Through a lens, courageously: Art Institute of Chicago spotlights ...
The photographers — Szarkowski, Aaron Siskind and Richard Nickel (at fist, his photograph of the Garrick Theater's proscenium major)— are hardly unknown figures, and they were certainly not the first to understand Sullivan and his partner, Dankmar Adler. But they came along during a risky time for Sullivan — in the 1950s, when his ornament was underappreciated because it defied the conventions of stripped-down, steel-and-pane modernism and his buildings were already under threat from both commercial pressures and urban renewal.
Courageously defying the modernist polemic, the photographers constructed another, more holistic regard: Sullivan's ornament was not only excellent, it was as integral to his architecture as a leaf is to the section of a tree. The show's small but outstanding section on Sullivan's beautifying drawings makes the same point. Among its images is a Sullivan sketch of a man's boost (presumably the architect's own close by) holding a small leaf.
Dan has been traveling around the US for a while – visiting LA, here, and a few other places before prevailing home to Israel. His well-traveled proposals to
