{"data":{"id":49131,"api_model":"artworks","api_link":"https:\/\/api.artic.edu\/api\/v1\/artworks\/49131","is_boosted":false,"title":"Untitled (Garrick Theatre, interior)","alt_titles":null,"thumbnail":{"lqip":"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBAAFAPQAAFFQUFJRUlRTU1hZWFtaWWJiYWdnZmdoZmhpZ29wbnFxb3FzcXR1c3x9e3+AfYCCf4aIhYeIhY2PjJOUkQAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACH5BAAAAAAALAAAAAAEAAUAAAURIDEZCSIdSuM8TAQNSyEAQQgAOw==","width":2352,"height":3000,"alt_text":"A work made of gelatin silver print."},"main_reference_number":"1975.435","has_not_been_viewed_much":true,"boost_rank":null,"date_start":1960,"date_end":1960,"date_display":"1960, printed 1973","date_qualifier_title":"Made","date_qualifier_id":4,"artist_display":"Richard Nickel (American, 1928\u20131972)\nprinted by Patrice Grimbert (French, 1947\u20131974)","place_of_origin":"United States","description":"

While studying photography at the Institute of Design in Chicago, Richard Nickel<\/a> joined the Sullivan Project, a photographic survey, led by photographer Aaron Siskind, that documented the architecture of Louis Sullivan. The project was completed in 1954, but Nickel continued photographing Sullivan\u2019s work on his own, finding his calling in the identification, documentation, and preservation of these endangered works of art. Sullivan was revered as the father of the skyscraper and renowned for his use of architectural ornament. His firm, Adler and Sullivan, was based in Chicago, and the city was home to many examples of his work. But by the 1950s urban renewal projects prompted the demolition of his most celebrated structures, including the Garrick Theater and the Stock Exchange Building.<\/p>\n

For nearly two decades, Nickel campaigned to save Sullivan\u2019s works, and when those efforts failed, he worked to rescue their ornament\u2014the elaborate, nature-inspired decoration that adorned both the interiors and exteriors of Sullivan\u2019s buildings. Nickel mourned the disappearance of a city he admired, warning that Chicago could move toward anonymity or, worse, become \u201ca city of contrasts: The superficial glitter of the new mixed with the slum of the old.\u201d Nickel\u2019s photographs let the architecture take center stage, even if his documentation was later overshadowed by his efforts to rescue surviving structures and fragments. In 1972, one such attempt, in the Chicago Stock Exchange Building, cost him his life. The Sun-Times<\/em> wrote: \u201cRichard Nickel has become a true martyr to the cause of architectural preservation. He is irreplaceable, and Chicago architecture has lost its truest champion.\u201d<\/p>\n","short_description":null,"dimensions":"Image: 45.4 \u00d7 35.4 cm (17 7\/8 \u00d7 13 15\/16 in.); Paper: 50.3 \u00d7 40.2 cm (19 13\/16 \u00d7 15 7\/8 in.); Mount: 71.2 \u00d7 56.1 cm (28 1\/16 \u00d7 22 1\/8 in.)","dimensions_detail":[{"depth":null,"width":35,"height":45,"diameter":null,"clarification":"Image"},{"depth":null,"width":40,"height":50,"diameter":null,"clarification":"Paper"},{"depth":null,"width":56,"height":71,"diameter":null,"clarification":"Mount"}],"medium_display":"Gelatin silver print","inscriptions":"Unmarked recto; inscribed verso, on mount, upper left, in graphite: \"44\"; verso, on mount, lower left, in graphite: \"Q-89\/54\"","credit_line":"Photography Department Exhibition funds","catalogue_display":null,"publication_history":null,"exhibition_history":"Art Institute of Chicago, \"Photographs by Richard Nickel,\" December 15, 1973\u2013February 13, 1974. ?","provenance_text":null,"edition":null,"publishing_verification_level":"Web Cataloged","internal_department_id":20,"fiscal_year":null,"fiscal_year_deaccession":null,"is_public_domain":false,"is_zoomable":true,"max_zoom_window_size":-1,"copyright_notice":null,"has_multimedia_resources":false,"has_educational_resources":false,"has_advanced_imaging":false,"colorfulness":3.1071,"color":{"h":115,"l":45,"s":1,"percentage":0.08938177604899446,"population":810},"latitude":null,"longitude":null,"latlon":null,"is_on_view":false,"on_loan_display":null,"gallery_title":null,"gallery_id":null,"nomisma_id":null,"artwork_type_title":"Photograph","artwork_type_id":2,"department_title":"Photography and Media","department_id":"PC-12","artist_id":36011,"artist_title":"Richard Nickel","alt_artist_ids":[],"artist_ids":[36011],"artist_titles":["Richard Nickel"],"category_ids":["PC-12"],"category_titles":["Photography and Media"],"term_titles":["gelatin silver (developing-out-paper) pr","Chicago","photographic paper","black-and-white photography","20th Century","photographic process","photography","photograph","photographic processes","photographic techniques","photography"],"style_id":"TM-13130","style_title":"20th Century","alt_style_ids":[],"style_ids":["TM-13130"],"style_titles":["20th Century"],"classification_id":"TM-213","classification_title":"gelatin silver (developing-out-paper) pr","alt_classification_ids":["TM-68","TM-67","TM-240"],"classification_ids":["TM-213","TM-68","TM-67","TM-240"],"classification_titles":["gelatin silver (developing-out-paper) pr","photographic process","photography","photograph"],"subject_id":"TM-12075","alt_subject_ids":[],"subject_ids":["TM-12075"],"subject_titles":["Chicago"],"material_id":"TM-3046","alt_material_ids":[],"material_ids":["TM-3046"],"material_titles":["photographic paper"],"technique_id":"TM-12089","alt_technique_ids":["TM-3937","TM-3977","TM-3978"],"technique_ids":["TM-12089","TM-3937","TM-3977","TM-3978"],"technique_titles":["black-and-white photography","photographic processes","photographic techniques","photography"],"theme_titles":[],"image_id":"2c98cbc6-afeb-82b8-1224-d3427ffd0e0b","alt_image_ids":[],"document_ids":[],"sound_ids":[],"video_ids":[],"text_ids":[],"section_ids":[],"section_titles":[],"site_ids":[],"suggest_autocomplete_all":[{"input":["1975.435"],"contexts":{"groupings":["accession"]}},{"input":["Untitled (Garrick Theatre, interior)"],"weight":46,"contexts":{"groupings":["title"]}}],"source_updated_at":"2024-05-22T16:23:28-05:00","updated_at":"2026-09-25T12:27:39-05:00","timestamp":"2026-09-26T17:03:58-05:00"},"info":{"license_text":"The `description` field in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Generic License (CC-By) and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu. All other data in this response is licensed under a Creative Commons Zero (CC0) 1.0 designation and the Terms and Conditions of artic.edu.","license_links":["https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/publicdomain\/zero\/1.0\/","https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/terms"],"version":"1.16"},"config":{"iiif_url":"https:\/\/www.artic.edu\/iiif\/2","website_url":"http:\/\/www.artic.edu"}}