Dialogo

Virginio Ferrari (b. 1937)

Installed 1971

Bronze on limestone base
Height: 192 in. (487.7 cm)

Located at Albert Pick Hall for International Studies
5828 S. University Avenue

Gift of Albert Pick and the Polk Brothers Foundation of Chicago

“Ferrari is a peaceful sculptor whose works, in one way or another, have been consistently in praise of life.”

Professor Harold Haydon, June 14^th 1971

Created in honor of Chicago businessman Albert Pick Jr., and as a symbol for the Department of International Studies inside Pick Hall, Virginio Ferrari’s 1971 Dialogo is an arresting sight just around the corner from the University’s Main Quadrangle. Modeled on campus while Ferrari was the University’s sculptor-in-residence and subsequently cast in bronze in Ferrari’s home city of Verona, Italy, Dialogo (“Dialogue”) represents worlds coming together. He said:

What I want to call to mind in this sculpture is the four cardinal points. Three of the four forms emerge as strong, geometric elements, representing the diversity, pain and repression of the life of any continent. They rise up slowly and become soft and delicate; two of the forms almost touch in the center in a manner of caressing; the third… giving the impression of protection and security of the life of tomorrow. The fourth form represents a big wave…symbolic of the water that surrounds and unites all the continents.

At the sculpture’s unveiling during the dedication ceremony for Pick Hall on June 14th, 1971, then-President Edward Levi spoke about the University’s burgeoning research relationships with international institutions. He closed by saying, “the organized cruelty of this century makes clear that appreciation and acquaintanceship are insufficient. The close quarters of the world make it essential that we not only understand others, but also understand ourselves.”

In the face of the Cold War, President Levi’s words, along with architect Ralph Rapson’s brutalist construction of Pick Hall, are softened and humanized by Dialogo’s wrapping form and playfully rounded ends. The upward momentum of the rising forms carries the energy of the sculpture vertically to the nearly circular curve at the top of the tallest piece. The concluding semicircle gestures to the sculpture actively pulling the building, street, and sidewalk life into its center, transforming the empty space between the four parts of the sculpture from a hollow void into a virtual holding space. This tallest form, acting almost like an arm, extends a tender invitation to the multitude of its surroundings, drawing, as Ferrari intended the title to suggest, “serenity out of strife.”

Like the physical suggestion of crossing borders, the sculpture’s life as public art also encapsulates the idea of multiplicities united—Dialogo’s placement outside Pick Hall was a convergence of efforts by University faculty, the Levi administration, Rapson, Albert Pick Jr., and The Polk Brothers Foundation.

Dialogo occupies a special place within the University’s architectural history and the public art on campus as one of the only sculptures to come to fruition as a commission for the opening of a new building. The site and building specificity are so strong that Dialogo is considered part of the building itself, so much so that former University Architect Steven Wiesenthal called it “the most attractive quality of Pick Hall.” This type of appreciation for the sculpture as part of its immediate built environment highlights Dialogo’s commission as exemplary of an era when architecture and urban development put a renewed emphasis on the arts—an era that is slowly resurfacing in the 21st century. The ease with which Ferrari, just thirty-four years old at the time, brought Dialogo to Pick Hall in just under two years would be unusual in most sculptural commissions around the world today, but the Levi administration’s generous commitment to that moment in the 1960s made a lasting mark on campus public art. In the face of Pick’s cool exterior, the sculpture to this day embodies the success of the community-minded and interdepartmental camaraderie from its creation, as its elevated limestone bases and flat bronze surfaces consistently function as gathering spots for students and Chicagoans to eat lunch and relax on sunny days.

Dialogo’s presence has in fact become so central to University life in the 40 years since its unveiling that it is even an integral part of campus folklore. Although the myth was scientifically debunked in 2008 by Will Vaughan, the former head of the Ryerson Astronomical Society, students and faculty alike colloquially know the statue as the “hammer and sickle,” as the sculpture supposedly casts a hammer-and-sickle-shaped shadow on Pick Hall on International Workers Day every year. Ferrari confirmed the shadow was a coincidence in a 2008 Chicago Public Radio interview, but the urban legend captured the imagination so tightly that every May 1st, crowds gather around Dialogo hoping to catch a surreptitious communist message. Though unintended, the myth pleases Ferrari, as the ongoing conversations represent the kinds of exciting, communal experiences art can activate. In a retrospective at the Italian Cultural Center in 1995, he remarked that “the interaction of sculpture with people can give a modern city a human dimension,” and Dialogo’s story does indeed keep people engaged with art in a peculiarly human way.

