.
A Lasting Legacy in Illinois
With the exceptions of Social Security and the Rural Electrification Act, few New Deal programs have matched the profound, long-term influence of the CCC. In Illinois alone, the historical impact remains staggering. Over 92,000 men served within the state’s borders. Through their hard work, they successfully planted an estimated 60 million trees, constructed 400 bridges, cleared 1,200 miles of public trails, and installed nearly 5,000 flood-control structures that continue to shape the state’s parks and forest preserves today.
The historical setting of The Worker statue in Willow Springs, Illinois, standing as a permanent tribute to the legacy of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). highlights the intersection of public memory, art, and the natural landscape that the CCC boys worked so hard to preserve during the Great Depression.
The Worker statue, Illinois Rte. 171 (Archer Avenue) in Willow Springs, Illinois. June 2013. Author’s photograph. 5.61mb
This exact site commemorates Camp Chicago-Lemont (Company 612), which was officially established on June 4, 1933, as one of the very first emergency New Deal camps in Illinois. The rustic limestone wall holding up the statue is highly symbolic. Constructing stone retaining walls, bridges, and erosion-control barriers was exactly the type of heavy manual labor the CCC boys performed across the state’s forest preserves.
McDonald, Jerry. “The Story of the CCC and Its Legacy in Illinois.” Illinois Country Living Magazine, January 2018. Accessed May 16, 2023. https://icl.coop/story-ccc-legacy-illinois/.
FEATURE image: The large bronze statue was the first prominent public depiction of the 16th U.S. president as a young adult man. June 2017. Author’s photograph. 4.70mb.
Capt. A. Lincoln stands watch over the Rock River in Dixon, Illinois. Unveiled in 1930 on the historic grounds of Fort Dixon, Leonard Crunelle’s statue captures a 23-year-old Lincoln during his frontier deployment in the 1832 Black Hawk War. Enlisting in the Illinois Volunteers on April 21, Lincoln served through consecutive re-enlistments as both a captain and a private before officially mustering out on July 10, 1832. June 2017. Author’s photograph. 8.26mb.
The Changing Illinois Frontier
In the early 1830s, Illinois marked the edge of the American frontier, existing virtually as an untamed wilderness. By the end of the 1820s, treaties with the federal government had forced the expulsion of most Native American tribes from the state’s northern tier, which had been established in 1818.
This displacement rapidly transformed the landscape. A massive wave of Eastern settlers arrived throughout the 1840s and 1850s, bringing ambitious commercial infrastructure in their wake. Driven by newly carved transportation canals and an expansive network of railroads, these projects successfully connected the American Midwest to global markets and sparked an era of industrial prosperity.
Lincoln’s Early Military Service
Abraham Lincoln was 21 years old when he arrived in Illinois in 1830, having moved with his family from Indiana. By 1832, the 23-year-old was living in New Salem when the Black Hawk War erupted. Lincoln enlisted in the Illinois Volunteers on April 21, 1832, near Richland Creek in Sangamon County—roughly halfway between New Salem and Springfield.
The very next day, he mustered into state service 40 miles west at Beardstown on the Illinois River. Standing an imposing 6 feet 4 inches tall, Lincoln was elected captain of his company, a leadership position he later noted left him both surprised and deeply proud.
From Captain to Private
On May 3, 1832, Lincoln officially mustered into U.S. military service near Janesville, Wisconsin. His initial term expired on May 27 in Ottawa, Wisconsin, without Lincoln ever firing a single shot in combat.
Undeterred, he immediately re-enlisted that same afternoon as a private in Captain Iles’ company. When that brief stint concluded, he signed on yet again, serving under Captain Early. Lincoln’s frontier military campaign finally drew to a close on July 10, 1832, when he officially mustered out at Whitewater, Wisconsin.
Capt. A. Lincoln 1832. Dixon, Illinois. The 6-foot-4-inch Lincoln was elected captain, a position he said he was both surprised and proud to receive. June 2017. Author’s photograph. 6.87mb.
Sculpting the Young President: Leonard Crunelle (1872–1944).
During his deployments, young Lincoln was stationed at Fort Dixon on the Rock River in Lee County, Illinois. Today, that exact historic ground is home to a heroic-sized bronze statue unveiled in late September 1930. The monument was crafted by French-born sculptor Leonard Crunelle (1872–1944).
The Old Settlers’ Memorial Log Cabin in Young Captain Lincoln Statue Park on the north bank of the Rock River in Dixon, Illinois. While the cabin itself was built later in 1894 as a collective monument to honor the region’s early pioneers, it stands as a perfect architectural representation of the rugged, hand-hewn log structures that defined the Illinois frontier during the early 1830s. The site holds deep historical significance, as it rests directly on the former grounds of Fort Dixon, where a 23-year-old Abraham Lincoln was stationed a a young volunteer in the Illinois National Guard during the Black Hawk War of 1832. Originally established as a ferry service and trading post by a settler named John “Father” Dixon, the location was rapidly fortified into a military base by General Henry Atkinson in May 1832. It became a critical strategic hub connecting various frontier outposts, temporarily hosting young Abraham Lincoln as well as historical figures such as Winfield Scott, Zachary Taylor, and Jefferson Davis. June 2017. Author’s photograph. 6.75 mb.
View of the Rock River in Dixon, Illinois, from the grounds of Lincoln Statue Park—the former location of Fort Dixon where young Abraham Lincoln served in the state militia. Across the river is the dome of the Lee County Courthouse dome in Dixon, Illinois. PHOTO: “Rock River Fall_03” by markellis_1964 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Crunelle’s immigrant family had immigrated to Illinois in 1889, settling in Decatur. While working in the local coal mines, Crunelle began shaping fired clay sculptures. His raw talent eventually caught the attention of prominent American sculptor Lorado Taft, who brought the young artist to Chicago to study at the Art Institute.
The artist Leonard Crunelle (1872–1944) stands with the heroic-sized clay model ofLincoln the Debater in his studio before its 1929 dedication in Freeport, Illinois. The following year, Crunelle sculpted Capt. A. Lincoln for Dixon, Illinois—capturing an even younger portrait of the president. Scaled bronze replicas of both historic masterworks now decorate the interior corridors of Lincoln’s Tomb in Springfield. Public Domain.
Lorado Taft made his Black Hawk statue monument in 1911 in Oregon, Illinois, also on the Rock River about 16 miles upstream from Dixon, Illinois. It is part of the area that saw action during the Black Hawk War in 1832 and led to the complete surrender and expulsion of the last Native American group in Illinois. “Black Hawk (aka ‘The Eternal Indian’)” by Dan Brekke is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.
A Milestone in Presidential Iconography
Crunelle’s Capt. A. Lincoln monument stands as a groundbreaking milestone in presidential artwork. While Lincoln frequently expressed pride in his brief military experience during his subsequent legal and political careers, traditional monuments rarely highlighted this era.
Though Crunelle had achieved acclaim for his 1929 statue Lincoln the Debater in Freeport, Illinois, his Dixon monument took a much bolder step backward in time. By capturing a 23-year-old soldier starting his public life, Crunelle introduced an entirely fresh, untapped chapter to the Great Emancipator’s ever-expanding public iconology.
The bronze plaque on the backside of the Capt. A. Lincoln statue base in Dixon, Illinois, details Abraham Lincoln’s 1832 Black Hawk War military record. Erected by the State of Illinois in 1930, the tablet stands on the historic site of the Fort Dixon block house.
The inscription lists the exact dates of Lincoln’s transitions from a volunteer private to an elected Captain, his subsequent re-enlistments under Captains Iles and Early, and his final discharge at Whitewater, Wisconsin. The bottom roster immortalizes the Fort Dixon Memorial Commission, highlighting prominent Illinois figures of the era, including Chicago sculptor Lorado Taft and the monument’s creator, Leonard Crunelle. June 2017. Author’s photograph. 9mb
FEATURE Image: Alexander Calder’s Flamingo successfully transforms Chicago’s Federal Center Plaza by humanizing, energizing, and completing Mies van der Rohe’s austere modernist architectural ensemble through color, scale, movement, and sculptural form. Author’s photograph. June 2022. 7.73 mb
Alexander Calder’s Flamingo was unveiled on October 25, 1974, in a dedication ceremony with the artist. Alongside Picasso and Cloud Gate, it is one of Chicago’s iconic outdoor public artworks.
In downtown Chicago’s Federal Center Plaza on South Dearborn Street between Adams Street and Jackson Boulevard is Alexander Calder’s 53-foot-tall painted steel plate “stabile object” entitled Flamingo. The Chicago Federal Center was completed in 1974 with Calder’s artwork. The design project began in 1958 and included three International-style government buildings by modernist architect Mies van der Rohe (1886-1969) within a public plaza design that was completed in 1974. Flamingo, commissioned after Mies’ death for $250,000 by the Government Services Administration, was unveiled on October 25, 1974 with the 76-year-old Calder present for its dedication ceremonies and festivities. With the commission Calder understood the significant impact of his artwork for the Federal Center Plaza in Chicago.
