Looking after Louis Sullivan: Photographs, Drawings, and Fragments
June 19–December 12, 2010
Galleries 1–2, 24

Overview: Since photography’s beginnings in the 19th century, architecture has proven an ideal subject for the camera. In the 1950s, the photographers John Szarkowski, Aaron Siskind, and Richard Nickel embarked on in-depth photographic explorations of buildings designed by the renowned architect Louis Sullivan. During his lifetime, Sullivan was known as the father of the skyscraper and a mentor to Frank Lloyd Wright and other members of the Prairie school. Scholars in the 1930s brought new recognition to his commercial buildings as important precursors to the International Style, though they also marginalized his philosophical writings and use of architectural ornament. By mid-century, large urban-renewal projects threatened several of Sullivan’s most celebrated structures. The interest of Szarkowski, Siskind, and Nickel came at a critical moment, providing new impetus for the preservation of Sullivan’s architecture while arguing for a holistic interpretation of his work.

John Szarkowski. The Getty Tomb, Graceland Cemetery, Chicago, 1890. Mary and Leigh Block Endowment. © The Estate of John Szarkowski. Courtesy the Estate of John Szarkowski and Pace/MacGill Gallery, New York.

Attracted to Sullivan’s renegade American spirit and uncompromising values, these photographers also found inspiration in the play of light over his ornamented facades and the dynamism of his buildings within the bustling city of Chicago. Szarkowski, who would later become a renowned curator at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, found a kindred spirit in Sullivan and spent five years making photographs of his buildings, which he published in his 1956 book, The Idea of Louis Sullivan. Independently, in fall 1952, Siskind, a teacher at Chicago’s legendary Institute of Design, began directing a student photographic archive of Sullivan buildings in and around Chicago, later known as the Sullivan Project. One of his students, Nickel, ultimately made the photography—and later, as more buildings were slated for demolition, the preservation—of Sullivan’s buildings his lifework. (He died while trying to rescue ornament from Sullivan’s Stock Exchange Building.)

Looking after Louis Sullivan explores how these photographers employed the camera to document and interpret Sullivan’s architecture and, in the process, helped shape his legacy. Showcasing over 60 photographs, 20 Sullivan drawings and sketches, and terracotta and metal architectural fragments, this exhibition provides a rare opportunity to experience Sullivan’s buildings across a variety of media. Together, the photographs, drawings, and fragments reflect a shared concern with the human experience of architecture and the integrity of artistic expression. The exhibition is drawn from the permanent collections of the Department of Photography and the Department of Architecture and Design and is planned in concert with a major exhibition of Sullivan’s work at the Chicago Cultural Center.

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