Cloud Gate

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This page is about the sculpture. For the modern dance group, see Cloud Gate Dance Theater.

Cloud Gate, Millennium Park, Chicago, 2004

"Omphalos", Cloud Gate

Cloud Gate is a public sculpture by Anish Kapoor in Millennium Park, Chicago. The sculpture is shaped like an ellipse, and its legume-like appearance has caused it to be nicknamed “the big bean”. It is made of 168 highly polished stainless steel plates, and stands at 33 feet high, 66 feet long, and 42 feet wide, weighing 110 tons. From a distance it could be mistaken for a huge drop of mercury, while up close its highly reflective surface captures and transforms the skyline, the downtown cityscape and even the passers-by into a wonderfully warped new vista. The artist, Anish Kapoor, has referred to the sculpture as “a gate to Chicago, a poetic idea about the city it reflects.” The 12-foot underbelly is called the "omphalos" or navel and multiplies reflections in a vortex.

1 History
2 Artist
3 Praise and controversy
4 References
5 External links

History

In 1999, Kapoor’s proposal was selected by Millennium Park officials over that of fellow artist Jeff Koons. Then, once initial funding was secured, the steel plates for the piece were fabricated over a period of two years (2002-2004) in Oakland, California (by Performance Structures Inc.). Initially, the sculpture was to have been fully assembled in Oakland and shipped to Chicago through the Panama Canal and St. Lawrence Seaway, however, this plan was scrapped after park officials deemed it too risky. Instead, the piece was assembled on-site. Because the assembly fell behind schedule, the piece was temporarily uncovered for the opening of Millennium Park in July 2004. The public appreciation for the piece convinced park officials to leave it open for public view for several months. The piece was then re-tented for over a year to allow the seams between its metal plates to be polished out. The sculpture was finally completed and dedicated on May 15, 2006. The cost for the piece was first estimated at $6 million. This number ballooned to $11.5 million at the time of the park opening in 2004, with the final figure standing at $23 million in May 2006. No public funds were involved; all funding came from private donations (individual and corporate). Cloud Gate was originally envisioned to be placed at the southeast corner of the Lurie Garden, but park officials re-sited it to AT&T Plaza, where it is currently located.

Artist

Anish Kapoor is an internationally acclaimed British artist. This is his first piece of public sculpture in the U.S. He did not name the piece Cloud Gate until after it was mostly completed in July 2004. In the meantime, the Chicago public had already coined it "the bean," a name he initially criticized but has now come to embrace.

Praise and controversy

Cloud Gate has become an icon of the city of Chicago. The Chicago public took an instant liking to it, affectionately referring to it as “the bean.” It has had tremendous drawing power, attracting locals, tourists and art aficionados alike. It is one of the most photographed attractions in the city, its images reproduced on many an internet website and the covers and pages of several travel, art and architecture magazines. So popular has the sculpture become that Chicago’s mayor declared May 15, 2006 (the day the sculpture was officially dedicated) to be “Cloud Gate Day”, and Orbert Davis, the Chicago-based jazz musician, composed a piece entitled “Fanfare for Cloud Gate”. The sculpture has also been used as a backdrop in commercial films (notably in the recent Hollywood film The Break-Up). The sculpture attracted some controversy in 2005, when a professional photographer was denied access to the piece without a paid permit.^[1]^[2] The artist holds the copyright for the sculpture: this means that, while the public can freely photograph it, permission of the artist is required for any commercial reproductions. This is the case for all works of art currently protected by United States copyright law, and is not specific to this work. Lack of knowledge of the laws around this issue, and lack of clarity about the original denial to photograph the work of art, led towards an Internet protest in which people started uploading their own personal photos of the work of art wherever possible, and most prominently to popular photo-sharing website Flickr.^[3]^[4]