Calder’s prolific and impressive art career started in the early 1920s. Fifty years later, Flamingo (a.k.a., “the Calder”) in Chicago’s historic Federal Center Plaza is a later work, whose maquette Calder made before it was intended for Chicago.
During his artistic career’s many decades and years, Calder never stopped developing in his art. The 1974 steel sculpture painted red-orange is four stories tall and makes a powerful impact on the streetscape where it is an integral part. Along with Chicago’s Picasso in 1967 and Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate (“the Bean”) in 2004, Calder’s Flamingo in 1974 has taken its well-deserved place among Chicago’s most iconic outdoor public artworks.
From the inventor of the mobile, Calder turned later to the development of the stabile of which Flamingo is a masterwork. Starting in the mid1950s and into the 1970’s, Calder produced scores of stabiles in many shapes and sizes for display around the world.
“Most architects and city planners want to put my objects in front of trees or greenery. They make a huge error. My mobiles and stabiles ought to be placed in free spaces, like public squares, or in front of modern buildings, and that is true of all contemporary sculpture” – Alexander Calder. Quoted in Jed Perl, Calder: The Conquest of Space: The Later Years: 1940–1976 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2020).
June 2022. Author’s photograph. 7.24 mb
Above: On the west side of Clark Street between Adams Street and Jackson Boulevard—visible directly behind Alexander Calder’s Flamingo sculpture—the prominent structures are from left to right: The Commercial Office Building located at 118 South Clark Street (directly tucked between the Bankers Building and Jackson Boulevard)—was completed in 1920 and designed by the prolific Chicago architectural firm Holabird & Roche, Willis Tower in the distance, The Bankers Building (105 West Adams Street, completed in 1927 by the Burnham Brothers, a 476-foot Art Deco masterpiece featuring characteristic deep light courts and upper-tier setbacks), and, on the other side of Adams Street, The Field Building at 140 S. Clark. Completed in 1934 by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White, it stands as one of the finest premier masterpieces of Art Deco skyscraper design in the entire United States. A corner slice of the Edison Building is also pictured.
Titled Flamingo, the towering abstracted “Calder red” painted stabile object can evoke reactions to it that are unexpected. Calder’s stabile masterwork was unveiled in October 1974 which was the same year the Sears Tower (in the background) was completed, and which was at that time the world’s tallest building (today it is ranked no. 26). From Federal Center Plaza, Chicago’s 20th century architectural history is readily on display in its downtown buildings in a range of shapes, sizes, textures and design styles.
The work’s vivid red color and sweeping curves contrast with Mies van der Rohe’s black steel-and-glass buildings.
May 2014. Author’s photograph. 3.28 mb
Because of its monumental size, Flamingo can be intimidating. Actual flamingo shorebirds vary in size, but none are no more than 3 to 5 feet tall, and weigh about 5 to 7 pounds. At 53 feet tall, Calder’s immense stabile in Chicago is about the size of a giant sauropod dinosaur which would weigh around 60 tons.
“It’s really just for differentiation, but I love red so much that I almost want to paint everything red” – Alexander Calder. Katharine Kuh, The Artist’s Voice: Talks with Seventeen Artists (New York: Harper & Row, 1962).
November 2015. Author’s photograph. 260kb 25%
Alexander Calder trained and worked as a mechanical engineer before he became an artist. The graceful design and construction of Flamingo is expressed by nearly one-inch-thick steel plates buttressed by ribs and gussets joined overhead by lofty arches and resting on three legs as if it is nearly weightless. Even his largest stabiles (of which Flamingo is one) are made so they can be easily unbolted and taken apart to be transported and assembled at the place of destination.
Calder’s Flamingo demonstrates how monumental public sculpture can become an active architectural partner, transforming a formal modernist plaza into a more dynamic, accessible, and memorable civic space.
May 2014. Author’s photograph. 4.82 mb
In Federal Center Plaza is a complex of three buildings of varying scales by Mies van der Rohe: the broad 30-floor Everett McKinley Dirksen Building at 219 S. Dearborn Street completed in 1964 (at right), the lean 45-floor John C. Kluczynski Building at 230 S. Dearborn Street completed in 1974 (not pictured), and the single-story U.S. Post Office building at 219 S. Clark Street (not pictured). Calder’s Flamingo sits on its three pillars like a lunar lander that reflects the arcaded bases of Mies van der Rohe’s buildings that surround it as well as provide a sweeping contrast of curves and bright stand-out color against the surrounding modernist buildings’ monochrome glass-and-steel grid appearance. Calder’s artwork achieved more than the sum of these parts – it transformed Mies’ overall somber architectural trio into a more dramatic and complex quartet that included Calder’s art. The 30-story Dirksen Building is across Dearborn Street.
Flamingo by Alexander Calder is a masterwork stabile in Chicago’s downtown. Its monumental scale remains approachable because pedestrians can walk around, beneath, and through it.
May 2013. Author’s photograph. 3.60 mb 102_0480 (1)
November 2015. Author’s photograph. 484 kb 25%
Above: Calder’s Flamingo after dark with the one-story Post Office illumined within behind it (above). Alexander Calder deliberately placed the sculpture in an open urban setting where contemporary sculpture could interact with modern architecture.
June 2022. Author’s photograph. 6.87mb
Above: Calder’s stabile is one of the most monumental public art commissions in Chicago. Flamingo’s height and breadth (it fills a space of about 1440 square feet) achieves a largesse that does not forgo a human scale as it allows pedestrians to freely walk around, under and through it. The 45-story Kluczynski Building is at left.
November 2015. Author’s photograph. 3.77mb
Above: Flamingo lighted at night in late November where there is already a snow pile on the sidewalk in Chicago’s Federal Center Plaza presaging the Chicago winter. In summer months there is a regular farmer’s market on the Federal Center Plaza. It is also the location for a variety of political gatherings year-round. The Kluczynski Building is behind.
Rather than functioning as an isolated object, the sculpture changes how viewers experience the entire Federal Center complex.
October 2015. Author’s photograph. 3.90mb.
Above: Alexander Calder’s Flamingo (1974) sits in Federal Plaza designed by modernist architect Mies Van Der Rohe. Behind it is Mies’ 45-floor John C. Kluczynski Building at 230 S. Dearborn Street and on a sunny east side of South Dearborn his 30-story Dirksen Federal Courthouse. Moving south across Jackson Boulevard is the 5-story 33 West Jackson Boulevard building built in 1910 (with additions/remodels stretching through 1917). Next to it is The Standard Club at 321 South Dearborn Street built in 1926 and designed by Albert Kahn. The Fisher Building (1896) at 343 South Dearborn Street and its annex is next further south. Designed by D.H. Burnham & Company, it was completed in 1896. The Old Colony building on the other side of the L tracks was built between 1893 and 1894, When it officially topped out, the 17-story, 215-foot high-rise briefly held the title of the tallest building in Chicago. It was designed by the legendary architectural firm of Holabird & Roche. The framework was engineered by Corydon T. Purdy who designed it with a highly advanced, pioneering skeletal steel-frame structure that carries the entirety of the building’s massive weight allowing the exterior features absolutely no self-supporting walls.
In October 1974 Alexander Calder was in Chicago for a “Calder Festival” where two of his major works were being dedicated – Flamingo for Federal Center Plaza (depicted above with the Kluczynski Building) and Universe, a motorized mural for the Sears Tower. Reflecting the artist’s lifetime interest in circuses, Calder joined in the city’s circus-themed parade in his honor. In another major cultural event in Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art held a large retrospective exhibition of Calder’s art from October to December of 1974.
June 2022. Author’s photograph. 6.20mb
Above: Flamingo sits within a classic Chicago Loop streetscape looking south down South Dearborn Street, framing a beautiful juxtaposition of the city’s architectural evolution. On the left side of the street sits the massive, dark steel-and-glass the Kluczynski Federal Building designed by Mies van der Rohe. On the immediate right foreground is the ornate, reddish-brown stone facade of the Marquette Building (1895). Directly past it rises the colossal, dark brick wall of the Monadnock Building (1891), showcasing its iconic, smooth masonry curves and deep-set bay windows stretching a full block south toward Van Buren Street. In the distant vista is the historic red brick tower of the Old Dearborn Station clock tower (1885) stands out against the sky, acting as a visual anchor at the very end of the street corridor.
May 2024. Author’s photograph. 88% 7.78 mb
Above: This wide angle of federal Plaza frames several historic and modernist landmarks surrounding Alexander Calder’s Flamingo sculpture. These include a portion of John C. Kluczynski Federal Building, Loop Station Post Office, The Commonwealth Edison Building and The Marquette Building.
May 2013. Author’s photograph. 2.80 mb 102_0488 (1)
August 2021. Author’s photograph. 96% 7.91mb DSC_6798
Above: Looking east along West Quincy Street toward Federal Plaza, this view captures a striking convergence of Chicago’s historic and modernist architecture. Framing the corridor is, on the left, a slice of the Rookery Building, completed in 1888 by the firm Burnham & Root, and the Clark Adams Building originally known as the Bankers Building, completed by the Burnam Brothers in 1927. On the right is the Central Standard Building, originally the Continental Illinois National Bank Building, completed in 1924 by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White. Anchoring the vista is the sweeping red curve of Alexander Calder’s Flamingo. Just in front of it stands the transparent glass entrance to the single-story United States Post Office (1973), an integral element of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s original Federal Plaza design. Rising behind the plaza and dominating the upper half of the scene is the John C. Kluczynski Federal Building, Mies’s landmark expression of modernist architecture, creating a dramatic contrast with the richly detailed Art Deco and classical forms that line Quincy Street.
