Mural Update

posted by Elizabeth Fama

(This is a 2022 repost of a 2009 post, after Google's algorithms mistakenly took it and another mural post down for violating the Blogger community guidelines.-EF)

Today I happened upon this scene at 56th and Lake Park. Olivia Gude is restoring her original 1992 mural, "Where We Come From...Where We're Going." I had previously seen a young man (her assistant for the summer) power-washing William Walker's "Childhood is Without Prejudice" (1977), just east of the Gude mural. Ms. Gude is responsible for restoring both murals, using money she says the Chicago Public Art Group got from the NEA. (For a list of all the CPAG mural restoration projects in Chicago, see this link.) I'm pretty sure that the University of Chicago has contributed money for the 56th Street murals, as well. She told me that she had restored Mr. Walker's mural once before, in 1993, and when she had contacted him to discuss it Mr. Walker said, "Why don't you just paint something else over it?" which was unthinkable to her. Mr. Walker's art is considered to be historically significant.

Olivia Gude

Ms. Gude is hoping that while she works on her mural (for the next month, she estimates), people will stop and tell her what has become of the subjects in the mural. She might even add an update about some of them to the text in the mural. I know one of the models, the small-ish redhead in the tan coat. Her name is Rachel, and she was one of my husband's PhD students. She was not terribly fond of Hyde Park. She now works for the International Monetary Fund.

William Walker (b. 1927), "Childhood is Without Prejudice." The loose paint has been power-washed away.

57th Drive Underpass Mini-Murals

posted by Elizabeth Fama

(This is a 2022 repost of a 2009 post, after Google's algorithms mistakenly took it and another mural post down for violating the Blogger community guidelines.-EF)

There are new mini-murals going up at the pedestrian underpass at 57th and Lake Shore Drive. On the day I took these photos (10/20/09), the tile-setter was beginning the process of grouting them, so these images depict the work ungrouted. (The grout the artist chose is a nice dark-gray.) The artist is a Hyde Park resident, Mirtes Zwierzynski, working in collaboration with local schools. The project is funded by the Harper Court Arts Council and Chicago's non-profit After School Matters (an organization you may have heard of because of their Gallery37 summer program). The theme of the mosaics is supposed to be Midwestern flora and fauna, but the kids seem to have interpreted the theme pretty liberally, which is fine with me given how cute this little guy is (above). In general, they are sweet examples of what a collector might call "naive folk art," and they brighten and add interest to the space. I like the spare use of the mirrored tiles, which I think are somewhat overdone in the 47th Street underpass (although I know that's a matter of taste). This underpass is better protected from the elements than any of the Metra viaducts that are currently getting mural makeovers by the Chicago Public Art Group. So, barring graffiti artists and taggers, they should have a long life with little maintenance.

Hyde Park Murals Re-Dedicated

-posted by richard gill

On May 16, an enthusiastic crowd gathered at the 57th Street railroad viaduct to celebrate Bernard Williams's restoration of Astrid Fuller's widely acclaimed murals.  Fuller painted the murals on several viaduct retaining walls, beginning in the early 1970s.  The murals are characterized as "confrontational" due to their subject matter which illustrates socioeconomic and political aspects of Chicago history.  The University of Chicago paid for the restoration.  Other supporters include 5th Ward Alderman Leslie Hairston, Metra, and community organizations throughout Hyde Park.

Artist Astrid Fuller (2nd from left) and an attendee discuss the murals.

Hyde Park resident Jay Mulberry (holding mic) was emcee for the ceremony.

47th Street Mural

posted by Elizabeth Fama

The new mural under the 47th Street Metra pass is finished, and was dedicated this past Saturday, Sept. 19. If you haven't glanced at it from your car, or walked past it on your way to the lake yet, it's worth a look.

It's in a style called "bricolage" mosaic, using broken tile, mirrored tile, colored grout, and tiles with photo transfers. The lead designers were Carolyn Elaine (a Bronzeville resident) and John Pitman Weber. The themes were chosen at community meetings, and photographs were donated by community members. The photos pay tribute to both better-known and unknown 47th Street inhabitants (and esteemed guests, in the case of Ella Fitzgerald) and they are, hands down, my favorite part of the mural.

