We’re in Chicago for the week and are here for three things; the architecture, the river and to be among liberals again[1]. On the art front one of the attractions that I knew would be here is Anish Kapoor’s Cloud Gate or, as it is commonly known, the magic bean. My measure for art is simple – does it surprise me and, even more, does it make me laugh – and by this measure the bean is twenty three million dollars well spent. It is amazing.

the gate through the trees

When it was first unveiled in 2004 the bean wasn’t well received, mainly because its details were incomplete, but the general consensus[2] has become that it is fun and cool and a huge surprise when you finally turn the corner of Millennium park and see it hold the entire city and sky in its steel curves. It is a huge crowd pleaser and invariably one of the busiest spots in the park.

the boy and the gate

I’ve always wanted art to be more than just a great concept[3] and, to me, part of the surprise is in the construction. My favorite artwork is Jackson Pollock’s number1 exactly because it was clearly so difficult to produce[4] – it is so large and complex that the mere fact that it exists is astonishing. Cloud gate is also a technical marvel both in terms of its size[5] and in the way that its surface is completely seamless even upon close inspection. It is constructed from 168 stainless steel plates welded together and polished until the entire thing became liquid. And as you walk towards or around it you are continually presented by a single surface that curves and bends in every direction.

the gate and the city

And then there is the sound that it produces. Not an echo or a clunk, but the sound of the laughing and shouting of the people that come to see it. If there ever is a measure of successful public art it has to be the variety of people that it attracts and how noisy they are around it. The bean attracts families and teenagers and tourists and lunch hour suits and they all reach out to touch it and shout at one another as they pass underneath it or pull faces into its surface. This makes Cloud Gate a social success, but it is also an individual success since, literally, no two people ever see the same thing in it. Each person inevitably ends up looking at himself/herself as they walk around it.

the gate and the scrapers

It’s big and it’s fun and it has a great name. What more could you want from outdoor art? And of course, when you walk in underneath it it does this.