Sources:
Bach, Ira J., and Mary Lackritz Gray. A Guide to Chicago Public Sculpture. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1983.
Jacob Watts, Moose Bubblegum Bubble, 2014, 33 E. Congress, Chicago, 11/2017 5.19 mb
Jacob Watts is a photographer and visual storyteller based in Chicago, Illinois. A graduate of Oswego (Illinois) High School (class of 2008), Watts received his B.F.A. from Columbia College Chicago in 2012. The photo-illustration of a moose blowing bubblegum hangs on a blue wall in the South Loop of Downtown Chicago at a size of 48′ by 43′.
Jacob Watts has been passionate about the medium of photography since before he was a teenager. From the start of his interest in photography, Watts was wholly intrigued by Photoshop. Today the artist creates illustrative and conceptual images with an emphasis on post production. Most of Watts’ work consists of graphic, imaginative, surreal, and composited works from his own images. His current headline work includes images in areas entitled Strangers, Recovery: Movie Posters, Some Time Alone. Portraits, Hvrbrd, Motion, Conceptual, Things are Strange, and Building A Universe.
According to the artist’s website, he is passionate about collaboration and finding creative solutions to exceed expectations. Watts is represented by Catherine Edelman Gallery in Chicago.
In the spring of 2014, Columbia College Chicago’s Wabash Avenue Corridor (WAC) Campus Committee launched a student and alumni competition to install artwork in the heart of the South Loop. Watts’ Moose Bubblegum Bubble was selected as one of the winners.
The scores of educational and cultural projects and programs that WAC advances strengthen the ties between students, artists, curators, academic institutions, cultural organizations and local businesses. Artists and curators from around the world have participated in WAC projects and programs to create murals, performance, installations, actions and large-scale projections that are always free of charge and open to the public.
This public arts program brings together the visual, performing, and other arts and media which are expansive, diverse and accessible so to provide a transformative experience to the many tens of thousands of urbanites who live, work and play in the city on a daily basis.
Starting in 2016 WAC began a focus of “diversity, equity and inclusion,” and developed one of the largest street art and public art collections of women artists and artists of color. This effort continues in 2021.
September 2001. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 70% Progress of Women was completed by artists Larissa Preston Danowitz and Cesar Viveros and collaborators in 2001. At 1307 Locust Street the mural shows work of the New Century Guild to promote women in the workforce. At the top of the mural is the visage of Eliza Turner (1826-1903) who founded the New Century Guild in 1882 and lived in Philadelphia.October 2003. Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. The Renoir-inspired outdoor sculpture (“Dance at Bougival,” 1883, The Boston Museum of Fine Arts) was in conjunction with that year’s exhibition called “The Impressionist Tradition in America.” Closed in 2014, the former museum is today the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design, a part of the George Washington University. November 2017. Crown Fountain, Jaume Plensa [Krueck + Sexton Architects], Millennium Park, Chicago. 368kb 35%October 2015. Chicago. 4.48 mbJune 2018 Chicago. 4.65 mbJuly 2015. Chicago. 4.32 mbMay 2014. Chicago. 4.72 mbJune 2022. Chicago. 7.89 mb 86%December 2013. Chicago. 6.79 mbJune 2022. Chicago (Rogers Park). 4.20 mbJune 2022. Chicago. 7.66 mb 84%June 2022. Chicago 2.38 mb 50%June 2022. Chicago 11.71 mbAugust 2015. Chicago. 7.92 mb 96%August 2018. Chicago. 7.29 mbAugust 2015. Chicago. 5.26 mbOctober 2016. Chicago. Daniel Buren (b. 1938), Attrape-soleil, 2013. 4.49 mb.
Featured on the exterior wall of a building in the Englewood/Morgan Park area located on the South Side of Chicago, three prominent civil rights figures and community leaders are memorialized in this mural created in 2020. Emmett Till (1941–1955) is A 14-year-old Chicago youth whose brutal lynching in Mississippi became a primary catalyst for the American Civil Rights Movement; Breonna Taylor (1993–2020) is a 26-year-old emergency room technician who was fatally shot by police officers in her Louisville, Kentucky home. And Dr. Phoebe Elaine Slaughter-Lenear (1965–2020) is a respected local Chicago educator, humanitarian, and community leader. Created in the midst of the nationwide civil rights protests that summer, the mural was painted as a collaboration by Chicago-based visual artists GNEE ART (@gneeink45) and Calin Bruett, professionally known as JEFF K%NZ (pronounced “Jeff Koonz”).
August 2021. Chicago. 7.23 mb 99%2021. Chicago. 7.82 mb 90%May 2021. Chicago. Cloud Gate (“The Bean”), 2006, Anish Kapoor, Millennium Park. 7.97mb 97%July 2015. Chicago. 7.10 mbMarch 2014. Melrose Park, IL. 4.06mbApril 2013. Chicago. 1.07 mb 40% January 2024. Downers Grove, IL 7.75 mb 97%September 2015. Chicago. 5.82 mbApril 2013. Chicago (Pilsen). 3.46mbApril 2013. Chicago (Pilsen). 4.96mbApril 2013. Chicago (Pilsen). 4.63mbAugust 2024. Chicago. 87% 7.75 mb _1500 (1)October 2016. 99% 7.59 mb DSC_0828November 2017. Chicago. Opened in July 2004, Crown Fountain in Millennium Park was designed by Spanish artist Jaume Plensa (b. 1955) and executed by Krueck and Sexton Architects. 66% 7.91 mb DSC_3423April 2013. Chicago Pilsen. 4.89mb102_0165 (1)July 2015. Chicago 5.66mb DSC_0083 (1)December 2015. Chicago (State Street). 5.13mb DSCN1936 (1)May 2016. Chicago. 4.97mb DSCN2708 (1)May 2013. Chicago (Pilsen) 4.37mb 102_0387 (1)
FEATURE image: May 2015. Michigan Avenue Main Lobby. The Art Institute of Chicago. 4.57mb DSC_0366 (1)
Photographs and Text by John P. Walsh.
September 2015. 7.68 mb 99%
Michigan Avenue entrance of The Art Institute of Chicago.
May 2015.
Sculpture Court, The Art Institute of Chicago.
September 2015.
Modern Wing, The Art Institute of Chicago.
June 2014. The Art Institute of Chicago. 20th Century. American. Pop.
Andy Warhol (1928-1987), Mao, 1972, Acrylic, silkscreen ink, and pencil on linen, 448.3 × 346.7 cm (176 1/2 × 136 1/2 in.). The Art Institute of Chicago.
June 2014. The Art Institute of Chicago. 40%
The Chauncey McCormick Gallery refers to exhibition space (often featuring Asian and European decorative arts) at the Art Institute of Chicago named after Chauncey Brooks McCormick (1884–1954), a prominent Chicago businessman, philanthropist, and president of the museum from 1944 until his death
June 2014. 5.59mb
Robert Irwin (1928-2023), Untitled, Acrylic lacquer on cast acrylic disk, 1969. The Art Institute of Chicago. Irwin was a pioneering figure in California Light and Space art.
February 2013. Galleries 124–127, The Art Institute of Chicago.
The exhibition “The Artist and the Poet” at the Art Institute of Chicago ran from February 1 to June 2, 2013, exploring the dialogue between visual art and literature through works on paper, prints, and illustrations. It was presented in the Jean and Steven Goldman Prints and Drawings Galleries (Galleries 124–127), located on the first floor of the museum’s historic Ryerson and Burnham Libraries building.
September 2015. 6.25 mb
Modern wing, The Art Institute of Chicago.
August 2015. The Art Institute of Chicago. 21st Century. American.
Frances Stark (1967-) from Intimism, 2015. The Art Institute of Chicago.
August 2015. Alexander McKinlock Memorial Court. AIC. 20th Century. Nordic. Sculpture.
Carl Milles (1875-1955), Triton Fountain, 1926, bronze, Alexander McKinlock Memorial Court, The Art Institute of Chicago. Swedish sculptor Carl Milles (1875-1955) studied in Paris from 1897 to 1904, working in the studio of Auguste Rodin (1840-1917). Yet Milles departed from the prevailing naturalism that dominated sculpture in the Belle Époque era, and embraced ideas and forms that reflected the artist’s independent spirit, his knowledge and appreciation of classical and Gothic sculpture, and his Nordic roots.
Speaking of his fountain at the Art Institute of Chicago, Milles observed: “The great classicists knew that it was impossible to reproduce the appearance of flesh in marble, and they set themselves to create forms of pure beauty that would merely suggest and symbolize the living creature, and then to invest those forms with a meaning that mankind would feel intuitively to be universal and significant. This is what I have tried to do.”
