Untitled (Century of Progress, World's Fair)
Century of Progress depicts the 1933-34 World’s Fair that was held in Chicago and celebrated the 100th Anniversary of the founding of the city. Located along Lake Michigan between Twelfth and Thirty-ninth streets, the Fair was so popular it was extended for a year. One of several paintings the artist made of the Fair, this work features promenading visitors wearing colorful clothing, blending into the equally colorful architecture and landscape. A row of towering orange flags line the central Avenue of the Fair. The buildings evoke a streamlined Art Deco style. Visible on the right is the Sears Roebuck exhibition hall and in the distance the tower of the Hall of Science. Curiously, many fairgoers hold walking sticks; these were purchased at the Fair and served as souvenirs.
Tunis Ponsen first studied art in 1911 in his native Holland. Orphaned by age eighteen and suffering under economic hardship, he decided to immigrate to America in 1913. Settling in Muskegon, Michigan, he worked as a house painter. In 1924, Ponsen officially enrolled at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and six years later his career took off. From 1945 until 1967 he taught at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and in his studio in Hyde Park, Illinois.
