The Chicago Athenaeum International Sculpture Park

The Chicago Athenaeum isn't in Chicago anymore, and its Schaumburg branch is long closed (see January 13, 2010). But the organization's public sculpture -- almost all of which is vintage '90s -- remains, though probably under municipal care these days. Entering the Chicago Athenaeum International Sculpture Park from the west, you first come across this piece, standing 18 feet high, made of cedar, except for the concrete supports: "Together" by Jerzy S. Kenar of Chicago.

It's a fitting sort of entrance archway.

Another Chicago sculptor, Jerry Peart, did this one, "The Diver." Painted aluminum.

More representational than it seems at first.

The more I look at this one, the more disturbing it becomes. "Tongues," it's called, made of bronze by New Yorker Nina Levy.

They're bigger and more detached than tongues ought to be.