ZOOM AT 6PM THIS EVENING - REGISTER FIRST
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Richard Ward
Apr 14, 2021, 5:05:13 PM4/14/21
to 1300
You are invited to a Zoom meeting.
When: Apr 14, 2021 06:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Register in advance for this meeting:
The only item on the agenda for the April 14 meeting is the Report by Jim Wales on the Advisory Council’s Art, Monuments and Markers Committee.
At this meeting, members of the Advisory Council will vote on the recommendations of the Council’s Art and Monuments Committee on the Lincoln, Equestrian Indians and General John Logan sculptures in Grant Park that are the subject of the Mayor’s Monument Committee request for comments. The possible recommendations, consistent with the process we have adopted, are attached to this notice. You are a member of the Council if you have attended three meetings in the last 12 months or have attended the last two meetings. The Art and Monuments Committee recommendations are attached. The Council’s recommendations, as well as the report of our Committee, will be provided to the Chicago Park District, the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, our Aldermen and the public. Please contact us if you have any questions about these issues or our process.
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
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Below this line is where you would expect to find ATTACHMENTS....however, some folks are reluctant to open attachments because they sometimes contain viruses, etc. I assure you that I simply copied and pasted this complete report from the Monument Committee. It is long and detailed (and lost it's original formatting), however many of you are concerned about the "cancel culture" that has been encouraging this discussion, and the reasoning for these "Historic Monument" decisions is very enlightening, and I recommend reading the "thinking" going into these recommendations.
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Grant Park Advisory Council
Committee on Art, Monuments & Markers
On March 24, 2021, the fourth step of the identified review process was completed in regards to the
review of the Equestrian Indians (the Bowman and the Spearman), the Abraham Lincoln: Head of
State and the General John Logan Monument. These three projects were included in the 41 exhibits
throughout the city of by the Chicago Monuments Committee as requiring further discussion.
Additionally, the was also included in their group of 41 exhibits however the CAMM
Committee had already issued a recommendation for that monument so that is not included in this
review. The Committee had 5 potential recommendations to make:
1. No action is deemed necessary—existing monument remains in place without any additional action.
2. Re-contextualization—provide new or additional context by any means including: install site-specific
plaques or signage, update historical information, disclaim endorsement of the acts of historic figures,
or provide information electronically.
3. Relocation—relocate to another Park District site. Alternatives include relocation or long-term loan to
cultural organizations, museums, or relevant historical, cultural, or educational settings.
4. New temporary or permanent works—commission new artworks in any medium including sculpture,
performance, and socially engaged art in order to foster public dialogue on polarizing historical
moments and to amplify additional or excluded voices and underrepresented histories.
5. Removal—remove offending, controversial, or outdated works from outdoor display on public
property.
The following advisory recommendation was approved by the Committee on Art, Monuments & Markers at
that meeting.
Approved Motions
The Committee votes unanimously to recommend that the Equestrian Indians remain as permanent
artworks in Grant Park because of their extremely high degree of historical, cultural, artistic, and social
value.
The Committee votes unanimously to recommend that the Abraham Lincoln: Head of State remain as a
permanent artwork in Grant Park because of its extremely high degree of historical, cultural, artistic, and
social value.
The Committee votes unanimously that despite Logan’s controversies, his contributions are so important,
and the artwork possesses such a high degree of artistic and historical value, that the landmark-designated
General John Logan Monument should remain as a permanent sculpture in Grant Park.
Statement of Majority
Equestrian Indians
Bowman and Spearman, 1928
The Committee votes unanimously to recommend that the Equestrian Indians remain as permanent artworks
in Grant Park because of their extremely high degree of historical, cultural, artistic, and social value.
Commissioned by the B.F. Ferguson Fund, the artworks were produced by Ivan Mestrovic (1883–1962), an
internationally-renowned Croatian sculptor. After studying at the Academy of Arts in Vienna during the
famous Secession Movement, he moved to Paris and began to show his work in major European exhibitions.
He befriended the famed French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), who described the Croatian artist as
“the greatest phenomenon among sculptors in the world.” (New Outlook, 1924, p. 405.)
