The Gov says the “Monument with Standing Beast” will be moved to the “new” State Office Building. Phew. Problem solved! Not so fast. What about the other 150+ art works inside the building? What happens to them? Did you know they are there? How about this: As opposed to Dubuffet’s Continue Reading
Public Art
UPDATE: The Eagle Fountains: Where Have They Been?
August 20, 2024 This is an update to this entry, first published in 2019. I received an inquiry from a friend about the Eagle Fountains, asking why they’re still not back in place. I queried my contact at the Chicago Park District and got this reply: “Restoration of the fountains Continue Reading
Monuments to Women. Seen Any Lately?
I lecture on Chicago’s public art (and on public art in general). Monuments are necessarily part of the conversation, though generally speaking, the making of representational monuments became passé in the 1950s. However, prior to that all of the commemorative monuments in Chicago were to dead white men, several of Continue Reading
Chicago’s Lost, Altered and Disfigured Public Art, #2
As we said in our first entry on this topic, “When we start telling the stories of our public art, the conversation inevitably turns to art that is gone. Where did it go? Why?” The list of missing art is long and, at least to this observer, maddening. Herewith are Continue Reading
The Dentist in the Park
You can picture the faces. Visitors to Lincoln Park walk up to a statue, look at it and walk away saying, “Who?” Many of Chicago’s parks contain monuments that are like that. Humboldt. Schiller. Altgeld, not to name just Germans. Schiller. A sculpture that stands in a lovely, very prominent Continue Reading
The Sculpture at the End of the Fire
The Great Chicago Fire finally burned itself out on October 10, 1871. The exact northern end point of the fire is a matter of conjecture. Most detailed maps show it stopped at just about the spot where the Peggy Notebaert Museum is today. If you’ve been on any of my Continue Reading
John Storrs, Ceres, and The Model Who Wasn’t
Several years ago I was asked to do research for a Chicago architecture documentary. One of my assignments was John Storrs’ sculpture Ceres, which stands atop the 1930 Holabird and Root Chicago Board of Trade Building. My task was to confirm the oft-repeated story of the “model” for the sculpture. Continue Reading
Ivan Meštrović and the Ox and Buffalo That Never Happened
If you’ve been paying attention since 1928, you might have noticed the two large equestrian statues on opposite sides of the Congress Parkway, just east of Michigan Avenue. They are The Bowman and The Spearman, sculpted and cast by Croatian artist Ivan Meštrović. The stories of how they came to Continue Reading
Chicago’s Lost, Altered and Disfigured Public Art, #1
Chicago has an astonishing collection of public art, numbering in the thousands. Stories about our public art objects abound. About some objects and artists little is known. For yet others, the prevailing stories are simply wrong. When we start telling the stories of our public art, the conversation inevitably turns Continue Reading
Public Art – Chicago’s Hidden Treasure
This is an edited version of a “Maybe We’ll Talk About Public Art Too” podcast. Hello, everyone. My name is Ed McDevitt. This blog episode is called “Public Art – Chicago’s Hidden Treasure.” My original intent was to devote an entire blog and podcast series to Chicago’s collection of public Continue Reading