New banners celebrating Chicago’s famous public art head to the Loop

New, brightly-colored graphic banners paying homage to some of Chicago’s most iconic downtown public artworks were unveiled today. Featuring eight unique designs, the streetlight signs will line State Street between Lake and Congress showing abstract interpretations of works like Pablo Picasso’s unnamed sculpture in Daley Plaza and Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate AKA “the Bean” in Millennium Park.

Created by Chicago-based artist Bob Faust, the banners come from the Chicago Loop Alliance and represent the group’s contribution to the citywide ‘Year of Public Art’ initiative. Other recent additions include a giant fiberglass deer along the Chicago Riverwalk and a less-than-subtle golden sculpture across from Trump Tower that reads ‘Real Fake.’

"Chicago's greatest public artworks make powerful memories from the feelings they invoke,” said Faust. “My goal through these minimalist graphics is to instigate a reaction that reaches back into our memory banks and pull up the original feelings made by the artworks they represent.”

Chicago Loop Alliance

However inspirational, many of Chicago’s public art installations may also face uncertain futures. Earlier this year, Ward Miller of Preservation Chicago expressed concerns that Alexander Calder’s iconic Flamingo sculpture in Federal Plaza could be in peril. With ongoing talks regarding the redevelopment of Chicago’s Thompson Center, the permanence of Jean Dubuffet’s 1984 sculpture Monument with Standing Beast is also in doubt.

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