The Chicago Public Art Collection includes more than 500 works of art exhibited in over 150 municipal facilities around the city, such as police stations, libraries, and CTA stations. As part of the City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, the Public Art Program administers the Chicago Public Art Collection and implements the City’s Percent for Art Ordinance. The Collection provides the citizens of Chicago with an improved public environment and enhances city buildings and spaces with quality works of art by professional artists. - Chicago Public Art Collection
2019 photo - Joel Cruz via Pictures of Chicago-Facebook
below Addison/Sheffield CVS store
2019 photo - Gregg Moreland
via Pictures of Chicago-Facebook
Goethe Monument
This heroic statue [located as a gateway to Lincoln Park from Diversey Parkway] pays homage to famous German writer and philosopher John Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832). In 1910, the Goethe Monument Association held a competition to select a sculptor for the memorial. The committee did not want a figurative portrait of Goethe, but rather, a sculpture that would embody the “spirit of Goethe.” The members of the committee hoped to release artists “from the trammels of costume and conventionality” and permit them “to give free flight to their imagination and enthusiasm.” At the time, the Lincoln Park Commissioners had also decided to discourage the installation of conventional portrait busts in the park. Nine sculptors submitted proposals to the Berlin-based jury, and after the winner was selected, the Art Institute of Chicago hosted an exhibit in 1911 of all nine competition models. After its completion, the critics lampooned the Monument to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in the Chicago Tribune for several weeks. In response, one of the competition’s judges, Karl Bitter, defended the committee’s choice, arguing; “after conscientiously deliberating for three days, we chose this design unanimously and enthusiastically.” Modeling and casting the monument in Germany, Hahn rendered the sculpture in bronze with a rich brown patina. The massive eighteen-foot-tall statue weighs eighty tons. - Chicago Park District
Signal of Peace
1910 photo - Art Institute of Chicago
A memorial to the Ottawa Indians, The Alarm is one of the oldest outdoor sculptures in Chicago. Donated by Chicago businessman Martin Ryerson (1818–1887), the bronze sculptural group depicts a Native American family. The male figure is standing alongside his dog and listening for danger while the wife and baby are sheltered at his feet. The artwork is highly detailed with realistic depictions of each element including the arrows' feather fletching and ornate fabric that holds the baby to the cradleboard. Ryseron had great admiration for the Ottawa Indians. As a young man he developed personal relationships with members of the tribe when he traded furs with them. He went on to make his fortune in the lumber industry and real estate. Ryerson commissioned the piece in 1880, long after the tribe had been forced to resettle. Art historian Mary Lackritz Gray explains, “Ryerson was especially anxious that the sculpture portray their strength of character and peacefulness and avoid the stereotype of the unfeeling savage.”
This was the first major commission for John J. Boyle (1851–1917), a Philadelphia-born artist who had spent several months observing Native Americans in North Dakota. The monument originally included bas-relief panels on each side of its base entitled “The Peace Pipe,” “The Corn Dance,” “Forestry,” and “The Hunt.” After the original bronze panels were stolen in the late 1960s, the Park District replaced them with similar scenes of Ottawa life carved into granite and installed on each face of the base. Though first unveiled near the Lincoln Park Zoo, the monument was moved to its present location on the lakefront in 1974 to make way for the new Ape House. - Chicago Park District
WPA’s Federal Art Project hired thousands of artists. “More than 20,000 paintings, murals and sculptures were produced by artists who were paid up to $42 a week. Among them were future superstars Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko and Thomas Hart Benton. Much of the art was installed in public places such as schools and hospitals.” Just in the past few years, the General Services Administration (GSA) has recovered at least 150 pieces of art. The Postal Service owns more than 1,200 murals and sculptures that were commissioned by the Treasury Department's Section of Fine Arts from 1934 to 1943. Post office art wasn't meant to create jobs, says Dallan Wordekemper, preservation officer for the Postal Service. Instead, artists competed to create works that would boost morale during the Depression. The idea, Wordekemper says, was to "bring art to the populace" without charge in a place they visited daily — the local post office. Art that is recovered and restored, he says, often goes right back on post office walls or libraries for the same reasons. - Parsley's Picks: buried treasure
There are many forms of ephemeral art, from sculpture to
performance, but the term is usually used to describe a work of art that only
occurs once, like a happening, and cannot be embodied in any lasting object to
be shown in a museum or gallery.
The three sculptures have been a staple of the
neighborhood for almost three decades and were the work of Chicago artist John
Kearney. Kearney is known for using steel objects, mostly car parts, to create
sculptures of animals. In Chicago, his work includes three deer in front of the
Aon Center, two horses owned by the Chicago Park District and a collection of
Wizard of Oz characters in Oz Park, including the Tin Man, Cowardly Lion,
Scarecrow, Dorothy and Toto. The owner of the Lakeview sculptures, Milton Zale,
also owned most of the buildings on the 3400 north block of Elaine Place, and
sold them to a group of investors – sans sculptures.
Residents were not happy with the abrupt removal. Bret Beaudry said he was stunned when he found them gone and even thought, “Someone might have tried to steal them.” George Eastman, who has lived on the street for 30 years, remembers when the giraffes were put up. - WBEZ
After a long history, at least since 1978, on Elaine
Place there were these metal objects that were removed from the street in 2012.
The artist John Kearney, based in both in Chicago and Provincetown, was the
artist who created figurative sculptures, often of animals, using multiple,
found metal objects, specifically bumpers from cars.
Milton Zale [seller of the property] said it simply was time to sell his property
in Lakeview, but the buyer of his buildings didn’t want to pay for the
insurance on the sculptures. You see, people like to climb them.
'Public art is more important than ever. Chicago Sculpture
Exhibit is an ideal way for people to experience beautiful and inspiring art in
a safe way. With sculptures in so many Chicago communities, many people don't
even have to travel to enjoy a fun and educational activity.' - Chicago Sculpture Exhibit
2018 photo - Scott Kleinberg 
Louis Nettelhorst School Elementary Alumni-Facebook
