Millennium Park [The Cloud Gate - by Anish Kapoor]

Only my reflections on the Cloud Gate.. One frigid cold day, I could actually manage to monopolize reflections on the Cloud Gate..

The Cloud Gate..Or The Bean..
By Anish Kapoor..
Location: Millennium Park..





All the above images were taken yesterday, Dec 6th, 2010..
Below images how the Bean on a regular summer day..

Happy Birthday Adrian!! [Contemporary Sculptors of Chicago - Adrian Calderon]

Continuing with my series on Contemporary Sculptors of Chicago..
Here's Adrian Calderon..
One of the most promising young sculptors I've met.. He is all ready to carry forward the the Chicago tradition of large-scale outdoor installations. The Public Art scene in Chicago, has been enriched by the artistic vision of many dedicated sculptors, and the future seems secure too, with a young generation ready to carry forward this time-honored tradition.. and to me, Adrian is all prepared to do exactly that.



Talking to Adrian, what struck me was his strong academic grounding, his knowledge of the grandmasters in the field of sculptures and also his acute understanding of the art scene in Chicago. And the respect and admiration he shows for his mentors and teachers would make them swell with pride.





Although he doesn't as yet have an outdoor installation, he seems all prepared for it. His home-studio has some small sculptural pieces. One of my favourites was this copper piece, he is holding. And in image with photograph, he is explaining to me, how different metals oxidize, tarnish and patina in different ways. Talking to him I learned a lot about different considerations for outdoor installation.. From how a sculptor has to keep on mind, the intrinsic properties of metals and how they react under extreme weather conditions [that Chicago is famous/notorious for]. How the various joints in a sculptural piece has to be strong enough to hold, under assault by extreme temperature variations and strong wind conditions. How rain water will accumulate and potentially damage a piece.. and so on..


One of the silver pieces he has worked on..


I found this piece to be very interesting. How some people react, when he seems a large-scale abstract sculpture..


As far as sculptures are concerned, I've a special place for figure sculptures [neo-classical, abstract, grotesque, anything].. and this really did it for me. This is the first piece I noticed and was impressed..

And I'm happy to publish this post on his birthday.
Today Adrian turns 29..
Happy Birthday Adrian!!..













Above images: Some small-scale sculptures at his home studio..
Below image: Can be called a maquette of a large-scale sculpture he intends to work on..

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..

Chicago West / Dominican University / Meridian VIII - by Ed McCullough

Meridian VIII with the sculptor Ed McCullough

Meridian VIII - by Ed McCullough

Installed: 2006

Commissioned by Dominican University, River Forest, IL

Chicago South - Washington Park / Fountain of Time - by Lorado Taft

Fountain of Time - by Lorado Taft

Fountain of Time - by 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"..

Chicago West / UIC Campus / Allele (1997) - by William Carlson

Allele - 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

 

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Chicago West / UIC Campus / Symbiotic Parralax (1997) - by Terrence Karpowicz

Symbiotic Parralax - 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.

Chicago South - Bronzeville / IIT Campus / Concurrence - by Terrence Karpowicz

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 student

Chicago South / University of Chicago / Construction in Space and in the Third and Fourth Dimensions - by Antoine Pevsner

Construction in Space.....  - 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

Gift of Alex Hillman

The Law School building designed by Eero Saarinen. The building architect Eero Saarinen had suggested that the work of Antoine Pevsner would complement the quadrangle. But his wish coudnt be fulfilled until both Saarinen and Pevsner died (in 1961 and 1962 respectively).  The suclpture was gifted to the university by an alumnus Alex Hillman in 1963 and installed in 1964.

Chicago South / University of Chicago / Nuclear Energy, The site of world's First Nuclear Reactor - by Henry Moore

Nuclear Energy - by Henry Moore

Nuclear Energy, site of world's first nuclear reactor Chicago Pile-1 (CP-1)

Sculptor: Henry Moore 

Dedicated: 1967

Location: The campus of the University of Chicago,

on Ellis Avenue, between the Max Palevsky West dormitory and the Regenstein Library

Commissioned by the B.F. Ferguson Monument Fund, to commemorates the first self-sustaining controlled nuclear reaction. It was erected for and dedicated at the celebration of the 25th anniversary of the splitting of the atom on the grounds by Enrico Fermi in December 2, 1942. The location commemorates the exact location where the Manhattan Project team devised the first nuclear reactor to produce the first self-sustaining controlled nuclear reaction. It was dedicated at precisely 3:36 p.m. on December 2, 1967 

The site was ...

Designation as a National Historic Landmark in 1965 

Designated a Chicago Landmark in 1971