"Dali in America" at the Dali Museum in St. Pete

In Bonwit Teller window

Salvador Dali was a character. You might, in fact, go so far as to say that his persona was a brand. And that persona -- along with some terrific art -- is on full view at the "Dali in America" exhibit at the Dali Museum in St. Pete. It's a fun show that showcases Dali's relationship with American arts and culture. 

I always enjoy seeing how artists worked in fields adjacent to their own. I also enjoy being one with the art. So this recreation of a window that Dali designed for Bonwit Teller was right up my alley. If you look carefully, you'll see that I'm about to answer the lobster-shaped phone on the counter. Other Dali references in the "window" include the mannequin head made of roses and his "Aphrodisiac Jacket" (out of the frame of this picture). The aphrodisiac effect apparently comes from the consumption of the contents of the 55 shot glasses with faux creme de menthe sewn onto the jacket. 

What I enjoyed even more than becoming part of this window display was learning about the fit Dali threw when Bonwit Teller had the audacity to alter the later "Day and Night" window Dali created for the store. In order not to offend passersby, an attired manequin had been substituted for Dali's skinny dipper. The nerve! The artist was so outraged that he went on a rampage in the store window, "brandishing a surrealist bathtub, made of Persian lamb, with such vigor that he smashed the plate glass and toppled onto the street." The resulting design with the bathtub half in the store and half on Fifth Avenue must have been very Dali-esque. 

"Baseball and Ballerina" (1947)

I was surprised to learn that Dali was a baseball fan. It's a terrific sport, but you have to really watch to appreciate it. The beauty is often in the small moments, and I have a hard time imagining Dali sitting still and taking it in. And of course there's the fact that he wouldn't have been the center of attention. But he claimed to be "obsessed" with the sport despite his acknowledged lack of knowledge of anything more than the basics. He apparently liked baseball's melancholic feel. (As a Rays fan, it's an emotion with which I am familiar.) 

If you happened to see the "Disney and Dali: Architects of the Imagination" exhibit a few years back, you might have seen the short film "Destino." It took 58 years to complete. Yes, you read that right. Walt was on board with the concept, but World War II broke out and the studio ended up in financial straights. It didn't seem the right time to invest in even a short film of this nature. The film was revived decades later by Walt's nephew Roy. I've veered off on this sideline because the film features a baseball player as a pinch hitter for Chronos, the god of time. I like the analogy. To see some storyboards from the film, click here. And to see "Destino" in its entirety, click here. 

Proposed artwork for 1939 World Fair 

I'll leave you with Dali's "Declaration of the Independence of the Imagination and the Rights of Man to His Own Madness" from 1939. The surrealist manifesto is of course a take on our country's own Declaration of Independence. It begins, "When in the course of human culture it becomes necessary for a people to destroy the intellectual bonds that unite them with the logical systems of the past..." and goes on from there. The funny (both "ha ha" and strange) thing is that the manifesto includes a reference to the Bonwit Teller incident involving the display window. It turns out there's a similarity.

The work was created for display as part of Dali's "Dream of Venus" pavilion at the 1939 World's Fair in New York. The work is, of course, a take on Botticeli's "Birth of Venus." But, like the naked mannequin Bonwit Teller refused to exhibit, this artwork was a bridge too far for the World Fair's Amusement Control Committee. It was fine for visitors to the Pavilion to enter through an archway comprised of a woman's opens legs and to see a nude woman reclining on a 36' bed and topless mermaids swimming in a tank symbolizing the unconscious mind. But a fish head instead a human head on the body of Venus was a bridge too far. I'm just reporting here. If you have a subscription to the NY Times, you can read more about the pavilion by clicking here for an article in the paper's "time machine." It's a fun article.

While Dali didn't withdraw from the World's Fair in protest, neither did he leave the issue alone. On the day the World Fair opened, Dali hired a plane to drop leaflets with the proposed image and his version of the Declaration of Independence across the City of New York. The Declaration states, in part, that it is ""man's right to love women with the ecstatic heads of fish." I would have loved to have seen the look on people's faces as they perused the flyers. For the entire manifesto, click here. 

"Dali in America" continues at the Dali Museum through October 18th, so there's plenty of time to see the show. If you do go, it's worth taking the time to watch the videos. We particularly enjoyed seeing Dali's appearance on "What's My Line," which you can view by clicking here. Enjoy! 

