Chicago artist John Storrs spent most of his career in France but retained ties to his native city. His Winged Horse was executed in Paris and demonstrates his adoption of French modernist abstraction and geometric simplification. The design’s impetus, however, was American: Storrs conceived the work as a model for a large-scale monument to honor one of his idols, the poet Walt Whitman. The artist wrote that Whitman “stands practically alone as one who has discovered a national soul and has given it expression in a form that can be called beautiful—that can be called art.” Regrettably, Storrs never found financial backing for his project.
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.
Abraham A. Davidson, “John Storrs, Early Sculptor of the Machine Age,” Artforum 8, 3 (November 1974), 43.
Kenneth Dinnin, “John Storrs: Organic Functionalism in Modern Idiom,” The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts 6 (Fall 1987), 50–51 (ill.).
Judith A. Barter, et al., American Modernism at the Art Institute of Chicago, From World War I to 1955 (Art Institute of Chicago, 2009), cat. 77. 28.
Chicago, Arts Club of Chicago, Exhibition of Sculpture and Wood Engravings by John Storrs, Jan. 21–Feb. 4, 1921, cat. 2.
New York, Galleries of the Société Anonyme, Exhibition of Sculpture by John Storrs, Feb. 23–Mar. 22, 1923; trave;ed to Arts Club of Chicago, Apr. 13–24, 1923, cat. 21.
Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture: Lent from American Collections, June 1–Nov. 1, 1933, cat. 1214.
Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture: Lent from American Collections, June 1–Nov. 1, 1934, cat. 831.
New York, Downtown Gallery, John Storrs, Mar. 23–Apr. 17, 1965, cat. 18.
Art Institute of Chicago, Art in Illinois: In Honor of the Illinois Sesquicentennial, June 15–Sept. 8, 1968 (no cat.).
Washington, DC., Corcoran Gallery of Art, Apr. 25–June 8, 1969.
Chicago, Bergman Gallery and Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Art Deco: Trends in Design, May 1–June 9, 1973, cat. 81.
New York, Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, John Storrs, Mar. 4–29, 1975, cat. 7.
Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Arts, John Storrs: A Retrospective Exhibition of Sculpture, Nov. 13, 1976–Jan. 2, 1977; University of Indiana Art Museum, Jan. 18–Feb. 20, 1977; University of Maryland Art Gallery, Mar. 3–Apr. 1, 1977.
New York, Whitney Museum of Art, John Storrs, Dec. 11, 1986–Mar. 22, 1987, cat. 24; Fort Worth, Amon Carter Museum, May 2– July 5, 1987; Louisville, Speed Art Museum, Aug. 28– Nov. 1, 1987.
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