Mestrovic received the commission for these artworks in 1926, when he came to Chicago to exhibit his work
at the Art Institute. The monuments were specifically conceived to flank Congress Plaza, a grand entryway to
Grant Park designed by architects Bennett, Parsons, Frost and Thomas. Along with other elements that
contributed to the park’s development during this period, the sculptures expressed the Art Deco style. The
male bronze figures are colossal in scale and “details such as musculature, headdresses, and horses’ manes
have been boldly simplified.” These monuments “have been regarded as the finest monumental work of Ivan
Mestrovic.” (Bach and Gray, A Guide to Chicago’s Public Sculpture, pp. 18-19). As noted in Art Deco Chicago,
as Congress Plaza was reaching completion in 1928, the Chicago Tribune described it as “the world’s most
beautiful plaza.” (Bachrach, p. 192).
The Chicago Park District’s web-based guide to sculpture and monuments states that the Bowman and
Spearman were symbolically meant “to commemorate the tribes that once roamed the Illinois prairies.”
Although the figures are poised to shoot an arrow and throw a spear, the weapons have been left to “the
viewer’s imagination.”
The Chicago Monuments Project website suggests that, although “Impressive for their heroic scale and
bristling energy, the sculptures have been criticized for their romanticized and reductive images of American
Indians.”
The sculptures are listed as contributing resources to Grant Park’s designation in the National Register of
Historic Places. The Committee acknowledges that the artist did not intend to create a literal representation of
Native Americans of our region. The choice of subject matter by the artist notwithstanding, the Committee
feels that the criticism of the statue does not warrant removal of these landmark-designated artworks.
Abraham Lincoln: Head of State “Seated Lincoln,” 1908 (installed 1926)
The Committee votes unanimously to recommend that the Abraham Lincoln: Head of State remain as a
permanent artwork in Grant Park because of its extremely high degree of historical, cultural, artistic, and
social value.
Chicago businessman and philanthropist John Crear (1827-1889) left a bequest in his will for a for a southfacing Lincoln monument and for a technical and scientific library. The trustees of his estate wanted to erect
both elements in Lake Park, the unfinished lakefront greenspace which would later become known as Grant
Park. In 1896, the trustees gave the commission for the artwork to the Irish-born sculptor, Augustus SaintGaudens (1848–1907), who has been described as “the American Michelangelo.” (Dryfhout, The Work of
Augustus Saint-Gaudens, p. 25). Saint-Gaudens had completed Lincoln: The Man for Chicago’s Lincoln Park
several years earlier. While some critics believe that sculpture is superior to this one, others, including SaintGaudens himself, favored “this figure, which attempted to combine personal and official images.” (Bach and
Gray, A Guide to Chicago’s Public Sculpture, pp. 28-29).
While Saint-Gaudens was working on the monument in the late 1890s, Chicagoan Daniel H. Burnham was busy
creating plans to transform Lake Park into an impressive downtown greenspace. Burnham’s plans included
the Lincoln monument and a George Washington monument, along with a Crerar Library, a new Field
Museum, and other structures. As explained by the Chicago Park District’s web-based guide to sculpture and
monuments “the scheme was problematic because early restrictions prohibited the construction of buildings
in the park” and “mail-order magnate Aaron Montgomery Ward launched a series of lawsuits to protect the
lakefront open space.”
While Montgomery Ward’s lawsuits dragged on, Saint-Gaudens completed a first model of the sculpture,
which was destroyed in a 1904 studio fire, and then a second model, which, according to author John
Dryfhout, “was cast in bronze in 1906,by the Roman Bronze Foundry, New York City” (p. 278). While the legal
battles continued in Illinois, the monument was displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in
1908 and at the 1915 San Francisco Exposition.
After Montgomery Ward won his final lawsuit preventing the South Park Commissioners from building
structures in Grant Park, new plans were needed to complete the unfinished greenspace. The commissioners
hired the firm of Burnham’s associate Edward Bennett to prepare the revised plans. Remaining true to
Burnham’s vision, Bennett, Parsons, Frost, and Thomas designed a formal Court of Presidents as a
monumental space within the park. In 1926, Saint-Gaudens’ bronze figure was finally erected on a 150-footwide marble setting designed by architect Stanford White. Although the commissioners had hoped to mirror
the Lincoln with a George Washington sculpture, this was never realized, and the Seated Lincoln remains as
the only permanent monument on the Court of Presidents.
The Chicago Monuments Project explains that with this “monument Saint-Gaudens sought to portray Lincoln
at the end of his life – in a state of isolation and refection at the end of the Civil War – and unknowingly
approaching the end of his life.” The Monuments Project goes on to say that the sculpture’s large exedra and
seating area provide visitors a space to contemplate the “complex circumstances and ironies of his life.”
