Celebrate the works of the sculptor most noted for the Chicago Landmark Pillar of Fire, a 33-foot-high, abstract bronze sculpture marking the origin of the 1871 Chicago Fire. Egon Weiner: Pillar of Human Emotions opens Thursday, July 10, at Oakton’s Koehnline Museum of Art, 1600 East Golf Road, Des Plaines. The display will feature sculptures from the Museum’s collection, as well as recently discovered bronze, metal, and wooden pieces.
Enjoy a public reception on opening night, from 5 – 8 p.m. This free exhibition runs through Friday, September 19.
Born and trained in Vienna, sculptor Egon Weiner (1906 – 1987) came to the United States in 1938 to escape Nazi persecution and served as professor of sculpture and life drawing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1945 – 1971). During his career, he sculpted the emotional busts of architects Frank Lloyd Wright, Dankmar Adler, and Louis Sullivan, as well as novelist Ernest Hemingway. Weiner encouraged all artists to reveal “the expression of that fire that burns in all of us.”
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Manager and Curator of the Koehnline Museum of Art Nathan Harpaz, Ph.D., notes that Weiner was full of “fire” despite the challenges he faced. “Although he lost his parents and one of his brothers during World War II, the artist was filled with optimism – as symbolized in his best-known monumental sculpture, Pillar of Fire, which illustrated revival even after destruction,” Harpaz says.
During the summer, the Koehnline Museum of Art is currently open Monday – Thursday, 10 a.m. – 7 p.m. The museum’s regular hours – 10 a.m. – 6 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 11 a.m. – 4 p.m., Saturday – resume August 11.