Caro Claire Burke Talks "Yesteryear" at Tombolo Books

Author events are usually pretty staid affairs. Interesting, yes. Engaging, sure. But "raucous" is not a word I'd typically use to describe the atmosphere of a book talk. So I was a bit taken aback by the club-like atmosphere at author Caro Claire Burke's recent talk for Tombolo Books. 

The intimate bookstore had moved the event to Creative Coastal to accommodate the crowd. I entered to find dimmed lights and pounding music. Electric candles illuminated the space. The 250 or so people - almost all women -- were excitedly waiting to hear from an author whose novel tells the story of a trad wife influencer who's fallen down a rabbit hole and emerged in 1855. (In case you're not familiar with the term "trad wife," it's a woman who embraces traditional gender roles and values in her marriage. An "influencer" is, of course, someone who shares her lifestyle online with a zillion followers.) 

"Yesteryear" is Burke's debut novel. She said she wrote the first draft in a fever dream. It was as if Natalie, her protagonist, was controlling what Burke wrote. The author likened her writing experience to hanging out with your craziest friend and wondering where she had decided they would end up on any given night. The result is a wild ride of a story. 

Burke's plan had been for Natalie to be an immediately likeable character who's submissive and acted upon by the world and whose husband is fully in charge of their lives. As you might have gathered, that is not the way anyone would describe Natalie. Instead, she is plotting and manipulative and extremely self-centered. In short, not the type of person most people would enjoy being around. 

Natalie wasn't always that way, though. When she arrived at college, she felt like a fish out of water. Coming from a conservative religious family, she was totally unprepared for campus life. Her roommate Reena epitomizes everything that was different (read "wrong") about this world. Take, for instance, the night Natalie wakes up in the middle of the night to find that Reena has brought a boy home to her bed after a night of partying. Oh, my! 

Author Caro Claire Burke 

Natalie's world rights itself when she met the son of a politician at a Christian campus group meeting. The life he offers her seems to be a world beyond her wildest dreams. But appearances can be deceiving. Instead of her dream life, she finds herself married to an incredibly wimpy guy, living on a farm and popping out babies. She is totally unprepared for this existence and extremely unhappy with the choices she's made. 

Natalie's savior is her Instagram account where she shares posts carefully crafted to show her followers the "perfect" tradwife life she is living. When her online persona takes off, her existence becomes driven by creating content. Natalie often thinks of Reena when she posts, hoping her former roommate sees the seemingly perfect existence she's now living. And that's all I'm going to say about the story of "Yesteryear" for fear of diluting your own reading experience. Trust me, though, when I say that there is so much more to this story. 

If you're thinking "this sounds like it has the makings of a good movie," you're right. In a bidding war that took place two years before the novel hit bookstores, Amazon MGM Studios acquired the rights to make "Yesteryear" the movie. Anne Hathaway is set to produce and star in the film. Interestingly, media outlets are characterizing it as a "horror" movie. To read more about the movie and the political chord "Yesteryear" is striking, click here. (In case you don't have time, here's one interesting tidbit from the article. Burke traced the origins of the term "tradwife" to online incel -- or involuntarily celibate -- spaces. Creepy.) And you can click here to see Hathaway's own Instagram post marketing her upcoming role.  

Thanks to Tombolo Books for hosting this terrific event. To hear directly from the author, click here for a short interview with her on the Seth Meyers show. One tidbit I learned from that interview is that there are 742 holds for the novel in the NY Public Library System and that someone requesting the book can expect to receive it in 10,402 days. So if you think "Yesteryear" sounds like a good choice for your bookclub, you might want to bite the bullet and buy a copy. Happy reading!

"Jun Kaneko: Silence Before Sound" at the Tampa Museum of Art

With two of Jun Kaneko's "Heads"

I'm always drawn to works of art featuring unique faces, be it Modigliani's elongated visages or Easter Island's moai. So it's no surprise I enjoyed my introduction to Jun Kaneko's "Heads." Perhaps the best part is that I just wandered into the Tampa Museum of Art to kill time before a show at the Straz, not knowing what I was about to discover. What a treat to be introduced to Kaneko's art. 

Kaneko is a Japanese-born artist whose intended career path took a turn when he landed at the Chouinard School of Art in LA back in the 1960s. His plan had been to make his mark on the art world as a painter. But when he was introduced to the ceramic work of the California Clay Movement artists, he fell in love with the medium. He liked the idea of his art interacting with a space and even, perhaps, defining it. He has definitely accomplished that goal. 