September 2015. The Art Institute of Chicago. 21st Century. American. Sculpture.
Charles Ray (1953-), Young Man, 2012, Solid Stainless Steel.
May 2015. The Art Institute of Chicago.
Lorado Taft (1860-1936), Fountain of the Great Lakes, 1913. South Garden. The Art Institute of Chicago.
November 2017. North Garden, The Art Institute of Chicago.
Alexander Calder (1898-1976), Flying Dragon, 1975, Steel plate and paint, 365 × 579 × 335 cm (120 × 228 × 132 in.), North Garden, The Art Institute of Chicago. 20th Century. American. Sculpture. Modernism.
November 2017. North Garden, The Art Institute of Chicago. Partial view: Flying Dragon, Alexander Calder, 1975. November 2017. North Garden, AIC. 20th Century. British. Modernism. Sculpture.
Henry Moore (1898-1986), Large Interior Form, bronze (ed. of 6), 1953/4, 16 ft. 9 in., North Garden, The Art Institute of Chicago. Henry Moore’s 16-foot sculpture was made when the 84-year-old British artist was concerned with the construction of three-dimensional space, internal forms within solid volumes, and placing his work in a natural setting. Moore had worked primarily in stone but as these formal concerns emerged, he shifted to modeling and bronze casting. Large Interior Form explores mass and void as well as gravity and growth within a nature-inspired artist-created form.
March 2010. Washington, D.C.
Aristide Maillol (1861-1944), Nymph—Central Figure for the Three Graces, 1930, The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C. Acquired by the museum in 1966, photographs show that the statue stood in an open location by a garden pool at the museum. In 1991 following a whirlwind of euphoria associated with the successful completion of Operation Desert Storm, a victory celebration at the Mall in June of that year involved hovering military jets and helicopters. Their downdraft sent gravel footpath debris flying in the air that scratched and cracked several statues in the sculpture garden. Though none appeared to sustain damage beyond some repair, the Nymph—Central Figure for the Three Graces suffered the most damage as the nude female statue had pitted indentations on her backside. In 2010 when this photograph was taken, the sculpture was located in front of a protective garden wall. See- https://www.baltimoresun.com/news/bs-xpm-1991-06-12-1991163158-story.html 20th Century. France. Sculpture. Modernism.
August 2015. The Art Institute of Chicago. 1.43 mbMay 2015. Art Institute of Chicago. 3.34 mb
Indian and Islamic Art.
September 2015. The Art Institute of Chicago. 6.90 mbMay 2015. Frédéric Bazille. The Art Institute of Chicago. 19th Century. France. Impressionism.
Frédéric Bazille, Self-portrait, 1865/6. The Art Institute of Chicago.
November 2012. Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art. 18th Century. France. Terracotta.
Clodion (1738-1814). The See-Saw. 1775. Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art.
November 2012. Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art. 17th Century. France. Sculpture.
Michel Anguier (1612-1686), Amphitrite, marble, 1684. Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art.
November 2012. Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art.
Venus, Roman, Asia Minor, marble, c.165 CE, Toledo (Ohio) Museum of Art.
September 1993. Museum of Anthropology, UBC, Vancouver, B.C. 20th Century. Canada.
Bill Reid (1920-1998), Birth of the World or The Raven and the First Men/Humans, yellow cedar, 1980. Museum of Anthropology, UBC, Vancouver, British Columbia.
August 2005. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
“The Café-Concert,” Édouard Manet, c. 1879. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Next to it is Portrait of Estelle Balfour by Edgar Degas, c. 1863-65, oil on canvas mounted on panel, also at The Walters.
September 2016. Milwaukee Art Museum. 20th Century. Germany. France. Fauvism. Expressionism.
From right to left: Kees van Dongen (1877-1968), Woman with Cat, 1908, and Quai, Venice, 1921; Gabriele Münter (1877-1962), Portrait Young Woman, 1909. Milwaukee Art Museum.
August 2015. The Art Institute of Chicago. 16th Century. Japan.
Mikazuki (male deity) Noh Mask, cypress wood, brass, colors. The Art Institute of Chicago.
May 2014. The Art Institute of Chicago. Impressionist galleries.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919): Chrysanthemums, 1881/2; Acrobats at the Cirque Fernando (Francisca and Angelina Wartenberg), 1879; Fruits of the Midi, 1881; Seascape, 1879; Lucie Berard (Child in White), 1883. The Art Institute of Chicago.
September 2013. The Art Institute of Chicago. Impressionist galleries.
Berthe Morisot (1841-1895), Woman in a Garden, 1882/3, The Art Institute of Chicago.
September 2012. Snite Museum of Art, Notre Dame, Indiana. 20th Century. American. Realism.
William Glackens (1870-1938), The Dressing Table, c.1922, oil on canvas. Snite Museum of Art, Nore Dame University, South Bend, Indiana.
September 2016. Milwaukee Art Museum. 20th Century. Germany. Expressionism.
Gabriele Münter (1877-1962): Kirche von Reidhausen, oil on canvas board, 1908 and Mädchen mit Puppe, oil on cardboard, 1908/9. August Macke (1887-1914), Geraniums Before Blue Mountain, oil on canvas, 1911. Milwaukee Art Museum.
May 2015. The Art Institute of Chicago.
Above and below: Bodhisattva; Diety; Buddha. 4th-6th Centuries. Afghanistan/Pakistan. Stucco. The Art Institute of Chicago.
May 2015. The Art Institute of Chicago. September 2015. Room 235, The Art Institute of Chicago. September 2015. The Art Institute of Chicago. August 2015. The Art Institute of Chicago.May 2015. At The Art Institute of Chicago.
Charles Collins (1680-1744), Still Life with Game, 1741. Private Collection. 18th Century. Ireland.
May 2015. At The Art Institute of Chicago.
James C. Timbrell (1807-1850), Carolan the Irish Bard, c. 1844, oil on canvas. Private collection. 19th Century. Ireland.
May 2015. The Art Institute of Chicago. 256 kb 25%May 2015. At The Art Institute of Chicago.
John Kelly, wire-strung Bunworth harp, 1734, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Robert Fagan (c. 1761-1816), Portrait of Lady as Hibernia, c. 1798. Private collection. The Bunworth harp is inscribed: “made by Iohn Kelly for the Revd Charles Bworth Baltdaniel 1734″. The wire-string harp was made by Catholic instrument maker John Kelly for the Reverend Charles Bunworth, also of Baltdaniel, who was the Protestant rector of Buttevant, County Cork. The many aspects of the instrument—from soundbox, harmonic curve, fore-pillar, tuning pegs, and ornamentation and color— invite interest. Though it may be the female head at the top of the harmonic curve that at first most intrigues. (see – https://harp.fandom.com/wiki/Bunworth_Harp and http://www.earlygaelicharp.info/harpmakers/ – both retrieved October 14, 2021). Robert Fagan was an Irish painter who was born in London but spent most of his artistic career in Rome and Sicily (Fagan first arrived into Italy in 1781). Though an expatriate, Fagan’s oil on canvas depicts a woman who represents Ireland careessing the strings of the harp, the country’s national instrument and symbol. Seated next to an Irish wolfhound, she holds a scroll that reads: “Ireland Forever” (“Erin go bragh“). 18th century. Ireland.
August 2005. Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT.
Includes (below) John Dodd, of Swallowfield, Berkshire, 1739, John Vanderbank (1694 – 1739) and (above) Portrait of a Woman, Probably Elizabeth Aislabie, of Studley Royal, Yorkshire, c. 1749, Thomas Hudson (1701-1779), Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT.
August 2015. The Art Institute of Chicago.
Loutrophoros (Bath water vase), 4th Century BCE. Greece. Italy (Apulia). Terracotta. The Art Institute of Chicago.
August 2015. Ancient Greek and Roman Art, The Art Institute of Chicago. October 2014. AIC. 6.64mb 35%The Art Institute of Chicago.
Black-figure painting was the primary technique for decorating Greek vases for over 200 years. The technique started in Corinth and expanded east to Athens in the mid first millennium BCE (700- 500 BCE). In this time period ancient Corinth was, with almost 100,000 people, one of the largest cities of Greece. In 146 BCE the Romans besieged, captured and demolished Corinth. The site lay deserted for almost 100 years until the Romans rebuilt it as a new city populated with around 50,000 Romans, Greeks and Jews.
August 2015. The Art Institute of Chicago.
Oil Jar, 450 BCE, Athens, Greece, terracotta. The Art Institute of Chicago.
May 2015. The Art Institute of Chicago. 19th Century. France. Impressionism.
Gustave Caillebotte (1848-1898), Paris Street; A Rainy Day (“Rue de Paris, Temps de pluie”), 1877. The Art Institute of Chicago.
October 2014. The Art Institute of Chicago. 19th Century. American.
Abbott Handerson Thayer (1849-1921). Winged Figure, 1889, oil on canvas. 130.8 × 95.9 cm (51 1/2 × 37 3/4 in.). The Art Institute of Chicago.
October 2014. The Art Institute of Chicago. 19th Century. American.
