Thursday, November 25, 2010

AIC: Reinstallation of The American Windows [By Marc Chagall]


Left panels [music and painting]..

Center panels [literature and architecture]..

Right panels [theater and dance]..

Art Institute of Chicago [AIC]..
Reinstallation of The America Windows,
Originally created: 1975-77..
By Marc Chagall..
Commemorating the American Bicentennial in memory of Mayor Richard J. Daley..
Originally installed: May 15, 1977...
Reinstalled: Nov 1, 2010..

The marker reads..
At the end of World War - II, Marc Chagall sought new avenues for artistic experimentation and turned to the medium of stained glass, which allowed him to explore color on a monumental scale. Working with master stained glass maker Charles Marq, he executed 86 windows across Europe, Israel and the US. American Windows present an unusual secular theme in his oeuvre, merging symbols of American history, the Chicago skyline and the arts; reading from left to right, the panels represent music, painting, literature, architecture, theater and dance.

Details: Left panels [music and painting]..

Details: Left panels [music and painting]..

Details: Left panels [music and painting]

Details: Center panels [literature and architecture]..

Details: Center panels [literature and architecture]..

Details: Right panels [theater and dance]..

Details: Right panels [theater and dance]..

Details: Right panels [theater and dance]..


Chagall dedicated his work to Mayor Richard J. Daley, a great supporter of public art projects in the city, with whom he had worked in the city on The Four Seasons mosaic at Chase Tower Plaza [image below]..



For more.. click on the link..
Mosaic "Four Seasons" - by Marc Chagall.. at Exelon Plaza / Chase Tower Plaza..

Excerpt from the AIC website....
While members and visitors have loved America Windows for years, many may not realize how deeply their history is interwoven with the history of Chicago and its rich tradition of public art. The story begins in the early 1970s, when Chagall came to the city for work related to his mosaic installed outside Chase Tower, The Four Seasons. In response to the city’s enthusiasm for his work and the Art Institute’s great support, the artist offered to create a set of stained-glass windows for the museum. Over the course of three years, plans were clarified, and in the end, Chagall determined that the windows would commemorate America’s bicentennial. The resulting six-panel work celebrates the country as a place of cultural and religious freedom, detailing the arts of music, painting, literature, theater, and dance. Because of his admiration for Chicago and its strong commitment to public art during the 1960s and 1970s, Chagall chose to dedicate the work to Mayor Richard J. Daley, a great supporter of public art projects. The windows were presented with much fanfare at a formal unveiling, hosted by the Auxiliary Board of the Art Institute, on May 15, 1977...


The marker reads,
The roots of Marc Chagall's America Windows could rightly be traced to 1967 - the year Pablo Picasso's monumental sculpture in Chicago's civic center [now called the Richard J. Daley Center] was unveiled. Insightfully, Mayor Richard J. Daley dedicated the sculpture with the owrds, "What is strange to us today will be familiar tomorrow." Today Chicago's great collection of public art is one of the defining characteristics of the city...
Continue reading.. click here..

Monday, November 22, 2010

Meridian VIII [By Ed McCullough]







Meridian VIII
By Ed McCullough..
Installed: 2006..
Commissioned by Dominican University, River Forest, IL..


Add caption


Add caption

Meridian VII (2002) - By Ed McCullough


Meridian VII (2002) - by Ed MuCullough 
Meridian VII - by Ed McCullough

Installed: 2002

Location: Chicago Police HQ Building, 
35th Street and Michigan Avenue

Commissioned by City of Chicago Percent for Art program.


Sunday, November 21, 2010

Bronzeville [ Haymarket Riot Monument - by John Gelert]


Haymarket Riot Monument..
by John Gelert..
Location: Courtyard of Chicago Police Training Center..
1300 W Jackson Blvd..
At the base is the inscription..
In the name of the people of Illinois I command peace...

