Chicago - Art & More Art? - Part 3

This couple in Grant Wood's American Gothic don't seem very happy.

The people seem really lonely in Edward Hopper's Nighthawks.

I wonder if she is talking to her boyfriend.

Oooh. I what happened to this cow?

I like the color in this Jasper Johns, but it seems like he did not know his colors very well.

This Jackson Pollock reminds me of aluminum foil.

This is really groovy!

It's a Calder mobile. I like watching it slowly move around. It's hypnotic!

This is really beautiful stenciling from the Chicago Stock Exchange designed by Adler and Sullivan.

Here is a teller's wicket from a bank Louis Sullivan designed. Why is it here when the bank still exists in Minnesota?

This odd sculpture is part of the Imperial Hotel designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Japan. Unfortunately, like the Chicago Stock Exchange, most of the building no longer exists.

Here is a window Frank Lloyd Wright designed for a small school. It represents a parade from a child's perspective. Can you see the round circles? They represent balloons. The small squares represent confetti and the larger blue rectangles with the red stripes represent American flags. The just made an announcement that the museum is going to be closing for the day. Guess I need to run!

Chicago - More FLW, etc.!

I walked around Oak Park and saw more of the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. This bust of him is kind of creepy!

Here is Wright's Frank Thomas House. I like the arched entrance and the art glass windows.

The Heurtley House down the street also has a big arch entrance.

Here is the Beachy House. I would call it Griffinesque. It burned in a dramatic fire back in the early 1990s, but was restored.

This is the Nathan Moore House. Wright claimed that he designed it with its historic Tudor character to make the client (but not the architect) happy because he needed money as his kids needed new shoes!

Here is the Mrs. Thomas Gale House with its cantilevered porch--pre-Fallingwater!

I then went to the south side of Chicago to visit Hyde Park and Wright's famous Robie House. It reminds me of a huge ship!

The house has beautiful art glass windows!

Down the street is Wright's earlier Heller House with its dancing girl freeze!

Nearby is a religious building by Barry Byrne who had worked in Wright's office.

I like its zig-zag entrance!

Hyde Park was President Obama’s Chicago neighborhood. Notice all of the bumper stickers on this car.

Nearby was the Powhatan, a neat Art Deco building. I like the color mosaics on it.

Chicago - Oak Park & FLW!

Had a great couple of days in Chicago checking out some interesting architecture.

  First stop—Oak Park! This is the art modern Oak Park Post Office, designed by Charles White.

Oak Park was the home of architect Frank Lloyd Wright. I like the strong geometrical forms in his architecture, like the big triangular gable with square shingles, the rectangular windows topped by a semicircular window, the diamond panes of glass, and the round planters.

Here I am in FLW's playroom. Cool mural of the Genie and the Fisherman!

Along the side of the house is Wright’s architecture studio where he designed many prairie houses. Although it is built of brick and shingles like the home, the studio looks very different. It has two big octagonal forms (drafting room to the left and the library to the right—behind me) that are connected by a low entrance behind a wall

Here is a closer look at the entrance to the studio.

I asked the storks what the architecture plan was of that they were standing next to, but they didn’t know. 

Across the street from the Post Office was Wright’s Unity Temple building. Right now it is undergoing a major restoration so they have wrapped the building in plastic. It looks like the artist Christo turned the building into one of his masterpieces!