Sunday, 10-27-2013, it was a sunny
but chili day outside. I started my day from Agora at Grant Park. Agora was
installed by Polish artist Magdalena Abakanowicz. She cast 106 iron human
figure without arms and head and send it to Chicago as a gift. These sculptors
were casted in between 2003 to 2006 and also installed in 2006. Even though
these figures are not in a motion, I felt like they are walking and passing through each other and me, when I walked in between them. It is a symbolizing urban population in Chicago
city.
Few block walking toward the north,
I had an encounter with the Bronze statue of “The spirit of Music” created by
artist Albin Polasek and this was dedicated to Theodore Thomas, the first
person to get Chicago symphony orchestra.
The Bowman behind me,2013
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| Art Institute of Chicago, 1893 |
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| Art Institute of Chicago's Public Garden |
I bounced whole Art Institute
Garden and a Millennium Park area, because I visited there habitually.
Therefore I skipped the tour of The Art Institute Public Garden, Crown
Fountain, Cloud Gate, BP Bridge, Jay Pritzker Pavillion and The Peristyle. These
places are definitely amazing places to be and to explore.
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| Cloud Gate (Bean) |
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| Middle part of the Cloud Gate |
The Art Institute of Chicago was
originally built in 1893 World’s Fair and later transform into the Art Museum,
which was built by Tim Samuelson. It was also a remarkable because of two giant
lions in front of the museum, and the garden is an impression of heaven.
Crown Fountain was amazingly
wonderful in the summer time with its playfulness. This fountain was designed
by Jamey Concha with 22,000 glass breaks with lead screen on them. There are
1000 faces of Chicago residence shows each day. The concept behind these
fountains with human picture is showing an importance of water in human body.
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| Crown Fountains |
Artist Anish Kapoor is England
based Indian artist and was able to put his work Cloud Gate at Millennium Park.
It is also famously known for Bean, which was made out of 168 stainless steel
plates. He used 110 tons of steel in this sculpture.
Next to the Bean,
there are Jay
Pritzker Pavillion,
huge concert place with 4000 sittings facility and big open
ground behind and a BP Bridge, 925 feet long sound barrier stainless steel with
snaky design.
Both of them
were
designed
by
Frank Jerry.
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Jay Pritzker Pavillion with my friend, 2011
and
BP Bridge on right hand side
The Peristyle is a Greek inspired column or post made out of Indiana Lime stone and French lime stone respectively upper and lower part.
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Next, I went to The Vietnam Memorial designed by Gary Taylor, who is a Vietnam Veteran, in 2005. There is a fountain wall with the sign of Republic of Vietnam Service and in front of that the entire name curved in black marble of the Veteran who was killed in Vietnam War. They are from Chicago land. This design reminds me the memorial that designed by Maya Lin with running water to give the feeling of purity.
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| Chicago's Picasso in 2010 |
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| Picasso and me,2013 |
Besides that, I went to Monument with the Standing Beast,
Picasso’s Chicago, Miro’s Chicago. All of these pieces were installed around
same decade. Picasso was installed in 1967 and a generous gift from Picasso,
Miro was installed in 1968 and Standing Beast was in 1969. People hear the rumor
of Picasso’s sculptor is portrait of his girlfriend or his dog. John Miro’s
piece, which is also known as The Sun, Moon, and Star, is standing just opposite
to Picasso. On the other hand, Monument with the Standing Beast, made by John
Du Buffet, is very different experience with public art at the time and many
people even said, “What is going wrong with arts these days?”
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| Chicago's Miro or The Sun, Moon and Star |
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| Chicago's Miro |
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| My Shadow in Miro's Sun, 2013 |
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In front of
Monument of the Standing Beast |
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| Monument with the Standing Beast |
I went to another place of public art, which was
installed in 1974 with really big and nice staircase and resting place. It’s
called “Four Seasons” by Marc Chagall. He portrait Chicagoans life style in
whole year and he named that piece four season.
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| Me with Chagall's Four Season |
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| Four Season by Marc Chagall |
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| Detail of Four Season |
The last thing I visited that day was
Flamingo by
Alexander Calder, which was standing 53 feet tall from the ground level. It’s bright red and made of caste iron. I am there around evening time when the light is on and It looks so beautiful at night when there are no natural light. Flamingo stands alone with bright red body surrounded by tall buildings and invite people to come and play with it.
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| Close up of Flamingo by Alexander Calder |
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| Loop Art |
Two
days later I went to see Loop Tattoo and which was very hard to find because of
new house that was building next to it. You can see it across the street and
very few people notice easily. It was created by Johanna Poethig. It is 135 X
45 feet, with the 270 piece of 5 X 5 feet printed panel on the right side of
the house (63 East Lake Street),and installed in 2006.
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| We Will (Flame), Installed in 2005 |
"We Will", last public art I visited this time was built by Richard Hunt, Chicago artist. It's a sculptor made out of stainless steel and according to the artist it represent hopes and dream of the city. He is an African American artist.
The last thing I visited that day was Flamingo by Alexander Calder, which was standing 53 feet tall from the ground level. It’s bright red and made of caste iron. I am there around evening time when the light is on and It looks so beautiful at night when there are no natural light. Flamingo stands alone with bright red body surrounded by tall buildings and invite people to come and play with it.
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