Alderman Preckwinkle provided menu money to support it. The cost was $86,000, including wall prep and the youth team that worked on it over the summer.

Jon Pounds, Executive Director of the Chicago Public Art Group (CPAG), told me that the challenge was to create something sweeping and almost cinematic as you drive by, but more intimate and thoughtful if you're walking.

I am a sucker for photos from the 20s and 30s.

The symbols that each take up about 1/5 of the mural are (from west to east):
1) the Adinkra (West African) symbol for "know your heritage," called the Sankofa bird, holding the egg of the future in its beak
2) a hand with a spiral in the palm, the Native American sign of human presence
3) a woman's face, reading ("know, learn, read")
4) the Adinkra symbol for "adaptability," called the Denkyem, a crocodile-turtle that lives in water, breathes air, and lays eggs on land
5) Another hand, the Mudra, for tranquility and balance.

The face of the woman reading is in one of three "skylight" segments of the wall.

My biggest worry about murals, and public art in general, is the question of maintenance and removal. In the process of funding this mural, no money was set aside for future maintenance. When it deteriorates -- as it inevitably will (for instance, how color-fast are the photo transfers, when exposed to the elements? Will tiles pop off with seeping, freezing water? The grout in my shower needed work after 10 years!) -- a group like CPAG will have to scramble to find public and private funds for restoration. And years from now, the community that lives with it will likely have little say in whether it's historic enough to be restored, or dated enough to be retired.

Caryl Yasko's Labor of Love

posted by Elizabeth Fama

If you passed by the 55th Street mural, Under City Stone (c. 1972), last summer, you might have seen the artist, Caryl Yasko working to restore it. She spent several weeks there, if I'm not mistaken. All I know is that in less time, my daughter painted a mural of a pod of hippos and an entire African landscape on all four of her bathroom walls. I'm not sure who is funding the restoration, but as of March, 2008, the Chicago Public Art Group was still trying to find a donor for its repair. Perhaps Ms. Yasko was donating her time.

You can see from the water on the ground that this mural gets a fair amount of weathering. The new steel frame "bent" system that supports the viaduct does not prevent seepage. In the middle of winter, there was a gigantic icicle spitefully crawling down the middle of the restored section of the mural.

In short: this particular wall is not suited for lasting mural art. Either that, or someone needs to maintain it almost annually. But how about this instead: maybe the mural artists should rotate, and we should accept that it's an impermanent art form? Or, if it's cheaper, maybe we can put up panel art, as is slated for the 53rd Street viaduct, and we can actually rotate the pieces periodically, rather than be tied to the art trends of the past?

Personally, I'm in the mood for hippos.

Ding Dong, Orisha's Dead!

Bobcat S250 Skid-Steer Loader with HB1180 Hydraulic Breaker in action.

Some residents along 55th Street near Harper Ave. were awakened at 7:26 AM on Saturday morning by the sound of heavy machinery. But this cacophony was welcome, because it heralded the long-awaited end of a neighborhood eyesore.

Straddling the border between the 4th and 5th wards, Orisha Wall was erected in 1986 by artist Muneer Bahauddeen, via funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for "Community Development Block Grant activities." Not a handsome piece to begin with, Orisha was built with unsuitable materials for the outdoors (concrete covered with glazed ceramic tiles), and quickly began to crack, chip, and crumble. Despite pleas from residents, neither alderman seemed willing or able to remove the sculpture. To read all about how Hyde Park Progress inspired Irene Sherr to doggedly seek the sculpture's removal (at a ridiculous DOT price tag of $18,600), read this post.

Ah, progress! Break out the bubbly.

ALERT: Sculpture on 55th Near Harper in Danger!

posted by chicago pop

Why is this person dancing? Because the wrecking crews were out this morning tearing up everything around Orisha wall. Or, last time we checked, everything except the sculpture itself.