James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), The Artist in his Studio, c. 1865-66, oil on boarded mounted on panel, 62 × 46.5 cm (24 7/16 × 18 5/16 in.). The Art Institute of Chicago.
May 2014. The Art Institute of Chicago. 19th Century. France. Sculpture. Modernism.
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), Eternal Springtime, 1884. Bronze. Fonderie Alexis Rudier, Paris (20th century). The Art Institute of Chicago.
May 2015.The Art Institute of Chicago. 19th Century. France. Impressionism. Sculpture.
Edgar Degas (1834-1917), Spanish dance (c.1883), Arabesque (c.1885), and Woman seated in an armchair, (c.1901), bronze (cast later). The Art Institute of Chicago.
May 2014. The Art Institute of Chicago. 19th Century. French. Sculpture. Modernism.
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), Adam, 1881. Bronze. The Art Institute of Chicago.
September 2015. Africa. The Art Institute of Chicago.
Headdresses. 19th/20th Century. Africa. The Art Institute of Chicago. The headdresses at the right and at the left are Gelede headdresses. The headdress in the middle is perhaps a Gelde or Efe headdress. The headdress at the left is made of wood and the oldest of the headdresses. It was made in Nigeria or Benin by the Yoruba community in the late 19th/early 20th centuries. Gelede headdresses often portray women. The headdresses in the center and at right depict women. One is wearing a head tie and the other is showing a woman with a plaited hairstyle. These were made in Nigeria by the Yoruba community in the early 20th century. The Gelede festival of the Yoruba community in western Africa is a public spectacle which uses colorful masks that combines art and ritual dance to educate, entertain and inspire worship. Gelede includes the celebration of “Mothers,” a grouping that includes female ancestors and deities as well as the elderly women of the community whose power and spiritual capacity in society is convoked. The Efe is a nighttime public performance held the day before the Gelede.
May 2015. 7.05 mb The Art Institute of Chicago.
Mariano Fortuny (1838-1874), African Chief, 1870, oil on canvas, 41 × 32.9 cm (16 1/8 × 12 15/16 in.). The Art Institute of Chicago. African Chief in The Art Institute of Chicago was recently exhibited in a 2017-2018 monographic retrospective at the Prado in Madrid. The show, simply entitled “Fortuny (1838-1874),” reflected the Prado’s holdings of many of this artist’s masterpieces. The Prado’s collection is due to their own acquisitions but mainly the generous bequests of the artist’s oils, watercolors, and drawings by late 19th century Mexican collector Ramón de Errazu (1840-1904) as well as the painter’s son, Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo. Fortuny’s artwork is often Orientalist in style that reflects the many trips he made to North Africa. In his career, Fortuny was noted for his precision of anatomy and archaeological scrupulousness though African Chief tends to the modern broken brush style for which the Spanish artist was prescient following his many trips to Paris. 19th century. Spain. Romanticism.
October 2014. The Art Institute of Chicago.
Left to right: Kramer Brothers Company (Dayton, Ohio), Settee, c. 1905/25; Cecilia Beaux (American, 1855-1942), Dorothea and Francesca, 1898, oil on canvas; Daniel Chester French (American, 1855- 1931), Truth, 1900, plaster.
September 2015. The Art Institute of Chicago. 19th Century. American. Modernism.
Above and next three below: Fragments, Dankmar Adler (1844-1900) and Louis Sullivan (1856-1924), The Art Institute of Chicago. 19th Century. American. Modernism.
September 2015. The Art Institute of Chicago. 560kb 40%August 2015. The Art Institute of Chicago. 2.87mb DSC_0644 (1)November 2015. 6.38mb DSC_0352 (1)
With the arm detail of Rodin’s bronze Adam (1881), the landing of the Grand Staircase at The Art Institute of Chicago.
September 2015. Help desk, The Art Institute of Chicago. May 2021. 7.35 mb The Art Institute of Chicago.
Bisa Butler (1973-), The Safety Patrol, 2018, by Bisa Butler. Cotton, wool, and chiffon; appliquéd and quilted. The Safety Patrol considers the potential of a group of children as future caretakers of the world led by a boy in a sash with outstretched arms whose duty it is to protect the others. Bisa Butler uses the technique of appliqué quilt making to create her work. For the figures, the artist cuts, layers, and pins together fabrics and arranges them on the ground fabric. This comprises the quilt top. Between this quilt top and a backing fabric is a layer of fiber “batting” or stuffing. These layers are stitched to form the quilt with the thread lines part of the structure, texture and details of the image. Butler seeks to use fabric colors and patterns to contribute to the quilt’s subject and narrative. 21st Century. American.
May 2014. The Art Institute of Chicago. 18th century. France. (60)
Hubert Robert (French, 1733-1808), The Fountains, 1787, oil on canvas, 255.3 × 221.2 cm (100 1/2 × 88 1/8 in.). The Art Institute of Chicago.
May 2015. 7.73 mb The Art Institute of Chicago.
Joseph Wilson (d. 1800), Adephi Club – Belfast, oil on canvas, 1783.
May 2015. 6.62 mb The Art Institute of Chicago.
The State Ballroom, Saint Patrick’s Hall, Dublin Castle, oil on wood, c. 1845, signed and inscribed: F. J. Davis/Dublin. St Patrick’s Hall had long been a key location for Ireland’s political, military and social elite to gather (B. Rooney, Creating History, Stories of Ireland in Art, 2016, p.179). These dance proceedings are overseen by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and his wife visible at the end of the hall. The 1840s was a period of fashion indulgence. The social ball with attendees in sumptuous costume took place during the period of the Irish famine (1845-1849) where approximately one million people died. Another one million or more emigrated out of the country at the same time, many to the United States. Court dress for gentleman allowed personal expression in fabric and style for the waistcoat. Military officers and political office holders wore court uniforms indicating their position and rank. For ladies, to signal their marital situation, unmarried women wore jewelry and fresh flowers in their hair. Conventionally-minded single ladies added two ostrich feathers behind one ear. Matrons sported a third ostrich feather in their hair and wore lace ribbons.
May 2021. The Art Institute of Chicago. 16th Century. Spain.
El Greco (Doménikos Theotokópoulos) (1541-1614), Saint Francis Kneeling in Meditation, c. 1595, oil on canvas. 92 × 74 cm (36 3/16 × 24 1/8 in.). The Art Institute of Chicago.
October 2014. The Art Institute of Chicago. 19th Century. American.
Arthur Wesley Dow (1857-1922), Boats at Rest, c. 1895, oil on canvas, 66 × 91.4 cm (26 × 36 in.). The Art Institute of Chicago.
October 2016. Ukrainian National Museum (2249 W. Superior Street), Chicago. 4.55 mbMay 2015. Aurora, IL. The David L. Pierce Art & History Center (20 East Downer Place). 4.15 mbMay 2014. The Art Institute of Chicago.
Pompeo Batoni (Italian, 1708-1787), Allegory of Peace and War, 1776, oil on canvas, 53 1/2 × 39 in. The Art Institute of Chicago. 5.73 mb Pompeo Batoni was a leading 18th-century Roman painter. The artist was known for his portraits and commissioned large format historical and religious paintings. The painting entitled “Allegory of Peace and War” represented the mythological figure of the god Mars being restrained by a semi-nude embodiment of peace. Peace lays her hand on War’s sword and bears to him an olive branch. The painting was the result of Batoni’s own invention – no one commissioned this artwork – and it stayed in the artist’s studio until at least the early 1780s.
December 2015. Chicago Cultural Center. 3.62 mb March 2002. Louvre, Paris. 312 kb
Statue of Aphrodite, called Venus de Milo because it was found on the Greek Island of Milos in the Aegean Sea. It dates from around 150 B.C. In the Louvre in Paris, the Venus de Milo is one of the most famous statues in the world. Its soft, sensual handling of the marble was characteristic of the late Hellenistic period. She is monumental – the topless, armless Venus de Milo stands, independent of her base and pedestal, six feet five inches in height. In the course of the second half of the 19th century, the Venus de Milo became a favorite statue of Parisians and its visitors. It was around 1875 that it was moved away from the wall which it stood against and placed in the middle of a 17th century room so that it could be viewed completely around. It was accorded this baroque effect first used at Versailles at the start of the 18th century so to isolate monumental sculpture for display to produce maximum impact and enjoyment of the artwork. SOURCES: Masterpieces of the Louvre, Marcel Brion, NY: Abrams; Creators Collectors and Connoisseurs, Niels Von Holst, NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons.
November 2017. 74% 7.84mb DSC_3350 The Art Institute of Chicago.
Fragment of a Funerary Monument, c. 330 BCE Greek; Athens, 152.4 × 111.8 × 33 cm (60 × 44 × 13 in.), The Art Institute of Chicago. see- https://www.artic.edu/artworks/55887/fragment-of-a-funerary-naiskos-monument-in-the-shape-of-a-temple – retrieved March 31, 2025. This is one of the fashionable burial markers, whether of Greek or Roman families, encountered by the public in ancient times. Made in all sorts of shapes and sizes, this large stone monument from the 4th century BCE shows three figures carved in very high relief so much so that they are nearly in the round. The two male figures’ gestures of parting indicate that it is a funerary scene. The standing man is likely the person who has died and this funerary marker depicts his sharing a final farewell with loved ones – their relationship, obviously close, after 2500 years, completely unknown.
