My walkabout through the University of Illinois at Chicago campus on Sunday wasn’t exhaustive, so I can’t say for sure, but I got the impression that UIC could use a few more works of public art or fountains or memorials. That was one reason I was glad to see the Armistice memorial unveiled that day.

Just as I was about to leave — I’d arrived by taking the Blue Line to the UIC-Halsted station and so headed back toward the station — I noticed some public art on campus. A fairly large piece, too. Multicolored.

And long.

Eighty feet long, as it happens, and eight feet on each of the other two dimensions. It reminded me at once of a high cube shipping container, though with more color. The work is called “Artists Monument” (2014), by retired University of Illinois at Chicago art professor Tony Tasset. Acrylic panels on steel and wood.

The work was installed at this location only last year, after spending time at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York and Grant Park in Chicago. According to the university, the work isn’t going anywhere else.

Up close, it’s easy to see the many names on the work.
All together the names of 392,485 artists. How the artist came up with that number, and how long it took to compile them, I couldn’t say. Best not to inquire too closely.

I picked one at random to look up: Atilla Atar, a living Turkish artist, it seems.