But don't worry, we checked with the responsibles, and we can assure you: it's coming down. The city has its own way of doing things, but it will happen.


So our reaction is: Yay! Finally! Happy dance!

I hope nobody is too shocked: we announced the doom of this sculpture back in May 2008, where the tangled history of the case is laid out. But of course, not everybody reads this blog, which is why it was good of the Tribune to run the story, too ("Hyde Park sculpture to come down without controversy," June 11, 2008).

Hooray!

Mural Progress

posted by Elizabeth Fama

At the end of July, an artist named Rahmaan "Statik" Barnes -- with several assisting artists -- painted the new mural under the 47th Street viaduct. The mural was sponsored by Alderman Toni Preckwinkle (4th), Chicago Department of Transportation, and Metra, and produced by the Chicago Public Art Group. It replaces a controversial, slightly unfinished "street art" mural that had been whited out.

The new mural has images of Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, Gwendolyn Brooks, and a bunch of ordinary Hyde Park/Kenwood residents on bikes, at the beach, and on foot. It's a consistent, high-effort product, and for that I give it props. It's still not my favorite style of art, and like many murals in Chicago it has a sort of two-dimensional "collage" aesthetic -- that is, the activities are linear, like ancient Egyptian art, and unrelated to each other -- and problems with anatomy and perspective; but it's upbeat, bright, and colorful.

There's a section that seems to pay homage to my least-favorite mural ("Under City Stone" on 55th Street), but unlike Caryl Yasko's depressing, dated work, the subjects of this 47th Street mural are reasonably happy, the worker appreciates his job, and there's a positive view of public transportation.

The question of whether painted murals are the right medium for underpasses remains, however. There are dripping stains above the image of the Metra train that are only going to get worse over time. That's not a problem if you perceive mural art to be transient, as it should be, but the Chicago Public Art Group (like many Hyde Parkers) seems to think every piece of public art is historic and worthy of preservation.

Fama's Photos

Beth's photo essays sum things up, get things moving, and sometimes make them go away. Beauty and the Beast sparked the first big discussion of the Co-Op -- and of anything, for that matter -- on HPP. The outpouring of opinion on this topic was but a sign of things to come.

Hyde Park Anti-Progress brought attention to a severely deteriorated and unsightly piece of public art on 55th Street. As a result, and after much labor on the part of a number of sympathetic Hyde Parkers, this sculpture is slated to be removed.

That's progress.

****

Beauty and the Beast

(Originally posted by Elizabeth Fama on Saturday, August 27, 2007)

Photo taken on Friday, August 23, 2007 in a newly-opened store approximately 12 minutes north of Hyde Park by car (I can't mention the name, because the Team Members asked me very politely not to take photos after I snapped this one):


Photo (below) taken on Saturday, August 25, 2007, in the only supermarket in Hyde Park. Their slogan: "A love affair with wonderful foods." Comment: unrequited. Their previous slogan: "Dedicated to outrageous service." Wait...OK, yeah, this one is correct.

Hyde Park Anti-Progress

(Originally posted by Elizabeth Fama on Monday, August 6, 2007)

What is this, and when will it go away?

(location: 55th Street and Harper Ave.)

We all clean our closets once a year -- maybe once every couple of years. Aw, heck, I'm even OK with every three or four years; we lead busy lives after all. So, here's the dilemma when the clutter is "public art": who decides when it has served its useful life?

This wasn't a successful sculpture when it went up. It's disgraceful, now that it has crumbled to bits and is growing tree-sized weeds. Even the steel posts that were installed to protect it are rusting.

If Hyde Park had a metaphorical "husband" somewhere, we'd tell him to drag it out to the alley for garbage pickup.

Correction

posted by Elizabeth Fama

I received a call on Tuesday from Virginio Ferrari's son, Marco. He pointed out an error in a previous post of mine regarding public art. I had incorrectly identified this sculpture as his dad's work:


In fact, the sculpture (which used to live in front of the old Woodward Court dormitory) was created by Israeli-born artist Buky Schwartz. I'm sorry for the error.

