Spirit of Electricity - Chicago, IL
Posted by: 
adgorn
N 41° 53.028 W 087° 37.755
16T E 447792 N 4637066
Cool deco sculpture into face of 1931 Commonwealth Edison power substation, in downtown Chicago's infamous "Block 37". Male figure standing with legs apart, arms raised and in each hand grasping a lightning bolt.
Waymark Code: WM7GA6
Location: Illinois, United States
Date Posted: 10/22/2009
Views: 8
They are building all around him but he hangs on! The power substation possibly is for subway trains and was designed by Holabird and Root in 1931. According to the AIA Guide to Chicago, the relief was done by Sylvia Shaw Judson. (In 1936 Sylvia Shaw Judson sculpted the now famous "Bird Girl", standing five feet tall and cast in bronze. One of the four commissioned sculptures stood in Savannah's Bonaventure Cemetery until 1994 when a photo of "The Bird Girl" appeared on the cover of the best selling novel, "Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil" by John Berendt. And suddenly, overwhelming notoriety!)
TITLE: Spirit of Electricity
ARTIST(S): Judson, Sylvia Shaw, 1897-1978, sculptor.
DATE: Designed 1929.
MEDIUM: etched in stone
CONTROL NUMBER: IAS 87820019
Direct Link to the Individual Listing in the Smithsonian Art Inventory: [Web Link]
PHYSICAL LOCATION:
approx 121 N. Dearborn
DIFFERENCES NOTED BETWEEN THE INVENTORY LISTING AND YOUR OBSERVATIONS AND RESEARCH:
none
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