"Untitled (Dango)" (2021) 

Kaneko is best known for his dangos, the word for a Japanese dumpling. When he first started creating these forms, he wasn't sure they were enough. Was the shape of these works too simple to be considered fine art? The answer is a resounding "no." 

One of the most striking things about Kaneko's dangos is their size. His first creation was 6' tall and weighed 5-1/2 tons. The largest work he's created stands at twice that size and, correspondingly, weighs twice as much. Kaneko has said that 95% of the work consists of planning and engineering.

In addition to his dangos, Kaneko has created a series of works he calls "Heads." Entering the gallery where some of these pieces reside was one of those moments when I found myself practically running towards a work of art because I had to be close to it as soon as possible. Awkward! What if I had tripped and fallen into one in my enthusiasm? Happily, I stayed upright. 

Kaneko believes one reason his "Heads" are so engaging is that their familiarity "shrinks the difference between the viewer and the object." Hmm. Now that I look at this image again, I realize that the smaller head makes me think of Hitchcock's "Psycho." It's probably not the type of "familiarity" Kaneko had in mind, but I take his point. I did feel some kinship with these works. 

Sliver of Kaneko's costume and scenic design
for San Francisco Opera's "The Magic Flute" (2012)

When doing some research about the artist, I learned that Kaneko designed the sets and costumes for three operas. I love it when visual artists design for the stage. (If you're interested in this topic, click here to see the set and costumes designed by Picasso for a production by the Ballet Russes. The video is worth watching just to see two dancers in a horse costume doing the soft shoe. But I digress.) 

Kaneko's scenic design for the San Francisco Opera's production of "The Magic Flute" consisted solely of projected animation, something that had never been done before in opera. "Just because someone says it's impossible doesn't mean you can't do it," Kaneko said of this undertaking. If you have time to watch this video, please do. His work is absolutely amazing, and learning about the process was fascinating. I was interested in the resemblance in these particular costumes to Kaneko's dangos. Coincidental? I think not. To see some of his designs while on the drawing board, click here. 

"Jun Kaneko: Silence Before Sound" continues at the Tampa Museum of Art through August 23rd. It's worth a stop if you're in the area. For more about Kaneko and his work, click here. Here's to discovering new artists! 

"From the Heart to the Hands: Dolce & Gabbana" at ICA Miami

"Handmade" gallery

To say I'm not a fashionista would be a vast understatement. My preferred clothing choice has grown to be jeans and a t-shirt. Still,  I'm always excited to see a good fashion exhibit. The Dolce & Gabbano exhibit now on at ICA Miami is that and much more. It is a stunning look at the contributions of these designers to the world of haute couture.

The exhibit spans 13 immersive rooms, each with a different theme. The gowns and other clothing in this image are from the "Handmade" gallery. The detail in these works  --  created in collaboration with Italian artisans -- is mindboggling. It's not hard to imagine a weathered Italian seamstress bent over one of these gowns with needle and thread in hand.

The description of the attire was as over-the-top as the fashion. Take, for instance, what the wall card had to say about the works in this section. "Each collaboration represents a stop in Dolce & Gabbana's 'Grand Tour' of the peninsula: a contemporary journey reminiscent of that taken by young European nobles in the 18th century who came to Italy in search of its artistic and scenic treasures." Lofty language indeed. It would be interesting to dig into the historical significance of the designs and the materials, often hand-painted silks embellished with elaborate embroidery. No such knowledge was required, though, to appreciate their beauty. 

By Anh Duong

Each room had a unique design that complemented the fashion in some way. The "Handmade" gallery featured the artwork of Anh Duong, a French artist, actress and model known for her self-portraits. As a model who "walked" in the very first Dolce and Gabbano runway show, Duong was the perfect choice to participate in this exhibit. I was as captivated by her works as by the couture. 

In this painting, Duong has recreated Manet's "Luncheon on the Grass," although not altogether faithfully. Gabbana has taken the place of the gentleman resting on one arm. His hand is outstretched to Duong, perhaps in appreciation of her unclothed beauty (a bit ironic for a fashion exhibit). A top-hatted Dolce sits by Duong's side and joins her in gazing at the viewer. The gentlemen are decked out to the nines, presumably in clothing they designed. I love it. If you do too, you can click here to see more of Duong's work. Now back to the exhibit proper. 