The point of that post remains: I was on my usual tirade about how private art can be taken down whenever the owner wants to retire it, but public art often has a difficult removal process (witness Orisha Wall), or no process in place at all (which I believe was the case for Caryl Yasko's 55th Street mural, now slated for restoration).

Marco pointed out that blogs can be flawed news sources because they're not vetted -- that is, anyone can write anything and many people will believe it. That may be true, but there's some great freedom of speech happening on this blog that I wouldn't want to throw out with the bath water. We try hard, but let us know when we've made a mistake and we'll happily correct it.

Hyde Park's Best Public Art

posted by chicago pop

The concrete dolphin children's fountain in Bessie Coleman Park, on Drexel at 54th Place, hands down. How could you not love this one? Who needs Sea World?

Stay tuned for a jam session on the Hyde Park Neighborhood Club, and whether one of HP's oldest voluntary organizations can stay alive in the 21st Century.

Prognosis: Maybe. But it won't be business-as-usual.

Celebrate! Orisha Wall is Coming Down.

posted by Elizabeth Fama

Thank goodness -- no, thank Irene Sherr -- the dilapidated sculpture on the 55th Street median just west of Harper Avenue is finally going to be removed.

Orisha Wall by Muneer Bahauddeen, 1986

Soon to be demolished.

There's no date set for its removal yet, but it's official. The City of Chicago Department of Transportation has sent a letter to the Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce requiring its removal.

How did this happen? I'm glad you asked.

1) Irene Sherr's interest was piqued because the bloggers at Hyde Park Progress were foaming at the mouth about this sculpture, and about the fact that, since it straddles the line of the 4th and the 5th ward, neither alderman seemed willing or able to tear it down.

2) Because she's a woman of action, Irene contacted a lawyer specializing in art and artists, and dug around for documentation on the sculptures.

3) Here's what she found:

a) The City of Chicago received funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1986 for "Community Development Block Grant activities."

b) The Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce requested money for public art, and specifically for two sculptures -- the one that's coming down, and another created by Matt Freedman, that sits in Harper Court:

People Watching by Matthew Freedman, 1986.

(Interesting aside: Matt was paid less than half of what Muneer was paid. In fact, Matt was paid less than the amount it will take to remove Muneer's sculpture.)

c) As part of the 1986 grant agreement, the Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce was to keep at minimum $2,300 in escrow for the maintenance of the sculptures, or for their removal if the City requested it for any reason in the future.

4) Irene spoke with Jim Poueymirou at the Chamber of Commerce and with Robert Mason, at the Southeast Chicago Commission (SECC). Everyone agreed that something needed to be done, although another source told me that the Chamber initially thought maybe the sculpture should be saved and moved to an inside location (oy vay).

5) The SECC wrote a letter to the 4th and 5th ward aldermen, who both asked the Department of Transportation to check the condition of the sculpture.

6) The DOT wrote a letter to the Chamber saying "Due to the deteriorated state of the statue, the City requests that the Chamber either repair the statue or remove it from the property and restore the site." In that letter, the DOT estimated that the cost of removing the sculpture and restoring the median (which DOT will do) will come to $18,600.

7) Out of politeness (not a legal requirement), someone notified Mr. Bahauddeen that Orisha Wall was slated to be removed. He was disappointed. Apparently he has decided the decay is part of the artistic statement.

8) The Chamber of Commerce checked its coffers, and discovered -- oops -- there's only $1,200 in the escrow account.

9) Alderman Preckwinkle and Hairston offered to pay $9,000 each from their 2008 menu money.

10) The DOT says that removal and restoration of the median should occur this spring, this fall, or at the latest, next spring.

Post Script: in taking the second photo, I noticed that Matt Freedman's bronze sculpture, which is doing far better than Orisha Wall, is nonetheless in need of maintenance, or it too will begin to fall apart.

Um, Irene,...are you up for Round Two?

Retire and Rotate, part II: there's hope for rotation.

posted by Elizabeth Fama

As you may have noticed, the embankments and viaducts along Lake Park Avenue are being refurbished lately. The embankment walls are new (although I noticed they are only a veneer of stone over [gasp] concrete), and there's going to be fresh landscaping. The viaducts themselves are being shored up, with something called a steel frame "bent" system, and there will be more and better lighting. Progress is sweet.