Saturday, November 20, 2010

University of Chicago Campus [Fountain of Time - by Lorado Taft]





Fountain of Time...
Sculptor: Lorado Taft ...
Reflecting pool: Howard Van Doren Shaw
Completed: 1922
Description: approx. 127 feet length ..
Made with hollow-cast concrete, reinforced with steel and incorporated pebbles from the Potomac River. This composite material was an innovation at the time ..
Location: Western edge of the Midway Plaisance in the Washington Park ..
Washington Park is registered in the National Register of Historic Places, and this sculpture is a contributing structure in this achievement ..

Commissioned by the B.F.Ferguson Monument Fund, to commemorate the first 100 years of peace between the United States and Great Britain, resulting from the Treaty of Ghent in 1814 ...

Inspired by Henry Austin Dobson's poem, "Paradox of Time" ..
"Time goes, you say?
Ah no, Alas, time stays, we go"..












The sculpture extends from north to south..
Below is a break-up from north-end to the south-end..

North End..


North Center..


Center..


Center..


Center..


Center..


South Center..


South End..


Here's Father Time..
overlooking at the people as they go by, through different stages of life..




The maestro Lorado Taft himself..



My all-time favourite sculptural piece in Chicago.. It evokes so many feelings. Sometimes I find it to be flowing like a lyrical poem with it's ups and downs and sometimes I am caught in it's austere assessment of life, how a carefree childhood on father's shoulders end in old-age of pain and dementia. The details are well thought of and powerfully executed and the overall scale is simply awe-inspiring..A beautiful rendition of arguably a philosophical take on life, "Time Stays, We Go", as 100 figures pass before Father Time..

For more.. [click on the link]..
Lorado Taft..
Public Art in Universities of Chicago..
B.F.Ferguson Monument Fund..

UIC [Allele (1997) - by - William Carlson]



Allele - by William Carlson
 
Installed: 1997

Location: The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC)
between UIC Department of Biochemistry and the College of Dentistry

Commissioned by the Illinois CDB Art-in-Architecture program.

 In fact, there are two large scale abstract sculptures, installed in 1997, 
both under the Art-in-Architecture program
Allele - by William Carlson
Symbiotic Parralex - by Terrence Karpowicz
 

.

UIC [Symbiotic Parralax (1997) - by Terrence Karpowicz]

Symbiotic Parralax (1997) - by Terrence Karpowicz




Symbiotic Parralax - Terrence Karpowicz

Installed: 1997 

Steel /  21'H X 12'W X 12'D 

Location: The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC)
In front of Molecular Biology Bldg. 


Commissioned by the Illinois CDB Art-in-Architecture program.


IIT Campus [Concurrence - by Terrence Karpowicz]





Concurrence..
By Terrence Karpowitz
Dimension: 23' x 16' x 8'..
Location: Paul V. Galvin Library at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago.
This was selected from a Navy Pier exhibition, "Pier Walk", in 1999 by a group of IIT professors, administrators and students.



Friday, November 19, 2010

University of Chicago Campus [Construction in Space and in the Third and Fourth Dimensions - by Antoine Pevsner]





Construction in Space and in the Third and Fourth Dimensions
By Antoine Pevsner ..
Sculpted in 1959 by Russian Constructivist artist Antoine Pevsner,
the piece was installed at the Law School in 1964..
Reflective Pool was designed by Dan Kiley..
Location: University of Chicago Law School..
Laird Bell Quadrangle /1111 E. 60th Street..
The Law School building designed by Euro Saarinen..





Russian Constructivism was a movement that was active from 1913 to the 1940s. It was a movement created by the Russian avant-garde, but quickly spread to the rest of the continent. Constructivist art is committed to complete abstraction with a devotion to modernity, where themes are often geometric, experimental and rarely emotional. Objective forms carrying universal meaning were far more suitable to the movement than subjective or individualistic forms. Constructivist themes are also quite minimal, where the artwork is broken down to its most basic elements.
Ref: Russian Constructivism: Art History Archive..