The monument is listed as a contributing resource to the Grant Park’s designation in the National Register of
Historic Places. The Committee concludes that despite ironies and complexity, Lincoln’s contributions are so
important, and the artwork possesses such a high degree of artistic and historical value, that the landmarkdesignated monument should remain as a permanent sculpture in Grant Park’s Court of Presidents.
General John Logan Monument, 1897
Erected in 1897, the General John Logan Monument was the first public artwork installed in the lakefront
greenspace that would become Grant Park. (At the time, the site was called Lake Park.) Born in Illinois, John
Alexander Logan (1826–1886) served in the Mexican-American War before becoming an attorney. He served
several terms as a Democratic Illinois State Representative and then as a United States Congressman. Entering
the Civil War as a colonel, he quickly worked his way up to the rank of general. After the war, Logan switched
parties and served one term as a Republican US Congressman and two as Senator. He also headed the Grand
Army of the Republic, an organization of Union Army veterans. On behalf of the G.A.R., he recommended the
creation of Memorial Day, known originally as Decoration Day, and first observed on May 30, 1868.
Soon after Logan died, the State of Illinois appropriated funds to create a memorial to him in Chicago. State
legislators commissioned acclaimed sculptors Augustus Saint-Gaudens (1848–1907) and Alexander Phimister
Proctor (1862–1950) to produce the heroic bronze monument. The highly respected Saint-Gaudens had
recently completed Lincoln: The Man (also called Standing Lincoln) in Lincoln Park. Born in Canada, Proctor,
had grown up in Colorado, and spent time immersed in the American wilderness. He studied art in Paris and
became an animalier. Thus, Saint-Gaudens would produce the figure of Logan while Proctor sculpted his
horse.
Author John Dryfhout notes that renowned New York architects McKim, Mead and White worked with
Chicago’s Daniel H. Burnham to site the monument (p. 230). The South Park Commission provided the site and
the granite base. According to the Chicago Park District’s web-based guide to sculpture and monuments, the
monument had been intended as the burial place for Logan and his wife. Although his widow planned to have
his remains moved to the tomb from Washington D.C. along with her body, this never occurred. As a result,
the tomb has always been empty. Art historian James Riedy explains that the Logan monument was dedicated
on July 22, 1897, a date designated as Logan Day, in commemoration of “the Battle of Atlanta, one of the
bloodiest of the war,” which took place on July 22, 1864 (Chicago’s Sculpture, p. 235). He also notes that the
city held one of its largest parades of that period as part of the dedication ceremony.
Standing on a mound just east of S. Michigan Avenue, the General John Alexander Logan Monument is among
the city’s most recognizable sculptures. It is iconic not only for its dramatic setting, but also its connection to
Chicago’s Democratic Convention of 1968 when peace demonstrators climbed on the monument and were
violently pulled from it by police.
The Chicago Monuments Project explains that Logan was “deservedly respected for his Civil War leadership,”
however, “General Logan’s background is not without its controversies. His military career began as a soldier
volunteer in the Mexican War. In his early politicized career, he allied with Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, and
participated in legislation directed towards halting black migration and settlement in Illinois.’
The monument is listed as a contributing resource to the Grant Park’s designation in the National Register of
Historic Places. The Committee concludes that despite Logan’s controversies, his contributions are so
important, and the artwork possesses such a high degree of artistic and historical value, that the landmarkdesignated monument should remain as a permanent sculpture in Grant Park.
Concurring members: Julia Bachrach, Charles Bethea, Ed Gordon, Ron Mott, Julia Packard, Elaine Soble,
Nora Taylor, Jim Wales
Sources:
“Artworks and Monuments,” Chicago Park District Website: https://www.chicagoparkdistrict.com/parksfacilities/artwork-monuments
Bach, Ira and Mary Gray. A Guide to Chicago’s Public Sculpture (Chicago: University of Chicago Press) 1983.
Bachrach, Julia. “Grant Park Axis,” Art Deco Chicago, Robert Bruegmann, ed. (New Haven, CT: Yale University
Press) 2018.
Chicago Monuments Project Website: https://chicagomonuments.org/
“Comes to America,” New Outlook, Volume 138, 1924.
Dryfhout, John H. The Work of Augustus Saint-Gaudens (Hanover, MA: University Press of New England) 1982.
Riedy, James L. Chicago Sculpture (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press) 1981
FORWARDED BY:
Richard F. Ward, Treasurer GPAC,
President, NEAR
New Eastside Association of Residents
155 N. Harbor Dr. #5101
Chicago, IL 60601
New Eastside Association of Residents
155 N. Harbor Dr. #5101
Chicago, IL 60601
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