TIF Council rendering of 55th Street viaduct from Lake Park Ave.

Ah, but what about the art, you ask? Is that being refubished as well? Or are we doomed to viewing outdated, peeling, vandalized murals for all eternity? Good question -- I'm proud of you. And as it turns out, we're taking a baby step towards "retiring and rotating" our public art.

Caryl Yasko's 1972 mural Under City Stone (north wall of 55th Street underpass) is unfortunately slated for restoration, once the Chicago Public Art Group (CPAG) finds a donor. But across the way, on the south wall, Albert Zeno's Alewives and Mercury Fish is blessedly being retired. In its place, and on both walls of the 53rd Street viaduct, there will be 8-foot by 12-foot digitally-printed color art panels by four artists: Terry Evans, John Himmelfarb, Calvin Jones, and Margaret Burroughs. The University of Chicago is paying for the panels. The art was chosen by a team from the CPAG, the Hyde Park Art Center, and the South Side Community Art Center.

Aspiration, by John Himmelfarb.


On the Beach, by Margaret Burroughs.

OK, so these particular pieces wouldn't have been my curatorial choices, you all know that by now. But I'm really happy that we're inching our way towards the "Retire and Rotate" principle in public art, since the panels can eventually be removed and replaced when they get worn, vandalized, or when we're simply tired of them.

Retire and Rotate, Part I

posted by Elizabeth Fama

This is a sculpture called Judith and Holofernes:

It moved around a few times after Donatello created it, sometime between 1455 and 1460. In 1495 it was placed in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, as a symbol of the freedom of Florence from the tyrrany of the Medici. But by 1504 it had been moved inside the courtyard of the Palazzo Vecchio, and another sculpture took its place:

Not too shabby. You see, for the longest time the Italians were not afraid of moving their public art around, or retiring it and replacing it with something else. Sure, the pace of rotation and retirement may have slowed, now that sculptors aren't making pieces of the quality of The David, and now that Florence is almost exclusively a tourist town. All those visitors need to be able to find the attractions, after all.

But Hyde Park is not a tourist town. We're not pleasing anyone but ourselves with public art. We should feel free to retire and rotate.

Take the mural, Under City Stone, for example (on which I have previously ranted here). Jon Pounds of the Chicago Public Art Group (CPAG) is raising funds to refurbish it. The rubric used to judge the merit of murals, according to Pounds, is "connection with the community, historic importance, and impact on other muralists." But this neglects what I believe are the more important standards of aesthetic beauty, artistic training, and current fondness by the community. (The historic importance he refers to is the fact that Caryl Yasko was one of the founders of the outdoor mural movement.)

Under City Stone (painted in 1973), and the artist, Caryl Yasko, with her recent indoor mural in the Manitowoc Public Library (photo credit [right]: Patrick J. Young, for the City of Manitowoc).

Here's the thing about murals, historic or not: they decompose. Paintings have to be inside buildings with a controlled climate to last for decades or centuries. Does Jon Pounds hope we'll refurbish Under City Stone every 35 years ad infinitum? I'd be in favor of letting someone else have a shot at it right now. That would be more in the spirit of the "outdoor art" movement, anyway.

If anyone is feeling sentimental about these installations, maybe the Hyde Park Historical Society and the CPAG can be persuaded to document them in photographs and paperwork, and display them in a small exhibit.

Another of our eyesores, the sculpture called Orisha Wall (1986) on the 55th Street median, was especially fragile to the elements and started deteriorating immediately after it was installed. By 1992 it was already listed in the category "treatment urgent" by a committee called Save Outdoor Sculpture. And here's why: the darned thing is made of glazed, kiln-fired tiles, attached to a concrete base with tile wall cement, and then grouted. Another sculpture installed at the very same time (Matt Freedman's Watching People, in Harper Court) is made out of a more traditional outdoor material -- bronze -- and has withstood the elements.

