Elegant Simplicity ... Pritzker Garden, Art Institute of Chicago

Margo and Thomas Pritzker Garden - Chicago

One approaches the Pritzker Garden from the museum's Griffin Court, 

in the new Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago,

Facing Columbus Drive, the space is designed with an elegant simplicity, 

given a sense of shelter by the flying carpet overhead (upper left in photo),

so named by architect Renzo Piano.

Chartreuse chairs are placed about the crushed stone terrace,

the bright enameled seating producing an ambiance that conjures up images 

of European gardens.

Naturalistic plantings of grasses soften the sleek setting, 

punctuated by the spare placement of trees with peeling bark. 

White Curve

a work by Ellsworth Kelly glimmers with the changing light on the museum wall:

The sculpture's reflective surface animated by reflections of the garden's columns & trees.

Specially commissioned in collaboration with the building's architect, Renzo Piano, 

the work is the largest to-date in Kelly's oeuvre.