BEARDS - John Miller, 1968, wood sculptures
Born in 1927, John Miller is well known as an elder statesman of Chicago painting, and he’s currently making waves with his enormous ink-jet photo collages. These two unusual objects were made in homage to his friend H.C. Westermann. In 1968, the infamous Democratic National Convention was held in Chicago, and to mark the occasion Miller made two sculptures of beards, designed to be worn as disguises and ostensibly meant for the Chicago Police Department (one of the beards is stamped “C.P.D.”) - so the cops could blend in with the hippies.