Orisha Wall (erected in 1986), and its artist, Muneer Bahauddeen (photo of Mr. Bahauddeen [right] reproduced with permission of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.)

This is a close-up of Orisha Wall -- a portion on which the glazed tiles are completely missing:

And here are some glazed ceramic tiles that Mr. Bahauddeen recently installed on the Marquette Interchange in Wisconsin:

(reproduced with permission of the Wisconsin Department of Transportation)

I sure hope the tiles are covered from the elements, or the sponsors of the Interchange beautification project will have a crumbling mess on their hands as well.

That is, unless they understand and embrace the Hyde Park Progress principle of "retire and rotate."

Public Art and its Artists

posted by Elizabeth Fama

I harp a lot about, um, disappointing public art. So you can imagine how fun it was to find these photos in the University's Archival Photographs collection.

[apf2-04065 and apf2-04064]

There are no dates on these photos, but the clothing looks like it's from the early 1960s to me. Above you can see Gary Wojcik with what is labeled his "prize winning" fountain sculpture for the park at 55th Street and Kimbark Avenue (Nichols Park). You'll recall that Chicago Pop was merciless in a previous post, nicknaming it Medusa at Rest. The photo on the left above was taken at the "Garden Show," so I assume that's a non-functioning prototype of the winner.

[apf2-04071 and apf2-04067]

This is Jerome Skuba with his entry for the park on 54th and Blackstone Avenue (Spruce Park). I remember this sculpture from my childhood. So I walked by Spruce Park the other day to visit it (OK, I really wanted to snap an unflattering photograph of it), and lo and behold, it's gone. Now how do you suppose that happened in our Nothing-Must-Ever-Change neighborhood? It gives me hope that another little eyesore might disappear soon, too.

[apf2-04062 and apf2-04061]

And last, but not least, here is Yvonne R. Hobbs with what must have been a runner-up in the contest. The archives indicate she proposed it for Nichols Park, but I presume she lost out to the dynamic Medusa. Her creation would have been six feet tall; a nice, sharp, rusted steel climbing object for generations of children. But I have to admit: I want her glasses.

All photos: Archival Photofiles, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago. Archive number appears below each photograph in brackets.

When Public Art Goes Bad

...WHO WILL STEP UP TO THE PLATE AND RETIRE IT?

posted by Elizabeth Fama

Some of our readers may be entrenched enough in Hyde Park to remember the Virginio Ferrari* sculpture that was in front of Woodward Court (now the home of the Graduate School of Business's Harper Center). It looked something like this when it was in one piece:

summer, 2004

I searched up and down on the Internet, and I could not find a photo of it in situ in its glory days. Even Virginio Ferrari has decided not to put it in his online portfolio. I did track down the actual sculpture, however, and it's living a modest but comfortable life in a little mechanical graveyard behind the steam plant on 60th and Blackstone. It looks like this:

January, 2008

You see, this sculpture happily served its useful life. It adorned the front of an ugly, squat dorm without upstaging it; over the years it supported thousands of college students reading a book between classes or flirting a bit; it even let a little girl climb on it nearly daily in the late 1970s on her way to the Laboratory Schools (as if she wasn't late enough). When it's useful life was over -- voila! -- the private owner (i.e. the University) simply retired it.

The sculpture below is publicly owned, so apparently, in spite of our pleas, it can't be removed.

And the mural below is not only publicly owned, but heaven help us, local and national organizations are fighting to refurbish it...whether we like it or not.


The Getty Foundation says, "The qualities that make these murals so distinctive -- their outdoor locations and the materials used to create them -- can hasten their disintegration and decay." Well, duh. That's why we should consider them transient art, and either give someone else a shot at the wall (in my opinion, a classically trained artist), or re-think the visual design of our underpasses entirely.

*2019 Edit: It has come to my attention (through an astute reader) that the duct-like sculpture shown at the top of this post was not created by Virginio Ferrari, but by Buky Schwartz. Since this post was originally published, the pieces have been moved to 60th and Cottage Grove (visible on a satellite image).