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Long Lost Art From 1893 Columbian Exposition Found in Park District Storage

By Ted Cox | August 26, 2015 4:28pm
 Japanese sliding-door art panels first displayed at the 1893 Columbian Exposition have turned up in a Park District storage facility. Protective bubble wrap is seen around the edges.
Japanese sliding-door art panels first displayed at the 1893 Columbian Exposition have turned up in a Park District storage facility. Protective bubble wrap is seen around the edges.
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City of Chicago

CITY HALL — Three hand-painted Japanese sliding-door panels first displayed during the 1893 Columbian Exposition have turned up in a Park District storage facility.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel's office announced the discovery of the works attributed to Japanese artist Hashimoto Gaho on Wednesday. They were previously considered lost or destroyed.

The three two-sided panels, known as fusuma, "are in moderately stable condition," according to the Mayor's Press Office, "but will require conservation treatment." The Park District is working with the Art Institute to preserve them, with plans for their display yet to be determined.

Once found in Park District storage, the panels were first thought to have dated to the 1933 Century of Progress. Yet Park District historian Julia Bachrach found documentation for them in the Columbian Exposition, or first Chicago World's Fair.

They are believed to have been displayed in the Phoenix Pavilion on the Wooded Isle at the center of the exposition, which was located in the Jackson Park lagoons near what's now the Museum of Science and Industry, the lone building standing from the 1893 expo.

Art Institute conservators confirmed those findings.

"At a time when we are working to honor Jackson Park’s historic past by revitalizing the park to restore Frederick Law Olmsted’s vision, it is a thrilling development to have found original artwork from the 1893 Exposition," Emanuel said.

"The rediscovered paintings remind us of the lush history that lives in Chicago’s parks," said Supt. Mike Kelly.

Gaho lived from 1835-1908. He was known for mixing Western shading and perspective into traditional Japanese painting.

"These paintings bring to life, in vivid color, a moment of history that had previously been lost forever," said Janice Katz, associate curator of Japanese art at the Art Institute.

The Columbian Exposition and Century of Progress are represented by two of the four stars on the Chicago flag, with the others representing the Fort Dearborn massacre and the Great Chicago Fire.

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