A piece of art that has always interested me is the Cloud Gate more commonly known as “The Bean” located in Millennium Park in Chicago, Illinois. Being that I grew up 30 minutes away from down town Chicago this sculpture by Anish Kapoor was not even there until a year after I moved since it began construction in 2004 and was completed in 2006. When I first went to see it finished in 2007 I was amazed by the size, beauty, and reflective properties it had. Now that it is there it is hard to imagine it not being there, it would be like there is a missing piece from down town Chicago. The sculpture created by Kapoor was constructed of 168 stainless steel plates flawlessly welded together to make it seem like a full mass. Kapoor was said to be inspired by liquid mercury while creating his sculpture, Cloud Gate.Since it is built upon Park Grill it is elevated from the street to help capture the city's skyline and distort how it looks. On a clear beautiful day it can capture the beautiful sky almost illuminating the entire sculpture. The “gate” has an opening that is 12 foot tall that allows anyone to talk underneath and see their own distorted image. The nickname“The Bean” for the Cloud Gate is easily recognized since it shaped like a bean. This allows it to seem more like a “gateway” to the clouds and helps distort the images of people, buildings, and the sky. Kapoor's design of the Cloud Gate is a great one for the amount of tourists it attracts and how it helps illuminate Millennium Park. It's a great piece just for the fact of the amount of fun people have watching their image in “The Bean” and how gorgeous and flawless the piece actually is. It was a great addition to down town Chicago in my opinion being someone who grew up so close to the action. "Cloud Gate." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Nov. 2013. Web. 7 Oct. 2013.
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AuthorWritten by art students of North High School in Evansville, Indiana Archives
December 2013
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