November 2017. 69% 7.88mb DSC_3355 The Art Institute of Chicago.
Cristoforo Stati (Italian, 1556–1619). Samson and the Lion, 1604-1607, marble, 210 × 112 × 84 cm (82 11/16 × 44 1/8 × 33 1/8 in.). The Art Institute of Chicago. see – https://www.artic.edu/artworks/146875/samson-and-the-lion – retrieved April 1, 2025. Stati studied in Florence under Giambologna (1529-1608). In 1601, Tuscany’s archduke, Ferdinando I de’ Medici (1549-1609), sent a sculpture of Samson by Giambologna to the palace of Spain’s prime minister in Valladolid as a gift. Later, Stati’s sculpture of Samson and the Lion was also sent to Spain as a complementary gift and installed in Madrid. The work was in a Swiss private collection before it was acquired by The Art Institute of Chicago in 1996.
November 2017. The Art Institute of Chicago. 80% 7.88mb DSC_3315December 2012. 1st century. Roman. The Art Institute of Chicago. .2.25mb 101_1469
Head of Hercules. Roman, First Century CE. The Art Institute of Chicago. The Romans adapted the stories of Hercules’ superhuman feats of strength from the Greeks. The earlier Greeks viewed him as a demigod, the later Romans saw him as one of their hero figures.
May 2016. The Art Institute of Chicago. 7.44mb DSCN2611 (1)
Head of Pierre de Wissant (1889) by Auguste Rodin, part of The Burghers of Calais (1884–89) in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, originates from the larger sculptural ensemble commemorating the six citizens of Calais who offered themselves as hostages to the English during the Hundred Years’ War. When displayed independently, the head emphasizes Rodin’s exploration of psychological intensity and human vulnerability. The sculpture conveys a moment of profound emotional anguish: the downward gaze, deeply furrowed brow, and partially opened mouth collectively articulate a state of acute despair and inner turmoil. Through these expressive distortions, Rodin captures not only the historical gravity of the subject’s sacrifice but also the universal experience of psychological suffering.
December 2025. 98% 7.84mb DSC_9937The Art Institute of Chicago.
Crèche, mid-18th century, Naples, Italy. Details of daily life are connected to the biblical narrative of the Nativity of Jesus Christ.
December 2025. The Art Institute of Chicago. 7.33mb DSC_9933 (1)
The mid-18th century Neapolitan Crèche invites viewers to witness the miraculous among the mundane. The Art Institute of Chicago. see – Neapolitan Crèche | The Art Institute of Chicago – retrieved December 14, 2025.
December 2025. The Art Institute of Chicago.7.66mb DSC_9896 (1)
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), A Burgher of Calais (Jean d’Aire), modelled 1889, plaster, 82×26 in. The figure was exhibited in the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and entered the Art Institute’s collection that same year. The monument includes six individualized figures on a heroic scale and was commissioned in France in 1884. Completed in 1889 by Rodin the monument was installed in Calais’s town hall square in 1895. Rodin depicts Jean d’Aire, one of the town fathers, in sackcloth with the keys of the city, surrendering to the English during the Hundred Years War, in exchange for their lifting a nearly year-long siege that led to the starvation of the city’s inhabitants.. see – Monument to The Burghers of Calais | Musée Rodin – retrieved December 15, 2025.
December 2025. The Art Institute of Chicago. 73% 7.86mb DSC_9847
Exhibition Strange Realities: The Symbolist Imagination (October 4, 2025- January 5, 2026). Over 85 works of major artists including Odilon Redon, Paul Gauguin, and Edvard Munch, drawn from the Museum’s collection of drawings and prints exploring the late 19th century pan-European Symbolist movement of art, literature and theatre.see – Strange Realities: The Symbolist Imagination | The Art Institute of Chicago – retrieved December 16, 2025.
December 2025. The Chauncey McCormick Gallery, The Art Institute of Chicago. 93% 7.89mb DSC_9889September 2014. The Art Institute of Chicago. 3.55mb DSC_1038 (1)
Greyed Rainbow, 1953, Jackson Pollock, oil on linen, 182.9 × 244.2 cm (72 1/16 × 96 3/16 in.) and Streetcar, 1951, Alexander Calder, Brass, sheet metal, rod, wire, and paint, 9’8″ long, Art Institute of Chicago. See – Streetcar (1951) | Calder Foundation – retrieved Jan. 29, 2026 and Greyed Rainbow | The Art Institute of Chicago – retrieved Jan. 29, 2016.
POLLOCK: IF PEOPLE WOULD JUST LOOK AT THE PAINTINGS I DON’T THINK THEY’D HAVE ANY TROUBLE ENJOYING THEM. IT’S LIKE LOOKING AT A BED OF FLOWERS. YOU DON’T TEAR YOUR HAIR OUT OVER WHAT IT MEANS.
In a year of Gladiator, Traffic, Almost Famous and Erin Brockovich, Marcia Gay Harden won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in “Pollock” for her portrayal of Lee Krasner (1908-1984), pioneering American Abstract Expressionist painter and wife of American abstract painter Jackson Pollock (1912-1956), the biographical film’s title character. Hardin also won the Best Supporting Actress Award at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards. Ed Harris was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Jackson Pollock in a film that was also Harris’s directorial debut. An ensemble cast portrays real people of the mid-20th century modern art world including Jennifer Connelly as Ruth Kligman (1930-2010), American abstract artist and Pollock and Willem de Kooning lover, Val Kilmer as the Dutch-American abstract expressionist de Kooning (1904-1997), Bud Cort as writer/dealer Howard Putzel (1898-1945), Jeffrey Tambor as critic Clement Greenberg (1909-1994), John Heard as sculptor Tony Smith (1912-1980), Robert Knott as older brother Sande Pollock (1909-1963), Sada Thompson as Pollock’s mother Stella (1875-1958) and Amy Madigan as American art collector Peggy Guggenheim (1898-1979). Like its namesake’ artwork, the film made a splash when it came out in December 2000 and was a memorably fine effort.https://youtu.be/z0xiovbDML0?si=XupBbr5gZnhuTVqP – retrieved Jan. 30, 2026.
September 2014. Modern Wing, Art Institute of Chicago. 3.49mb DSC_1061 (1)August 2015. Modern Wing, Art Institute of Chicago. 3.76mb DSC_0672 (1)August 2015. The Art Institute of Chicago. 3.14mb DSC_0068 (1)August 2015. The Art Institute of Chicago.4.14 mbDSC_0181 (1)August 2015. The Art Institute of Chicago. 1.22mb DSC_0014 (1)October 2015. Art exhibit. Oak Park, IL. 4.72mb DSCN1739 (2)November 2015. Art Institute of Chicago. 3.77 mb DSC_0094 (1)September 2016.Milwaukee Art Museum. 2.63mb DSC_0054 (1)
Thomas Hart Benton, Poker Night (from A Streetcar Named Desire), 1948(Whitney Museum of American Art),Milwaukee Art Museum. 2.63mb DSC_0054 (1)
September 2016. Haggerty Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI. 3.54mb DSC_0922 (1)Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), Untitled called Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird (“Autorretrato con Collar de Espinas y Colibrí”), 1940, oil on canvas mounted to board, 61.2 cm × 47 cm (24.11 in × 18.5 in),Harry Ransom Center, Austin, Texas. The Ransom Center acquired the self-portrait in 1965 as one of a large collection of artworks assembled by photographer Nickolas Muray (American, b. Hungary, 1892–1965). Kahlo gifted the painting to Muray soon after it was completed in 1940.
Frida Kahlo’s Self‑Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird (1940) is a concentrated display of her mature portrait style. Despite its small scale, the composition is intricate, drawing the viewer’s eye across a dense constellation of figures and symbolic objects. At the center sits Kahlo herself, rendered with imaginative realism and surrounded by a menagerie: a monkey on her left, a cat on her right, and a lifeless hummingbird suspended at her throat. Beneath her signature joined eyebrows, she meets the viewer with a calm, unwavering gaze that feels both resolute and quietly intense.
The animals around her animate the scene with contrasting energies. The monkey, distracted, toys with the thorn necklace, while the cat appears tense and ready to strike. The necklace itself encircles her neck and extends downward, its sharp thorns pressing into her half‑length figure. Against this harshness, delicate butterflies—whether real or hair clips—rest motionless in her hair, and above them hover two dragonflies, creatures that in Mexican art often signal a link between nature and the spirit world, messengers of transformation and guardians of the soul.
Within this symbolic framework, the monkey can be read as an emblem of lust or moral temptation, the cat as mysticism and freedom, and the thorn necklace as a sign of bodily suffering and constraint. It also evokes Christ’s crown of thorns, allowing Kahlo to cast herself in a mode of imitatio Christi—a figure bearing pain, betrayal, and emotional anguish after failed relationships. In this light, the butterflies and dragonflies become signs of renewal, hinting at the possibility of resurrection emerging from her world’s suffering.
