Chicago

01/06/06

Chic Chicago

Chicago...Chicago...Chicago

At Oak Park ... Frank Lloyd Wright's first public piece - the Unity Temple, whose motto is "Worship of God, Service of Man". Built in 1905, it has cubist features, uses poured reinforced concrete and has an overhanging roof. Wright's principle is that the space within the building is the reality of that building. Main features are the subtle manipulation of proportion, layering of visual surfaces and repetition of decorative elements. There are also other historic homes in Oak Park including some designed by Wright.

Some of the stained glasses in the museum at Navy Pier, including one of King Solomon and a holographic plexiglass exhibit.

Around Navy Pier and Millennium Park.

Some of the interesting exhibits at the Art Institute:
Hopi (or Moqui) Runner doing the Snake Dance where a priest runs from the high mesa to the plains while grasping handfuls of snakes; Pocahontas; Different shades of white; Harihara (half Shiva and half Vishnu) symbolizing the paradox of simultaneous creation and destruction; Shanmukha (or Karthikeya); "America Windows" stained glass by Marc Cagall; Mao Zedong by Andy Warhol; Thunderbolt deity from the Kamakura Period in Japan - the protector of the Buddhist Dharma brandishing a vajra; Mask from Congo symbolizing fecundity and the archetypal female ancestor; Masks from Nigeria (Yoruba, which also spread to Cuba); War bonnet from the southern Cheyenne tribe; Vessel depicting a prisoner with avian captors from the Moche culture in Peru.