Ultimately, Dialogo’s form is a unifying message in honor of Albert Pick Jr.’s worldly efforts as the former director of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations. Between its real history and subsequent mythological life, Dialogo—“Dialogue”—lives up to its name as a springboard for campus conversations about institutional values, philosophical ideologies, and the unique impact of public art.

Written by Zoe Kauder-Nalebuff, AB in Geography, 2016

Artist profile

Virginio Ferrari

(Italian, b. 1937)

Biography

Virginio Ferrari is an internationally recognized Italian sculptor who, beginning in 1966, spent ten years at the University of Chicago as a faculty member in the Department of Art (part of which is now the Department of Visual Arts). By the age of 30, in addition to his faculty post, he was already a sculptor-in-residence at the Midway Studios and had exhibited work at The Renaissance Society. More than thirty of his works dot Chicago’s streets, parks, and plazas, and several of them live on campus at the University.

Three of his most visible sculptures are Dialogo, Interlocking, and Caring. Dialogo (1971), outside of Pick Hall, is a bronze monumental sculpture commemorating Albert Pick Jr.; Interlocking (1993) sits in the Laboratory School’s courtyard as a stainless steel interactive bench; and Caring (2015), one of the newest additions, is a massive marble sculpture commissioned in honor of the Bucksbaum Foundation for the lobby of the Center for Care and Discovery at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

All of his campus works embody Ferrari’s dedication to civic art’s accessibility and its essential role in the everyday experience of the city. In his statement at a retrospective in 1995, he wrote, “I want to create situations that delight the eye, in the streets and squares and corners of the city. I want the passer-by to be pleasantly surprised to encounter sculpture, as though it were a natural part of the city landscape.” Ferrari still practices in his Chicago studio and in Guardistallo, Italy, and his work continues to surprise city-goers and connect the expansive urban fabric to its people.

Written by Zoe Kauder-Nalebuff, AB in Geography, 2016

In the news

WTTW Chicago Mysteries, Is there a hidden political message in the shadow of a University of Chicago sculpture?, April 2024

The University of Chicago Magazine, Serenity out of strife, Fall 2015/Winter 2016

Sources

Harris, Chauncy D., Box 2, Folder 7, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Italian Cultural Institute (Chicago, IL). Virginio Ferrari: Istituto Italiano Di Cultura–Chicago. Chicago: Istituto Italiano Di Cultura, 1995

Wiesenthal, Steven. Personal Interview. 13 May 2015.

Archival Materials

Photograph of Albert Pick’s granddaughter, Pauline Ross, unveiling Dialogo

Source: University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf2-07277r, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Photograph of the sculpture in process

Source: University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf2-07283r, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Photograph of the sculpture during the final days of construction around Pick Hall

Dialogo

Virginio Ferrari (b. 1937)

Installed 1971

“Ferrari is a peaceful sculptor whose works, in one way or another, have been consistently in praise of life.”

Professor Harold Haydon, June 14^th 1971

Read more

Artist profile

Virginio Ferrari

Biography

In the news

Related Links

Sources

Archival Materials

Source: University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf2-07277r, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Source: University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf2-07283r, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Source: LUNA Library, UChicago Public Art Collection and Archive; photo by McShane-Fleming Studios, Chicago, Illinois

Further Reading

Dialogo

Virginio Ferrari (b. 1937)

Installed 1971

“Ferrari is a peaceful sculptor whose works, in one way or another, have been consistently in praise of life.”

Professor Harold Haydon, June 14th 1971

Read more

Artist profile

Virginio Ferrari

Biography

In the news

Related Links

Sources

Archival Materials

Source: University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf2-07277r, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Source: University of Chicago Photographic Archive, apf2-07283r, Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library

Source: LUNA Library, UChicago Public Art Collection and Archive; photo by McShane-Fleming Studios, Chicago, Illinois

Further Reading

Professor Harold Haydon, June 14^th 1971