Finally, hummingbirds (colibríes) are powerful symbols of the warrior spirit, deeply linked to Aztec mythology, embodying courage, vitality, and the fierce renewal of life. By the modern era hummingbirds have also come to represent love, hope, joy, and inner strength while being understood as messengers carrying the presence of departed loved ones returning in brief, luminous visitations.
FEATURE image: EXPO CHICAGO 2018, Festival Hall, Navy Pier.
EXPO CHICAGO 2018 is the 7th annual exhibition of international contemporary and modern art held in Chicago at Navy Pier’s Festival Hall. It took place September 27-30, 2018. Expo Chicago/2018 presented 135 galleries and exhibitors representing 27 countries and 63 cities from around the world. This post’s 60 photographs are of that event.
EXPO CHICAGO 2018 includes exhibitors four sections categorized to a specific aim: Exposure are galleries founded since 2010 featuring one or two artists; Profile are international galleries featuring solo or collective artists with focused installations, exhibitions and projects; Editions + Books highlight artist books, editions, prints, collectibles, photography, collage, drawing, etc.; Special Exhibitions” feature site specific work.
More EXPO CHICAGO 2018 sections include: IN/SITU highlighting curated large-scale installations (a second, outside version features large-scale sculptures in various Chicago locations); EXPO VIDEO highlighting curated film, video and new media work; EXPO SOUND highlighting curated sound installations and projects.
EXPO CHICAGO 2018 was held in Festival Hall on Navy Pier in Chicago. The annual event, held since 2012, is in its seventh year.EXPO CHICAGO 2018 attracts thousands of attendees to visit with hundreds of gallery owners and artists from all over the world.Expo Chicago is a major modern and contemporary art event held each year to open the Fall art season. It is held nearby to downtown Chicago and the Magnificent Mile on historic Navy Pier which is one of Chicago’s most popular tourist magnets.One of the information desks at EXPO CHICAGO 2018. EXPO CHICAGO 2018 welcomed 135 international art galleries from 27 countries and 63 cities.Georgia Scherman Projects, Toronto. Within the framework of the show’s sections, each booth showcases the artwork of their choosing .Artwork of Marcus Jansen was featured at Casterline/ Goodman Gallery, Aspen, CO, Chicago, and Nantucket, MA.Artist Gina Pellón (center) at Cerunda Arte, Coral Gables, FL.Surrealist painter Fred Stonehouse, Night King, 2018, acrylic on canvas, Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee, WI.Richard Hughes, Hot Step, 2017, cast polyester resin and enamel paint, Anton Kern Gallery, New York.Ridley Howard, Blue Dress, Blue Sky, 2016, acrylic on linen, Frederic Snitzer Gallery, Miami, FL.admissions. Library Street Collective, Detroit, MI. Artist Francesco Clemente, 2018, oil on canvas at Maruani Mercier Gallery, Brussels, Belgium.Artwork of Larry Poons, Yares Art, New York, Palm Springs, Santa Fe.Artwork of Austin White, 2018, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco and New York.In/Situ: Postcommodity, Repellent Fence, 2015, Bockley Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota.Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA.Artwork by Asmund Havsteen Mikkelsen at the booth shared by Fold Gallery, London, and Galleri Kant, Copenhagen.Prune Nourry, River Man (detail), 2018, patinated copper tubes, Galerie Templon, Paris.Gérard Garouste, The Eagle Owl and the One-Eared Woman, 2016, Galerie Templon, Paris.Jaume Plensa’s Laura Asia in White, 2017, polyester resin and marble dust, at Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago.Jaume Plensa’s Laura Asia in White, 2017, polyester resin and marble dust, at Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago.William Kentridge, Blue Rubrics, 2018, lapis lazuli pigment on thesaurus pages, NFP Field Tate Editions, Royal Academy of Arts, London.Frances Stark, According to This…, 2018, Silk screen on linen on panel, Gavin Brown’s Enterprise, New York and Rome.David Driskell (b. 1931), Jazz Singer (Lady of Leisure, Fox), 1974, oil and collage on canvas, 52 x 44 in., DC MooreGallery, New York City.Jansson Stegner, Swordswoman, 2018, oil on linen, Nino Mier Gallery, Los Angeles.Brian Calvin, Eternal Return, 2009, acrylic on canvas, Anton Kern Gallery, New York.Margot Bergman, Gloria, 2014, acrylic on linen, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago.Ceysson & Bénétière, New York Luxembourg Paris Saint-Étienne.Julie Heffernan, Self-Portrait with Nuala, 2018, oil on canvas, Zolla/Lieberman Chicago.Chloe Wise, You would have been a castle for a moment, 2016, Galerie Division, Montreal and Toronto.EXPO CHICAGO 2018. EXPO CHICAGO 2018. Artwork of Devan Shimoyama, De Buck Gallery New York City.EXPO CHICAGO 2018. Chie Fueki, Kyle, 2017, DC Moore Gallery, New York City.Naudline Pierre, Deal Kindly and Truly With Me, 2018, oil on canvas, 56 x 52 inches, Shulamit Nazarian, Los Angeles.Clare Sherman, Sea Cave, 2017, oil on canvas, 84 x 66 in., DC Moore Gallery, New York City.Roberto Fabelo, Gothic Habanero, n.d., oil on canvas, Cerunda Arte, Coral Gables, FL.EXPO CHICAGO 2018 brings the world of modern and contemporary art to Chicago for the collector.EXPO CHICAGO 2018 offers the art lover opportunities to encounter the latest in modern and contemporary art from around the world.EXPO CHICAGO 2018 covers tens of thousands of square feet with modern and contemporary art of many kinds from 27 countries and 63 global cities.EXPO CHICAGO 2018Sculpture, painting, and other visual art forms were in evidence at Expo Chicago/2018. There is a popular on-site cafe that serves snacks and beverages.EXPO CHICAGO 2018EXPO CHICAGO 2018EXPO CHICAGO 2018Juan Roberto Diago, Grito, 1997. The artist talks about his artistic debt to Jean-Michel Basquiat.Fort Gansevoort, New York City.Artwork of Nick Dawes, 2018, Galerie Kornfeld, Berlin.Tsailing Tseng, Black Moor, Spring/ Sun/ Winter/ Dread/ Everything Everything, 2018, oil on linen, SAIC Booth (Tuttle Fellowship).Roberto Lugo, porcelain china, paint, luster, 2018, Wexler Gallery, Philadelphia. PA.Lavar Munroe, Spy Boy, 2018, acrylic and earring stud on canvas, Jenkins Johnson Gallery San Francisco New York.In/Situ: Ivan Argote, Among Us — Across History…, 2017.Richard Hudson, Tear, 2016, polished mirrored steel, Michael Goedhuis London Beijing New York. Aniela Sobieksi, Girl with a Garden, 2018, oil on panel, Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee. The painting next to it sold just before I took this photograph.The Hole NYC.Barnaby Barford (b. 1977), Celebrity, 2018, Giclée Print, David Gill Gallery, London.
FEATURE image: EXPO CHICAGO 2017, Festival Hall, Navy Pier.
EXPO CHICAGO 2017 is the 6th annual exhibition of international contemporary and modern art held in Chicago at Navy Pier’s Festival Hall. It took place September 13-17, 2017. Expo Chicago/2017 presented 135 galleries representing 25 countries and 58 cities from around the world.
Brian Calvin, Momentary Monument, 2017, acrylic on canvas, Anton Kern Gallery, New York. Expo Chicago 2017.
Admissions, Expo Chicago 2017.
Information desk, Expo Chicago 2017.
Lara Schnitger, Suffragette City, 2015-2017, Cotton, and linen, quilted and bleached, Anton Kern Gallery, New York. Expo Chicago 2017.
The War We Won, Roger Brown, oil on canvas, 80 x 120 in., Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago. Expo Chicago 2017.
Doug Argue, Dream Song 12, 2017, oil on paper, 40,x,60 in., Marc Straus, New York. Expo Chicago 2017.
CarrerasMugica Contemporary Art Gallery, Bilbao. Expo Chicago 2017.
Galerie Gmurzynska, Zurich, Switzerland, with booth design by Antonio Manfreda. Expo Chicago 2017. Germano Celant, theorist of the Arte Povera movement. From 2015 he was the artistic director of the Prada Foundation in Milan.
Matthew Monahan, Hurricane Nickel, 2016, and Aquarius Gemini, 2016, Anton Kern Gallery, New York. Expo Chicago 2017.
Anton Kern Gallery, New York. Expo Chicago 2017.
Rita McBride, Halicarnassus, 2010, bronze and grey limestone, and Pantheon 2, bronze and markina marble, CarrerasMugica Contemporary Art Gallery, Bilbao. Expo Chicago 2017.
Wardell Milan, The New Sun Will Warm our Proud and Naked Bodies, 2016, charcoal, oil, oil pastel, pastel, gesso, acrylic, color pencil, cut paper on paper, David Nolan Gallery, New York. Expo Chicago 2017.
