Franklin McMahon, renowned artist, has honored the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) with a watercolor of Symphony Center. This work is the cover for the 2001 holiday cards designed exclusively as a fund raising holiday card project for the CSO. The cards and original watercolor will be unveiled at a reception at the Hillegoss Gallery, 520 N. Michigan Ave., on Wednesday, Oct. 17 at 5:30 p.m.
McMahon is 80 years old and the CSO is in its 110th season. Both are icons in Chicagoland and make an extraordinary pair to render happy holidays to one’s friends and family. In fact, one might say that McMahon and the CSO are community treasures.
The artist, a resident of Lake Forest, is the recipient of innumerable awards including the Renaissance prize of the Art Institute, an Emmy and a Peabody award. He describes himself as an artist reporter and has documented the defining events of the 20th and 21st centuries, including every presidential election over the past four decades, key moments in America’s space program, Vatican Council II and the civil rights movement, for which he received the Civil Rights Achievement Award. Another of McMahon’s most memorable works was a film that was aired on CBS-TV of the Chicago Symphony in 1970 when the orchestra toured Europe.
The holiday card project is sponsored by the Women’s Association and all proceeds from this sale will benefit the orchestra. The Oct. 17 reception will feature over 100 of McMahon’s works and, of course, the watercolor, “Holiday Greetings from Symphony Center.” Carole Book of Lincoln Park is committee chair and other North Side members are Amy Cooper of Lake View and Near North residents Georgia Lochridge and Susan Patten.
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