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Wrigley Building by Night, Chicago (Wrigley Gebäude bei Nacht, Chicago)

A work made of gelatin silver print.

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  • A work made of gelatin silver print.

Date:

1952

Artist:

Umbo (Otto Umbehr)
German, 1902–1980

About this artwork

From a vantage point across the Chicago River, Umbo captured the Wrigley Building bathed in artificial light. He had learned to compose photographs with dramatic lighting and unexpected vantage points as a student at the Bauhaus. Shadowed on the right is the Tribune Tower, for which Walter Gropius—the Bauhaus director during Umbo’s time at the school—had unsuccessfully proposed a design in the early 1920s. After an Allied bombing raid on Berlin destroyed his negatives in 1943, Umbo struggled to rebuild his career. Invited to photograph the United States in 1952, the photographer looked out at a skyline in the midst of being reshaped by another Bauhaus director, the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Photography and Media

Artist

Umbo (Otto Umbehr)

Title

Wrigley Building by Night, Chicago (Wrigley Gebäude bei Nacht, Chicago)

Place

Germany (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1952

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Dimensions

Image/paper: 20.8 × 30 cm (8 1/4 × 11 13/16 in.)

Credit Line

Ada Turnbull Hertle Fund; Wirt D. Walker Trust; Gladys N. Anderson, the Mary and Leigh Block Endowment, and Centennial Major Acquisitions Income funds; partial gift of Herbert and Barbara Molderings

Reference Number

2016.227

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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