Menswear got plenty of attention in the show. You might expect that the men's clothing would be a bit more subtle than the designs to be worn by women. You would be wrong. As you can see here, the jackets to be worn by men about town are just as creatively adorned. Not surprisingly, I was drawn to the jackets featuring reproductions of famous works of art. Take, for instance, this sampling from the Alta Sartoria Milano Collection seen on the runway in 2020. (Note: The "runway" in this case was at the Pinocoteca Milano, a museum known for its Renaissance art collection. For a video of that introduction to this collection, click here. I am gobsmacked.) 

Renaissance art is not exactly in my wheelhouse, but the painting on this jacket rang some distant bells. Ah, yes, it's Leonardo's adrogynous "Saint John the Baptist" from 1513-1516. My question, of course, is why this work and other Renaissance paintings made their way onto D&G couture. There's much commentary on this, but Flavia Lefebrvre D'Ovidio, an Old Masters painting specialist at Christie's London, perhaps summed it up best. "[These works] pay homage to the past whilst transmitting a sense of glamour, richness and opulence." I find the fact that someone from Christie's is commenting on these works fascinating. For more on this aspect of these designs -- and some great photos from the runway -- click here. 

I'll leave you with some garments with yet another feel. The Alta Sartoria and Alta Moda collections featuring the couture shown here debuted on a runway at the Archeological Park of Nora in Sardinia. Click here to see a video of what that show looked like. The setting is another huge "wow" and features the models walking through "Nora Mirage," a site-specific installation by light artist Phillip K. Smith that was commissioned for the show. 

The clothing is, well, interesting. As is apparently typical for D&G, they chose the setting for the introduction of this line before designing the clothing. The wall card relating to this section of the exhibit talks about the "ancestral magic" of Sardinia with its prehistoric art, archaeological remains and folk rituals, all of which are incorporated into the stories behind this line of couture. 

I was particularly interested in the coat the male figure is wearing and learned that it evokes the mastruca. Happily, the wall card went on to explain. "[The] mastruca is the traditional...wool cloak once worn by shepherds and still worn today during the ritual of the Mamuthones, masked figures who parade through the Mamoiada carnival. This danced procession...stages the eternal tension between good and evil, between winter and summer." Holy moly. 

"From the Heart to the Hands: Dolce & Gabbana" continues at ICA Miami through June 14th. It is a knock out show for both fashion and art lovers. Don't miss it if you're in the area. For more information, click here. And to see more of the exhibit, click here. 

Philadelphia's Magic Gardens

Maggie and me with our tour guide 

Our visit to Philadelphia's Magic Gardens was by far the most unique art experience Maggie and I had during our recent trip to the City of Brotherly Love. Imagine walking into a 3,000 square foot space with mosaics everywhere you look. I am not exaggerating. Artist Isaiah Zagar mosaicked nearly every square inch of his art studio, inside and out. And he didn't stop there. He also created a fully mosaicked bi-level sculpture garden. The result is an interesting -- if somewhat overwhelming -- art environment.

Zagar didn't set out to create a tourist destination. He just wanted to make art, but he was running out of studio space. He had noticed a nearby lot that was clearly not being used given the amount of trash littering the site. He built a fence to secure the property (despite not owning it) and, as the website says, "spent the next 14 years excavating tunnels and grottos, sculpting multi-layered walls, and tiling and grouting the...space." Once he got started with his endeavor, his neighbors participated in the project (if you consider throwing objects they no longer wanted over the wall for him to use in his creation "participating"). 

Eight years later, the existence of what would become the Magic Gardens was threatened when the owner decided to sell the property. Zagar couldn't afford the $300,000 purchase price and resigned himself to leaving his art behind and moving on. After all, isn't the joy in the making? The community had become attached to Zagar's work, though, and rallied behind the artist to save what he had created. The Philadelphia Magic Gardens was incorporated as a non-profit, and the funds were raised to preserve this unique space. 

You might wonder how Zagar started creating mosaics. It turns out that the art form that became his passion began as a type of therapy. At just 29 years old, the young artist attempted to commit suicide. During his subsequent hospitalization, he was diagnosed as suffering from bipolar disorder and depression. 

When Zagar arrived back home, his wife Julia knew something had to change. She also knew he needed to keep making art. She looked around their house and noted that the walls were empty. She suggested he might want to try his hands at mosaics. He took to it like a fish to water.

Being an artist, Zagar didn't head over to Home Depot to buy the tiles he used in his art. He made most of them himself, painting and firing the ceramics only to break them into pieces. Sometimes he painted figures into his work, most often of himself or Julia. A careful observer can also find names and quotes in his work. "Julia" of course appears many times. But you might also come upon full sentences such as "art is the center of the real world" and "remember walking around in a work of fiction." (While I didn't see the latter expression, it is quite perfect.) 

