Anish Kapoor (British b. 1854)

Cloud Gate 2004-2006

Stainless Steel, 33' H, 66' L, 42' W

Millenium Park, Chicago, IL

Photo: Nam Yhuh, AP

M.C. Ecsher

Eye

1946

(Mezotint, 7th & Final Stage)

http://www.mcescher.com

Pablo Picasso (Spanish 1881-1973)

First Communion 1895-96 (Age 14-15)

Oil on Canvas, Museo Picasso, Barcelona

http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/ij/images

Inspired by liquid mercury, the sculpture's exterior reflects and transforms the city's skyline and visitors are encouraged to walk around and under Cloud Gate's arch, which is 12 feet (3.7 m) high. On the underside of the sculpture is the omphalos, a concave chamber that warps and multiplies reflections. This name refers to the three-quarters of the sculpture's external surface that reflects the sky and acts as a type of gate that helps bridge the space between the sky and the viewer. Kapoor explores the theme of ambiguity with his work that places the viewer in a state of "in-betweenness". The artist often questions and plays with such dualities as solidity–emptiness or reality–reflection, which in turn allude to such paired opposites as flesh–spirit, the here–the beyond, east–west, sky–earth, etc. that create the conflict between internal and external, superficial and subterranean, and conscious and unconscious. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_Gate

From the age of seven, Picasso received formal artistic training in figure drawing and oil painting from his father, Don José Ruiz y Blasco, who, for most of his life, was a professor of art at the School of Crafts, curator of a local museum, and a painter who specialized in naturalistic depictions of birds and other game. Picasso’s father, a traditional academic artist and instructor, believed that proper training required disciplined copying of the masters, and drawing the human body from plaster casts and live models. Pablo became preoccupied with art to the detriment of his class work. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso