I jumped at the opportunity to contribute to Local Artist Week because one of Chicago’s liveliest ongoing controversies turns on what to do with a problematic piece of local art.
Inconveniently, it is also a piece of architecture.
What do we do with a master’s lesser works? If it’s a book we don’t read it. If it’s a painting, we let it hang on the gallery walls of a tiny liberal arts college in Ohio. But if it’s a building, we live with it, we put a new face on it, or we tear it down.
A little cosmetic surgery can work wonders, for instance turning this:
into this:
But that’s no way to treat a master. Genius would rather be spurned than suffer rewrite.