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FRANK PANNIER
REMEMBERIMG THE LATE CHICAGO ABSTRACT ARTIST

Architecture Imitates Art?

The Craine Communication Building known as the Diamond

Constructed 1982-1984

Known as "The Diamond"
150 Michigan Ave
Chicago, Illinois

Exhibited Zriny-Hayes Gallery
Chicago, Illinois - 1979

Lee Scarfone Gallery
Tampa, Florida 1984
 
latex, wood, compound, canvas
66 x 66 inches

"Solitare #1" 1979​

Exhibited:
Zriny-Hayes Gallery
Chicago, Illinois - 1979

Did the architect Sheldon Schlegman of the firm A. Epstein and Sons see the Zriny-Hayes Gallery Exhibition anytime in October - November 1979? Did Schlegman draw plans before then?
Pannier shared various different stories on how the 150 Michigan Avenue building came to resemble his painting "Solitaire #1."

According to Wikipedia:​
"It is popularly referred to as the Diamond Building or the Vagina Building (from the locally popular but apocryphal story that, with its prominent vertical slit up the front, the building was designed to be a yonic counter to the phallic nature of most skyscrapers)."
​
Referring it as the Vagina Building is interesting because it resembles his painting "Solitare #1" - a series dedicated to a woman with an abstract rendition of her anatomy.
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