The Chicagoans and Modernity

Are Chicagoans reluctant to modernity? That would truly be paradoxical given the story of the city as it was the first modern urban industrialized city in the country's history. Nowadays, the city is even widely identified with one masterpiece of modern art and architecture: The Cloud Gate. 

Located on top of Park Grill, between the Lake Michigan and the Loop, it is a 42 feet high sculpture made up of 168 stainless steel plates reflecting and distorting the city's skyline. Anish Kapoor, the British artist who designed it, is one of the most prominent contemporary artist of the last decade. His goal with the Cloud Gate was to remove the trace of the signature of the artist as well as any trace of its fabrication in order to make the sculpture seem as though it was "perfect" and ready-made. 

This artistic process contrasts with another major piece of contemporary art which has left its mark on Chicago's landscape and which stands not far from the Cloud Gate. Before the erection of the Cloud Gate in 2006, Chicago was indeed well-known for the Jay Pritzker Pavilion designed by the famous Canadian architect Frank Gehry. The Chicago Tribune had dubbed Gehry "the hottest architect of the universe" for his acclaimed Guggenheim Museum of Bilbao. The pavilion is a monumental bandshell erected in Millenium Park. It is constituted of the former banshell structure amounted by a monumental roof. Then a trellis consisting of a cross-stitched sweep of curving steel pipes stretches across the entire width of the seating and lawn areas. It's an architectural design which volontarily displays its structure in order to create proximity with the spectators. Even though it was designed as a piece of architecture it is considered as a major piece of art. It transcribes Gehry's vision of architecture: buildings should be humanized so that the individual can recognize itself in the hostile world of the massive industrialized city.  
 

It seems like Chicago is truly the city of artistic openmindedness and audacity. However, that statement wouldn't take into acount the way the Chicagoans reacted to those pieces of art. When the Cloud Gate was revealed in 2006, many Chicagoans were highly critical and dismissed the unfinished 'Bean' as a piece of metal. But the public quickly changed its meaning from pejorative to loving to such an extent that they stopped praizing the Jay pritzker pavilion, which was considered until then as the architectural achievement that would move Chicago into the new millenium. 

I wonder what were the reactions when the first skyscraper was erected. 

But after all, it seems like a normal reaction! Didn't the parisians reacted this way after the construction of the eiffel tower?