Meleko Mokgosi, Honor Fraser Gallery, Los Angeles. Expo Chicago 2017.
John A. Seal, König Galerie, Berlin. Expo Chicago 2017.
Alfred Leslie, Oval Collage, 1959, Diana Moore, White Head, 1988 and Willem de Kooning, 1965, charcoal on paper, Alan Stone Projects, New York. Expo Chicago 2017.
Thinks I, To Myself. Expo Chicago 2017.
Expo Chicago 2017.
Expo Chicago 2017.
Jackie Saccoccio, Portrait (Bomba), 2017, and Faheem Majeed, Hopscotch I, 2011, and Pause, 2010, Rhona Hoffman Gallery Chicago. Expo Chicago 2017.
Expo Chicago 2017.
Garth Greenan Gallery, New York. Expo Chicago 2017.
Iva Gueorguieva, Listen, 2017, acrylic oil collage on canvas, Miles McEnery Gallery, New York. Expo Chicago 2017.
Hayal Pozanti, 70 (million m.p.h that the earth orbit around the sun), 2017, acrylic on canvas, 60 x 132 in., Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, California. Expo Chicago 2017.
Lavar Munroe, Instinctual, 2017, acrylic on canvas, 48 x 42 in., Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco. Expo Chicago 2017.
Expo Chicago 2017.
Peres Projects Berlin. Expo Chicago 2017.
Ransome Stanley, Untitled, 2017, oil on canvas, 59 x 78 in., Gallery MOMO, South Africa. Expo Chicago 2017.
Booth 839, Expo Chicago 2017.
Caroline Walker, Grimm Gallery Amsterdam New York. Expo Chicago 2017.
Expo Chicago 2017.
Nicolas Africano, Untitled, 2017, cast glass, Weinstein Gallery Minneapolis. Expo Chicago 2017.
FEATURE IMAGE: Manuel Mendive, Este Lugar Sagrado/This Sacred Place, 2009, acrylic on canvas, Cernuda Arte Coral Gables, FL. Expo Chicago/2016.
EXPO CHICAGO 2016 is the 5th annual exhibition of international contemporary and modern art held in Chicago at Navy Pier’s Festival Hall. It took place from September 22-25, 2016. Expo Chicago/2016 presents 145 galleries representing 22 countries and 53 cities from around the world. This post’s photographs are of that event.
Jeff Koons, BMW M3 GT2, Expo Chicago/2016.
Alfredo Jaar, Be Afraid of the Enormity of the Possible, 2015, neon, edition 3/3 + 3AP, Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin, Germany. Expo Chicago/2016.
At Dittrich & Schlechtriem, Berlin, Germany includes artwork by Klaus Jörres and Julian Charrière. Expo Chicago/2016.
At Cernuda Arte Coral Gables, FL. Manuel Mendive (foreground) Este Lugar Sagrado/This Sacred Place, 2009, acrylic on canvas. Expo Chicago/2016.
Paintings I, Art+Language, Made in Zurich 1965-1972, London. Expo Chicago/2016.
The Art + Language group’s Michael Baldwin and Mel Ramsden in Chicago. Founded in the mid1960s in the United Kingdom by Terry Atkinson (b. 1939), David Bainbridge (b. 1941), Michael Baldwin (b. 1945) and Harold Hurrell (b. 1940), artist Mel Ramsden joined in 1970.
Throughout the 1970s, Art + Language dealt with questions about art production and attempted a shift from conventional forms of art, such as painting and sculpture, to theoretically linguistic (text)-based artwork. Art + Language remains active today in several collaborative projects.
September 2016. 99% 7.21 mb DSC_0630
Jonathan Lasker, The Handicapper’s Faith, 2011, Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin, Germany. Expo Chicago/2016.
At Gallery MOMO Cape Town/Johannesburg, South Africa. Artwork by Mary Sibande. Expo Chicago/2016.
Expo Chicago/2016.
Andrew Moore, Mirador, Gibara, Cuba, 2008, 46 x 58 inch archival pigment print, Yancey Richardson Gallery, New York.
Margot Bergman, Agnes, acrylic on canvas, 2016, Corbett vs. Dempsey, Chicago. Expo Chicago/2016.
Shannon Finley, Googol, 2015, acrylic on linen, 4 panels 95 x 189 in.,Carrie Secrist Gallery, Chicago. Expo Chicago/2016.
Euan Uglow, Sue Wearing a Blue Swimming Cap, 1978/80, oil on canvas 19.5 x 27.5 in., Browse & Darby London. Expo Chicago/2016.
Juan Garaizabal, Álvaro Alcázar Gallery, Madrid. Expo Chicago/2016.
April Martin, The Sun had not yet Risen, 2016, copper, thread, glass, vinegar, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Expo Chicago/2016.
September 2016. Hermann Nitsch, Schüttbild (Shaped Image), 2013, Acrylic on Canvas, Marc Straus Gallery, New York City. 4.29mb DSC_0876 (1)
Dialogue with Miguel Aguilar and Chris Silva, Conversation Pieces. Expo Chicago/2016.
Louise Bourgeois, Girl with hair, 2007, archival dye on silk, edition of 12, Carolina Nitsch, New York City. Expo Chicago/2016.
Pace Gallery, New York City. Expo Chicago/2016.
Expo Chicago 2016.
Genieve Figgis, Half Gallery, New York City. Genieve Figgis is an artist from Ireland who began her artistic career on social media. Expo Chicago/2016.
Buddha’s tight ringlet curls by Qi Yu. Ceramic cinnabar mineral mounted on canvas. Expo Chicago/2016.
Artist Qi Yu of Redbrick Art Museum, Beijing, China.
North Cafe. Expo Chicago/2016.
Expo Chicago/2016.
Listen, you a wonder. you a city of a woman. you got a geography of your own., Amy Sherald, 2016, 54 x 43 in., oil on canvas, Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago.
The artist’s title quotes American poet Lucille Clifton (1936-2010): “listen, you a wonder. you a city of a woman. you got a geography of your own. listen, somebody need a map to understand you. somebody need directions to move around you. listen, woman, you not a noplace anonymous girl; mister with his hands on you he got his hands on some damn body!”
Raffi Kalenderian, Sekula Benner Street, 2016, oil on canvas, Buchmann Galerie Berlin/Lugano. Expo Chicago/2016.
Ernesto Burgos, Kate Werble Gallery, New York City. Expo Chicago/2016.
Sims Reed Gallery London. Expo Chicago/2016.
Ann Agee, Negishi Heights 1957, 2015, acrylic on Thai Mulberry paper, P.P.O.W. Gallery, New York City. Expo Chicago/2016.
Expo Chicago/2016.
Performance outside Zwirner Gallery, New York City. Background: Raymond Pettibon, No Title (Manhattan rising, advancing—), 2010, ink and acrylic on paper, 59 x 118 inches. Expo Chicago/2016.
Mel Bochner, Blah Blah Blah, 2016 and Aloyson Shotz, Flow Fold #3, 2015, Carolina Nitsch Gallery, New York City. Expo Chicago/2016.
Bernar Venet, Indeterminate Line, 2013, rolled steel, 75 1/2 × 80 × 62 in. Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York City. Expo Chicago/2016.
Richard Norton Gallery. Expos Chicago/2016.
Jannis Varelas, New Flags for a New Country, The Breeder, Athens, Greece. Expo Chicago/2016.
Expo Chicago/2016.
Jenn Smith, Untitled (Snake), oil and acrylic on canvas, 2016, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Expo Chicago/2016.
Atelier Van Lieshout, The Beginning of Everything, foam, paint, wood, paverpoll, 2016. Expo Chicago/2016.The molecule represents Glucose (C6H12O6), the primary source of energy for human life. Without glucose, nothing would function: neither the brain, intelligence, thought, muscles, movement or sports. Without energy, our lives would come to a standstill.
Admissions, Expo Chicago 2017.
Lara Schnitger, Suffragette City, 2015-2017, Cotton, and linen, quilted and bleached, Anton Kern Gallery, New York. Expo Chicago 2017.
Galerie Gmurzynska, Zurich, Switzerland, with booth design by Antonio Manfreda. Expo Chicago 2017. Germano Celant, theorist of the Arte Povera movement. From 2015 he was the artistic director of the Prada Foundation in Milan.
Anton Kern Gallery, New York. Expo Chicago 2017.
John A. Seal, König Galerie, Berlin. Expo Chicago 2017.
Alfred Leslie, Oval Collage, 1959, Diana Moore, White Head, 1988 and Willem de Kooning, 1965, charcoal on paper, Alan Stone Projects, New York. Expo Chicago 2017.
Thinks I, To Myself. Expo Chicago 2017.
Jackie Saccoccio, Portrait (Bomba), 2017, and Faheem Majeed, Hopscotch I, 2011, and Pause, 2010, Rhona Hoffman Gallery Chicago. Expo Chicago 2017.
Caroline Walker, Grimm Gallery Amsterdam New York. Expo Chicago 2017.
Paul Kasmin Gallery New York. Expo Chicago 2017.
Artist’s Signature (Miró). Expo Chicago 2017.
