Tuesday morning, the Milwaukee Common Council unanimously approved a gift of an 18-foot-tall, 9,200-pound bronze sculpture from Sculpture Milwaukee, which will be permanently installed outside City Hall. Installation of the piece, Tony Cragg’s Mixed Feelings, is set to begin April 30.
The imposing Mixed Feelings was previously installed outside the downtown federal courthouse last summer as part of the inaugural Sculpture Milwaukee, an “outdoor urban sculpture experience” that found 22 sculptures by 21 artists stationed along Wisconsin Avenue. Mixed Feelings was pretty rad, and came in at #9 in our extremely scientific rankings of all the pieces.
An anonymous donor of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation provided a grant to Milwaukee Downtown BID #21 to acquire Mixed Feelings. The piece was previously on loan to Sculpture Milwaukee courtesy of the Marian Goodman Gallery, New York. In a press release, Mixed Feelings is described thusly:
Mixed Feelings, 2010 is an immense glowing monument, formed by two intertwining bronze towers, pushing together and pulling apart as they spiral towards the sky. As the viewer circles the piece, human profiles come into and out of focus. Each tower of feeling exerts a gravitational pull on the other, creating a unique, pulsating form of energy. Cragg breaks down the barrier between abstraction and figuration, creating art that mirrors the fullness of the world in which we live.
“On behalf of the residents of the City of Milwaukee, I am happy to accept this donation of the Mixed Feelings sculpture created by world-renowned artist Tony Cragg,” said Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett last month when the gift was first announced. “Mixed Feelings was part of last year’s Sculpture Milwaukee public art display in downtown Milwaukee, and I am pleased that through the generosity of a local anonymous donor, this sculpture will continue to inspire and provide beauty when it comes to live at City Hall.”
At Tuesday’s Common Council hearing, Alderman Michael J. Murphy called the gift “incredibly generous,” and praised one of the leaders of Sculpture Milwaukee, Marcus Corp. chairman Steve Marcus. Mixed Feelings‘ City Hall home will be the planter located at East Wells and North Water streets.
The second round of Sculpture Milwaukee will be on view downtown from June to October 21, 2018. Installation is set to begin May 10.