The Great Double
The Great Double | |
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Artist | Alicia Penalba |
Year | 1972 |
Type | Public art, sculpture |
Dimensions | 840 cm × 440 cm × 405 cm (330 in × 170 in × 159 in) |
Location | Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
The Great Double is a bronze sculpture by the Argentine artist Alicia Penalba (1913-1982). One statue named Le Grand Double (1962-1964) is on display in the sculpture garden of the Dutch Kröller-Müller Museum.[1] Another (1972) is on display outside the MGIC building in Milwaukee, Wisconsin[2] (43°02′33.5″N 87°54′32.1″W / 43.042639°N 87.908917°W / 43.042639; -87.908917).
Description
The Great Double measures 28 feet high and weighs 12 tons.[3] The sculpture was produced by the Tesconi & C. Fonderia D'Arte S.N.C located in Pietrasanta, Italy.
The Great Double resembles an organic form. It is made up of many different round and rectangular forms, and has a surface that somewhat resembles bark. The one on display in Milwaukee stands between the MGIC building and a small park, as if to be a stepping stone; it merges the organic and the man-made. The Great Double is truly a monumental sculpture. Standing vertically at 840 cm (over two stories) it challenges the surrounding trees within its proximity for dominance, as well as the MGIC building, to which it is adjacent. One must stand several feet away in order to take the whole object in at once.
Historic information
"The Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corporation was founded in the 1950s by Max Karl... Less than twenty-five years later, the company had become a financial leader and decided to build its corporate headquarters in Milwaukee."[3] Skidmore, Owings and Merril hired Milwaukee firm Fitzhugh Scott Architects, Inc. to design the headquarters, which were located east of the Marcus Center. The design consisted of an inverted pyramid, with each floor fifteen feet below the ground.
When The Great Double was selected to be sited on the plaza in front of the building, the plaza, the stairs and the landscape were redesigned to give visitors a feeling of monumentality. "Max Karl, president of the MGCI Investment Corporation, commissioned the sculpture with the desire to place a major artist's work in the community and to reassert the commitment of the private sector to the improvement of downtown Milwaukee. At the dedication of the sculpture, Mayor Henry Maier congratulated MGIC for its "distinctive contribution to the cityscape" in an area targeted for urban renewal in the city."[3]
References
- ^ "Grand double/Large double". Kröller-Müller Museum. Retrieved 1 December 2010.
- ^ Sullivan, Mary Ann. "Le Grand Double at Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Company Plaza (MGIC Plaza)". Retrieved 1 December 2010.
- ^ a b c Buck, Diane M. and Virginia A. Palmer (1995). Outdoor Sculpture in Milwaukee: A Cultural and Historical Guidebook, p. 29. The State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison
- http://www.answers.com/topic/alicia-penalba-2
- http://clara.nmwa.org/index.php?g=entity_detail&entity_id=6571
External links
- View more sculptures by Penalba
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- The Victorious Charge
- Family
- The Calling
- Wisconsin Workers Memorial
- Wind Leaves
- Birds of Knowledge of Good and Evil
- The Great Double
- Woodland Indian and Whistling Swans
- Solomon Juneau
- Leif, the Discoverer
- Letter Carriers' Monument
- Argo
- Bronze Fonz
- Walkways Through the Wall
- Abraham Lincoln
- George Washington
- Referee
- Immigrant Mother
- King Gambrinus
- RiverSculpture!
- Gertie the Duck
- General Douglas MacArthur
- The Spirit of Polonia
- World War I Memorial Flagpole
- Pedestrian Drama
- Midsummer Carnival Shaft
- Acqua Grylli
- Laureate
- Diana
- Trigon
- Pere Jacques Marquette
- Spanish–American War Soldier
- Ruins X
- Ex Stasis
- City Yard
- Mahatma Gandhi Memorial
- Peter John
- A Beam of Sun to Shake the Sky
- Rainbow Machine
- Topiary Lucere
- Dancing Through Life
- Mother Teresa Monument
- Jacques Marquette
- You Rise Above the World
- The Last Alarm
- John Plankinton
- Celebrating the Arts
- Christian Wahl
- Elk
- On Watch
- Pattern
- Lapham Memorial
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
- Music
- Fishing
- Spirit of the Firefighter
- Dauntless Guardian
- Buildings 1992
- Gear 23
- All in the Air at Once
- First Flight
- Sea of the Ear
- Kindred Ties
- Cleopatra's Wedge
- Float
- Polyphony
- Boy with Goose
- Eight Stone Lions
- Three Bronze Discs
- Holocaust Memorial
- Happy-Go-Luckies of Nature and Technology
- Blue Dress Park
- Sentinels
- Hermes
- Milwaukee
- Eclipse
- 'X' Intertwining
- Compass
- Erastus B. Wolcott
- Sharing the Load
- Robert Burns
- Near Here
- Compass
- Walk Like a River
- Spillover II
- Tip
- Jantar-Mantar
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- Brady Street Beasts
- Connect
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- Menomonee
- Count Casimir Pulaski
- Spirit of Commerce
- Bay View Series
- A Place to Sit
- Stratiformis
- The Hill Climber
- Deflected Jets
- Angel in a Cage
- R. D. Whitehead Monument
- Memorial for Belle Austin Jacobs
- T. A. Chapman Memorial
- Nature Belle
- Oops, Missed
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- William A. Starke Memorial
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- SOARING
- Two Opposites Reaching Up Toward the Peak of Progress
- Edge Elements
- Ribbons VI
- Bridge
- Stone Bracelet
- Untitled
- Quartet
- Tending the Fire
- Bird and Fish
- The Sower
- The Reaper
- Giving Gifts
- Watertower
- Henry Bergh
- Goethe–Schiller Monument
- Chrysalis
- The Ideal Scout
- Uptown Triangles
- Tree of Life
- Magic Grove
- Steuben Monument
- Kneeling Camels
- Teamwork
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- Selig Monument
- Uecker Monument
- Fire and Water
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- Miller Valley Veterans Monument
- Children of the West End
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- Sea Form (Atlantic)
- Sky Fence
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- Mo, Ni, Que
- Trio
- Two-Piece Reclining Figure No. 9
- Way Four
- Compound Junior
- Salem No. 7
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- Queen of Sheba
- Rhythm in Space
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- Embrace
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- Three Graces
- Large Torso, Arch
- Double Up
- Upstart
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- Ritual II
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- Tensione No. 2
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- Conversations with Magic Stones (Magic Stone Three)
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- Untitled
- Arch
- Epicenter
- Epicenter II
- III Columns
- Flight
- Pin Oak I