Zagar's art sometimes incorporates found objects, like the bottles you can see in this photo. Most of the objects were made by the artist, though. I especially liked my new friend in the little alcove who seems to reference the couple's time in Mexico. And if you look carefully, you can see a small figure in the top left of this photo. Wth his arms outstretched to viewers, he appears to be saying, "So, what do you think?" 

In addition to the Magic Gardens, Zagar created more than 250 mosaic murals over his lifetime, most of which can be found in Philadelphia. He also turned five other spaces, including the couple's home, into art environments. Passionate about his work to the end, Zagar continued to create mosaics until just three days before his death this past February. He was 86 years old. That is someone with a true creative spirit. For more about Zagar and his Magic Gardens, click here.

With that, my musings about Maggie's and my trip to Philadelphia are done. Whew! We packed a lot of art into our time there. Maybe on my next visit I'll check out some history. Hmm. Probably not. Art is so much more fun. 

Philadelphia's Got (More) Art!

 Copy of Rodin's "The Kiss" by Henry Greber

Rumor has it that Philadelphia has a lot of history, but the Liberty Bell wasn't on the agenda for Maggie's and my girlfriend getaway. Instead, we saw art and more art, from street murals to works that have sustained the test of time. Pour a cup of coffee and join me on our journey. 

I had no idea that Philadelphia is home to a museum featuring Rodin's beautiful sculptures. It turns out that Philly was the first U.S. city to display works by the sculptor. In 1876, Rodin sent eight works to the Centennial Exposition. He won no medals, and his work essentially went unnoticed. It makes me wonder what else was on display (but not enough to research the question -- lol). 

The Museum includes many of the sculptures for which Rodin is best known, although some were not actually created by the artist. This version of "The Kiss," for instance, is a copy carved by Henry Greber in 1929. Still, it's a sculpture I've always, well, loved.  

As you may know (I didn't), "The Kiss" depicts Francesca and Paolo, a doomed pair of adulterers from Dante's "Inferno. Hopefully they enjoyed this rapturous embrace because Francesca's husband (who also happened to be Paolo's brother) stabbed them to death when he found them locking lips. You can add to the list of things that I didn't know the fact that Rodin called the work "a large sculpted knick-knack following the usual story." And that was before the image became emblazened on tshirts and mugs and the like. I'm just going to ignore this information and continue to be enchanted by the work. For more about "The Kiss," click here.

"Bad Boy for Life" by Noah Davis (2007)

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is now home to a retrospective of the work of Noah Davis. Despite passing away at age 32 after a battle with cancer, Davis made notable contributions to the contemporary art world. I'm happy to have been introduced to his work and his legacy. 

First, his art. Davis aspired to represent the people around him. Real life, that is (although the Jerry Springer show was one of his inspirations, and I'm not sure that qualifies as real life). The indistinct -- somewhat "smeared" -- way he painted the faces of his characters in "Bad Boy for Life" is representative of his style. It gives his works a kind of dreaminess. I love the expression on the mother's face. "Oh well, she seems to be saying. You gotta do what you gotta do." The boy, too, seems resigned to receiving his punishment. It's just a part of everyday life. 

Davis' legacy also includes the Underground Museum in LA that he opened with his artist wife Karon Davis. The idea was to bring contemporary art into a Black LA neighborhood so its residents could see what was happening in the art world. The exhibit "Imitation of Wealth" featured recreations of works by well-known artists such as Jeff Koons' "Hoover Vaccuums." I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall when people saw these works. For more on Davis, click here. 

"High Yella" by Betye Saar (2002)

The Museum also had an exhibit on entitled "In Her View: Highlights from the Keith and Jim Straw Collection." The Straws began collecting the work of female artists in the 1970s, an unusual focus at the time. My favorite work in the exhibit was "High Yella" by Betye Saar.

"High Yella" is an assemblage that includes fabric, plastic ornaments and a framed gelatin silver print. The texture of the work, which you can hopefully see in this image, came from Sayre's use of painted cast pulp. The photograph is of an unidentified Black woman who is light-skinned and serves as the heart of the piece. 

