At least nine art historians and five artists signed the petition to return “The Solitude of the Soul” for display. While at the Art Institute last week, I shot a photo of the weathervane that replaces Lorado Taft’s statue. Architectural designers hired by the museum want more openness, as the empty place would suggest.  

Reconstruction is going on in adjacent galleries. It appears that the Art Institute plans to show more Mesoamerican art which is good, but not a reason to exclude Lorado Taft's sculpture.  (In the 1920s, Taft taught and encouraged the career of Mexican-born sculptor Enrique Alférez who was featured prominently in a 2018 exhibition at Chicago’s National Museum of Mexican Art.)   

Comprised of eight disparate, interconnected expansion wings, the Art Institute presents curatorial and design challenges.  Neither Lorado Taft nor the Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Floor should be removed from the museum because of these problems. Hopefully, the architectural firm hired by the museum will respect Chicago’s history and its audience.   

These blogs and videos indicate the great love and respect Lorado Taft commands: 

https://girlfridaymusic.blogspot.com/2011/10/solitude-of-soul.html

https://chicago-outdoor-sculptures.blogspot.com/2012/07/lorado-taft-part-ii-sculptures-outside.html  

https://youtu.be/R170kCtlnWM  Illinois Icons: Lorado Taft

Taft had great variety to his repertoire and cannot be relegated to a simple category. His Iroquois Theater Fire Memorial of 1910 announces Chicago’s Art Deco style.  Simply because he was a figural sculptor -- and not an advocate for abstraction -- should not be a reason to erase him. Abstraction was still very controversial in Chicago when the city erected a Picasso statue in 1967.  

We need 38 more signatures to get to 200.