FAHARA: CHICAGO IN VIEW

ABOUT THE INSTALLATION

ROBERT EARL PAIGE
BORN 1936, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS; ACTIVE CHICAGO, ILLINOIS

Robert Earl Paige is a Chicago-based artist, educator, and member of the Chicago Black Arts Movement whose textile designs have helped to popularize pan-African aesthetics in US homes. Fahara: Chicago in View is an architectural intervention upon the historic Carnegie Mansion’s staircase that recalls the tradition of Chicago’s Black artists using buildings as canvases to manifest the interconnectedness of art, life, and community. Since the 1960s, Paige has been collecting images of architecture, artworks, historical figures, and designs from across the city—a visual archive that constitutes an imprint of Chicago. The artist has drawn from this sourcebook throughout his career, referencing shapes, patterns, and messages in his interior and textile designs, sculptures, and mixed-media works. Fahara—a word Paige associates with joy—honors his home city as a creative resource and celebrates its influences such as founding father Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Draping architects Babb, Cook, and Willard’s dark 1902 oak woodwork with patterns influenced by West African textile traditions and Chicago monuments, Paige converges the influences that formed his unique aesthetic eye.

ACCESSIBILITY RESOURCES

Please note: Visual descriptions for the exhibition will be available soon. Thank you for your patience.