Saar's intention behind this work is to highlight colorism, a discriminatory system pursuant to which lighter skinned Blacks are treated more favorably than those whose skin is a darker shade. It's an issue Saar addresses frequently in her art through the use of materials such as yellowed vintage photographs, darkened paper and aged fabrics. I love this quote about using her art to highlight societal issues. "To me the trick is to seduce the viewer. If you can get the viewer to look at a work of art, then you might be able to give them some sort of message." Consider me seduced. For a short interview with the artist (then 95 -- she's now approaching 100) , click here. 

Up next is my final blog about our trip to Philly and will introduce you to the Magic Gardens and the work of Isaiah Zagar. It's an incredible site that cannot be captured with a single image. Stay tuned!

Philadelphia's Got Art!

"Declaration" by Titus Kaphar
and Reginald Dwayne Betts

With more than 4,000 murals across the city, Philadelphia is the mural capital of the world.  No, I did not add an extra zero to that number by mistake. This is a city that takes its public art seriously. And here's the cool thing -- most of the art was financed by Mural Arts Philadelphia, a public-private partnership founded in 1986. Its budget runs between $11MM and $15MM per year, with public funding making up approximately a third of that amount. Wow. Not surprisingly, taking a mural tour was at the top of my list of things to do during my recent visit. I can check learning about 12 of the 4,000 murals off my list -- lol. 

One of the things that struck me about many of the murals is how large they are. As the saying goes, size matters. "Declaration" by artist Titus Kaphar and poet Reginald Dwayne Betts, for instance, stands eight stories tall. It makes the message of this work all the more powerful. 

The mural includes a portion of the Declaration of Independence that's been heavily redacted. The redaction is, of course, what the mural is all about. You probably recall from your civics classes that the Declaration of Independence stated that "all men are created equal." Problem number one with this language is that "men" was interpreted to mean only men, and women didn't gain the right to vote until well more than a century later. Problem number two, and the point of the mural, is the contradiction between this language and the scope of the Constitution, enacted 20 years later. Per the Constitution, each enslaved African-American was counted as three-fifths of a person when determining a state's representation in Congress. Not exactly equality among men. 

And here's something cool about this work and the Mural Arts program. It was developed by Kaphar and Betts in connection with a Mural Arts' Reimagining Reentry Fellowship. Many of the people who worked on the mural were from the Mural Arts Guild Program, a reentry program for men and women recently out of prison. "Declaration" is a huge "wow" in every respect. 

"Untitled" by Amy Sherald (2019)

We also visited a mural designed by Amy Sherald, the artist best known for painting Michelle Obama's official portrait. The image is that of Najee S., a participant in the Murals Arts education program. The intention is for viewers to see Najee not as an individual but as a representative Black body taking up public space (six stories of public space to be exact). Who is deserving of being the subject of a work of art and how seeing a portrait such as this impacts viewers are two of the basic questions Sherald's work asks. 

It of course makes sense that Najee spent time with Sherald in connection with the creation of the mural. But Najee wasn't the only Mural Arts education participant to meet the internationally known artist. A larger contingent visited Sherald's studio where they had the chance to talk with the artist and explore her studio. Sherald apparently has costumes on hand to dress her subjects, so they also got to play dress up. What an opportunity!  As a side note, our tour guide shared that Sherald's involvement in the creation of the mural was limited to creating the design. She did apparently paint the buttons on the coat, but she wasn't out there on a scaffolding for days on end with a paintbrush in hand. Still, everyone on the tour was excited to see this work. And if you're interested in seeing more murals honoring women, click here. 

"ContraFuerte" by Migaul Antonio Horn (2021)

In addition to its Mural Arts program, Philadelphia enacted its Percent for Art programs in 1959. The ordinance requires an amount equal to at least one percent of the cost of construction projects developed on City land or funded by the City be spent for site-specific public art. The programs were established during Mayor Richardson Dilworth's tenure as part of his "modern golden age" vision of improving the city's infrastructure and public spaces. 

Miguel Antonio Horn's "ContraFuerte" is one of the 600+ works around the city created in connection with these programs. Most people interpret the figures in the work as working together to hold the ramp into a city parking garage in place. It clearly takes a lot of effort, as any collaborative endeavor does.

Horn is a bit more oblique about his intention. "It's a group struggle," he said in this interview, "But there are also individuals within that...The way people relate to that connects with their own internal struggles and experiences." I found the sculpture a bit creepy. Art is personal. 

What a treat it was to be in a city that has made public art such an integral part of its design. If you visit, take the time to look up and appreciate what's been created. For more on the Mural Arts program, click here. And for more on the Percent for Art program, click here.