Reading Cones (in Grant Park)

Reading Cones is composed of two freestanding 17-foot tall curved walls of steel standing just far enough apart for a person to walk between them. Richard Serra (b. 1939), a highly acclaimed artist from San Francisco, is especially well-known for his large-scale minimalist sculptures made of metal. The material comes in large sheets and his pieces reflect their heavy weight and oxidation process. The 32-ton Reading Cones, named for Reading, Pennsylvania where it was made, is no exception. The Leo Burnett Company donated this large abstract sculpture to the City of Chicago in 1990 as Serra’s first permanent piece in our city. The Chicago Park District accepted the artwork in 1989, on a temporary basis. At that time, City officials had planned to relocate the sculpture to the entrance of State Street Mall after its renovation was completed. Although the Mall project was finished in 1996, the move has never taken place, and the prominent sculpture remains in its Grant Park location.