CHICAGO — Houston Conwill, an artist who designed a key art installation in the Harold Washington Library in the Loop, died Nov. 14 in New York after a battle with prostate cancer. He was 69.
Conwill's art, titled "Du Sable's Journey," has been on display in floor of the lower level of the library at 400 S. State St. since 1991. The circular "cosmogram" traces the water routes traveled by Chicago's first settler Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable, according to the City's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.
The journey begins in Du Sable's native Haiti to the Great Lakes. A ring of quotations is included from Mayor Harold Washington’s first and second inaugural addresses "showing the important link between Chicago’s first settler, who was of French African descent, and Chicago’s first African American mayor," according to the Chicago Public Art Guide.
Like many of Conwill's pieces, Du Sable’s Journey takes the form of a "cakewalk," which is a circle dance performed by slaves for slave owners in the South and has become not only a symbol of oppression but also of expression and survival, the guide says.
The peice is designed to reflect "a symbolic crossroads at Chicago that places our city’s history and present challenges in the broader context of the American experience," the guide says.
According to the New York Times, Conwill, a Kentucky native and Howard University grad, was best known for "his collaborative site-specific works celebrating African-American culture and spiritualism."
Conwill's work has been installed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and other notable artistic institutions.
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