Woman Observing the World and Striding Man

Woman Observing the World

Striding Man

Woman Observing the World and Striding Man, 1951 (installed 1965)

Abbott L. Pattison

3440 North Lake Shore Drive Apartments

            These two bronze figures were cast at the Marinelli foundry in Florence, Italy, used by Chicago sculptor Abbott Pattison throughout his career following a period of working there during the 1950s. The 7-foot tall Striding Man earned Pattison the first place award in the 1951/52 Metropolitan Museum of Art’s contemporary American sculpture show and Woman Observing the World was exhibited at the Whitney Museum of Art in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago.  

          Demonstrating Pattison’s cubist-inflected figurative approach, which combines realistic elements with abstracted anatomical references, the works were purchased in 1965 by Louis Solomon of the firm Solomon, Cordwell, and Buenz and placed in front of the building designed by the architects.

Other works:

• I Have a Dream
• Pavane to Chicago
• Chicago Totem

I Have A Dream

I Have A Dream, 1978

Abbott L. Pattison

Campus of Chicago State University

9500 South Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive

            In 1977, an art committee from Chicago State University, with support from the B. F. Ferguson Monument Fund, commissioned Chicago-based sculptor Abbott Pattison to create a work memorializing the late civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. using as a theme King’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech delivered in Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1963. During the planning of the memorial, the artist experienced a dream that combined images from King’s marches calling for brotherhood with a scene of a stone being thrown into a pond, creating circles that radiated from the center. In his dream, Pattison embraced three figures, an African-American man, woman and child, and promised them he would reach out to other strangers. In order to illustrate these interlocking themes, Pattison designed a group of five figures, recognizable as human but composed of crumpled, stylized forms, on a low base. Placed roughly in a circle with their backs to each other, the figures gesture outwardly with their hands, appearing to entreat the viewer to consider their plea for harmony and equality.  


Other works:

• Woman Observing the World and Striding Man
• Pavane to Chicago
• Chicago Totem

Pavane to Chicago

Pavane to Chicago, 1981

Abbott L. Pattison

Campus of DePaul University, near the Concert Hall

800 W. Belden Avenue

            A “pavane” is a stately dance in slow duple time, popular during the 16^th century, or a piece of music in this rhythm. The reference to music reveals sculptor Abbott Pattison’s interest in capturing a sense of the rhythmic “surge of life” associated with his native city. On the brass plaque that accompanies the piece, the artist explains that a sculpture of Chicago “couldn’t be just a person, nor an animal, nor the lake, nor the sun—but some creation containing all of these things.” This bronze work, featuring rounded, undulating forms and bold protuberances, is his visual interpretation of the “sound of the city in the middle of the night” and the “throbbing pulse of the place.”

            A companion piece to Pattison’s Chicago Totem, this work was located originally in the lobby of the Outer East Drive Apartments at 400 East Randolph Street. Later, it was donated to DePaul University and now stands outdoors near the Concert Hall on campus.

            Pavane to Chicago is not the only work by Pattison that has been moved from its original location. In 1954, while teaching at the University of Georgia, Pattison created a stylized 10-foot high horse out of heavy-gauge steel to be displayed on campus. According to some accounts, students rioted over the piece when it was unveiled, possibly due to disparaging remarks made by the artist about the school’s athletic program, and they covered it with spray paint, manure and attempted to set it on fire. It was removed from campus, stored and, in 1959, moved to a grain field owned by a professor in the agricultural department alongside Highway 15, where it still stands today.

Other works:

• Woman Observing the World and Striding Man
• I Have a Dream

Chicago Totem

Chicago Totem, 1963-64

Abbott L. Pattison

West Plaza, Outer Drive East Apartments

400 East Randolph Street

            Rather than an emblem of a particular group of people, Abbott Pattison’s monumental 18-foot high bronze totem is intended to represent the force and energy of his native city. Non-representational but suggestive of writhing, organic forms, the piece was commissioned by the Jupiter Corporation, developers of the Outer Drive East Apartments, along with his Pavane to Chicago. The latter work originally served as the focal point of the building’s lobby but was donated subsequently to DePaul University and is displayed on its campus. Although the swirling lines and punctured forms of Chicago Totem offer a visual correspondence with its windswept location, artist and critic Harold Haydon complained that the work was not integral to the architecture or its function, in contrast to other local works by Pattison, such as his carved portal for the American Bar Center.

            Pattison (1916-1999) was born in Chicago, attended Francis W. Parker school and studied art at Yale University. He was awarded Yale’s first traveling fellowship, which he used for study in China and Japan during 1940. His experience overseas may have contributed to his later rejection of straightforward, figurative sculpture in favor a more experimental, modernist approach. Pattison taught at the Art Institute of Chicago from 1946-1952 and, in addition to his many works on display in the city of Chicago, he received public commissions from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, Stanford University Medical Center, the Illinois State Capitol in Springfield, and the U.S. State Department. Best known for his large-scale works in bronze, he learned casting techniques at the famous Marinelli foundry in Florence, Italy during the 1950s and made frequent return visits throughout his career.

Other works:

• I Have a Dream
• Woman Observing the World and Striding Man