Mayor Lori Lightfoot is confronting the “hard truths of Chicago’s racial history,” launching a public process to review the fate of 40 statues and other monuments, including some of former presidents Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant and William McKinley.
By Fran Spielman Feb 17, 2021, 5:22pm CST
According to the Chicago Monuments Project, “many art historians regard Lincoln Park’s ‘Standing Lincoln’ [by Augustus Saint-Gaudens] as one of the 19th century’s greatest masterpieces of public art.” But the project also has placed the statue on a list of 40 monuments that are being reviewed. Sun-Times file
Mayor Lori Lightfoot vowed Wednesday to confront the “hard truths of Chicago’s racial history” by launching a public process to review the fate of 40 statues, plaques and works of art, including those of four former U.S. presidents: Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant and William McKinley.
Double take: A closer look at American bronze sculpture Editorial Staff
The Magazine ANTIQUES November 2006.
Bronze sculpture made in the United States between 1845 and 1945 was little studied and largely undervalued until it began to attract interest in the early 1980s. It now continues to gain attention from scholars, museum curators, and collectors. Broadening scholarship has brought recognition to the variety, quality, and importance of this field of American art, just as the market value of sculpture continues to rise. What is lagging behind this expanding appreciation by the public and in the marketplace is connoisseurship. This article is intended as a primer on how to look critically at bronze casts in order to judge them for quality and authenticity.