Walking Tours and Public Art in Chicago

Four Seasons, Chagall.

I recently spent a few days in Chicago, Illinois.  This is the seventh post in a series about the museums, architecture, public gardens, and art I visited while there.  The first post can be viewed here.

While researching things to do in Chicago I came across the itinerary for a self guided walking tour of public art in the Loop area of Chicago.  The tour includes 21 different public art pieces as well as recommendations of additional buildings and sights to see along the way.

There was lots of other public art to take in just walking around the city on a daily basis.  The city of Chicago has a vibrant public art program which include over 700 works found in over 150 municipal properties in the city.  So it's hard to not see at least some of the public art. Details on the Public Art Program and highlights from the public art collection can be seen here.

I've done a number of guided tours in other cities but never a self guided tour. The walk was a good

Chicago Picasso

experience. There was only one or two instances where the directions on the guide weren't terribly clear.  And we explored parts of the city and artwork we might have otherwise overlooked.

A couple of my favourites stops along the tour were the Chicago Picasso sculpture, the Four Seasons mosaic mural by Chagall, and the Town-Ho's Story by Frank Stella.

While visiting the Art Institute of Chicago earlier in the week the small exhibit focusing on public art spoke about the controversy that surrounded the Chicago Picasso when it was installed as the first large scale public art piece in the downtown. It was nice to be able to see it in person and being used as a giant slide by children.

Town-Ho, Frank Stella.

The amount of work that must have went into Four Seasons by Chagall amazed me. The 70ft long mural is made up of thousands of pieces of coloured glass and stone. The mural depicts seasons and landscapes of Chicago.  The work includes pieces of Chicago brick that was added by Chagall after the work arrived in the city. Four Seasons was donated to Chicago in 1974.  In 1994 work was done on the mosaic to restore the piece after and a protective canopy was added in an attempt to shield the work from exposure to the elements.

Frank Stella's Town-Ho Story is located in the lobby of the Metcalfe Federal Building.  The 18 foot high metal sculpture is named after a chapter in Moby Dick and it part of larger series by Stella relating to the book. There has been numerous complaints and controversy surrounding this work with many people calling it a 'pile of garbage', 'not art', 'metal scrap', etc.

One of the nice things about exploring public art in a self guided tour is the ability to spend as much time at a work as you want, to take time to see other sites not included in the tour, and the option of setting your own pace.  This particular self guided tour involved a fairly lengthy walk but made for an enjoyable day exploring the city.

Photo Credit: Andrew MacKay