Post War & Contemporary Art

Provenance:

Stony Group, LLC, Chicago

Literature:

Ben Austen, Chicago's Opportunity Artist, The New York Times, New York, December 22, 2013, pp. 26

Melissa Harris, First look inside Theaster Gates' new Stony Island Arts Bank, The Chicago Tribune, Chicago, September 4, 2015

Andrew M. Goldstein, Theaster Gates on Using Art (and the Art World) to Remake Chicago’s South Side, Artspace, New York, September 24, 2015

Kristin Hohenadel, A Dilapidated Bank Turned Stunning Cultural Center Opens in Chicago’s South Side, Slate, New York, October 6, 2015

Haley Weiss, An Island on the South Side, Interview Magazine, New York, October 6, 2015

Jonathan Griffin, On some level, I’m just looking for good problems to solve, Apollo Magazine, London, March 6, 2017, another impression illus. 

Mark Rappolt, Theaster Gates: Relative Values, ArtReview, London,  March 24, 2017

Theaster Gates, The Hope Machine, Harper's Bazaar, New York, May 4, 2022

Lot Note:

Bank Bond (2013) elegantly articulates the amalgamation of Theaster Gates’ (b. 1973) artistic and social practices, each intrinsically related to his career, community, and his native Chicago skyline. After purchasing the dilapidated Stony Island Bank from the city of Chicago for $1 on the guarantee that he would rebuild it, he funded the project with handmade currency -- “bank bonds” made from the old marble flooring. It was a risky bet, but not his first, as what would become the Stony Island Arts Bank was a project undertaken by Gates’ own Rebuild Foundation, with Gates at the helm as founder and artistic director. The Rebuild Foundation is a non-profit organization focused on redevelopment initiatives in under-resourced communities, managing projects that focus on converting vacant buildings into cultural institutions that preserve archival collections from the South Side. Originally built in 1923, the Stony Island Bank on 63rd and Stony Island Avenue was a busy, lively community savings and loan until systemic redlining slowly eroded much of the South Side, taking the bank down with it. The Stony Island Arts Bank now serves as the Rebuild Foundation’s headquarters, offering free arts and community programming. Gates’ remodel – for which he eventually raised $3.7 million – is a physical testimony to the power of art in the restoration and development of Chicago’s overlooked neighborhoods.