Second to None
of the residents are to be updated periodically, so that the two faces peering
across Millennium Park reflect the current state of the populous. The emphasis
of this fluid, evolving video sculpture
is primarily on conversation and interaction, as were ancient fountains. The
result is a dynamic artwork which provides a 21st century gathering place for
Chicago’s oppidan mix.
A COLORFUL HISTORY
The extraordinary success of Cloudgate
and The Crown Fountain today reflects
the propitious state of Chicago’s public
Photo by Brian Worchuk. Via Flickr.
50
PEACHY
arts program, an agenda that has
matured over time and is now considered the gold standard of public art
initiatives. Rewind several decades,
however, and very different zephyrs
were blowing across the landscape of
public art in the Windy City. In 1963, as
plans were laid for Daley Plaza, which
would become one of the city’s preeminent public spaces, a Chicago architect,
Dick Bennett, penned a prose poem to
Pablo Picasso, entreating him to create a
sculptural centerpiece for the plaza.
Picasso was coincidentally working
on a commission for the city of Marseilles at the time, another town noted
for its connection to organized crime.
When the artist received Bennett’s lyrical supplication, it was less the poetics
that drew the artist in than the cheeky
intrigue of working on a project for
the world’s “other gangster city”. He
agreed to accept the commission and
ultimately became so enamored of the
the City of the Big Shoulders that he
refused payment and bestowed the
sculpture as a gift to the city. The result
was The Picasso—a cubist sculpture
of Core-Ten steel standing 50 feet tall,
which, unlike the Bean, was initially
met with opprobrium rather than
acclaim. When the artist presented the
city with a maquette of the piece, the