Take Your Stand
I realize this is PR, but still is smart, and a welcome change from the Daley old school style
A few months after his May inauguration, Emanuel said, he decided that he would work out of the mayor’s so-called ceremonial office — and not the relatively plain office in the back that he has turned into “kids study hall” for his children after school — and he would make it a showcase for Chicago art and furniture. He said he especially liked the idea of promoting Chicago artists, given the dignitaries who pass through his doors regularly, including foreign leaders such as President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea, China Investment Corp. Chairman Lou Jiwei and various ambassadors and mayors.
So Emanuel talked to the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and local furniture designers about contributing works, and now the room boasts a series of conversation pieces that reflect the city.
“The goal was, A, we could showcase things about Chicago that people don’t expect, and, B, it had to be free,” he said. “People had to donate them.”
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The School of the Art Institute also provided students’ photos that line the small hallway through which office visitors pass: color portraits of workers at the Palmer House Hilton across from evocative black-and-white shots of the hotel’s spaces.
“I thought these were a stunning capture of Chicago,” Emanuel said.
The mayor went with more established (and no longer living) Chicago artists for the office walls. From the Art Institute, Emanuel selected Seymour Rosofsky’s late-’50s oil painting “Unemployment Agency,” a grim, striking work that hangs on the wall behind his desk, and from the MCA’s collection came Miyoko Ito’s relatively bright “Chiffonier” (1971) and Leon Golub’s foreboding “Head II” (1959).
“I have a particular love for Golub,” Emanuel said, noting that he is displaying only works that the museums had in storage. “I didn’t take anything off the wall in any of the museums. I’m not going to do that.”
“We just think it’s super-cool that he wants real art in his office and he wanted to talk to us about borrowing pieces from our collection,” MCA chief curator Michael Darling said. “It’s sort of a win-win, from our side of things.”
He added that he was intrigued by what the mayor chose to display.
“Especially the Leon Golub piece is one that I’d say is still an edgy piece, and also from one of the leading historical artists of Chicago,” Darling said. “So it sends a message about the legacy of art in Chicago, but it’s also not just a pretty picture. … That just shows how progressive and open-minded he is and culturally oriented he is, the fact that he’s picking contemporary artists from Chicago as opposed to any kind of bland landscapes or old-fashioned portraits.”
(click here to continue reading Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is a locavore when it comes to the artwork hanging in his City Hall office – chicagotribune.com.)
In fact, I wonder who curates these things: maybe there is something I could donate…