Advertising For 1992 Chicago Universal Exposition Failed World's Fair Poster

Description

Advertising For 1992 Chicago Universal Exposition Failed World's Fair Poster.
A forgotten piece of History: An intended Universal Exposition in Chicago from May 1st to October 31st in 1992.
Beginning in the early '80s Chicago was in planning for doing a World's Fair along with Spain in celebration of 500 years since Columbus's voyage.
Chicago was to host a Universal Exposition which at its infancy was spectacular.
Some proposed ideas included building little Islands just off Lakeshore drive to represent different countries during the exposition.  There were talks of rerouting entire roadways.
This was a massive project that eventually lost support as its many iterations were proposed.
In the end of the city was losing political and public support, and knew that hosting this event would likely lead to massive debts that could take decades to pay off.  These fears seemed a certainty after witnessing the financial disaster of the 1984 Louisiana World Exposition.
And so only 3 years after being approved by the Bureau International Des Expositions, Chicago had withdrawn its own bid.
At this stage Chicago had already sank some million of both public and private money into this event and had nothing to show for it.
Except perhaps this one poster...
This advertisement was purchased at auction and was originally in a frame but arrived broken.
I am offering this piece unframed.
From my best guess this was a proposed piece of advertisement for the exposition that was likely rolled up and put away.  I've come to this conclusion because the right side of the piece has patterned wear marks (Pic 7) that I've often seen in rolled up pieces of art.  It would appear that somebody in 1994 had this poster afixed to a piece of poster board material.  I say this because there is a date stamped to the poster board (Pic 5) of August 18th 1994.
I also noticed that in the bottom left corner is a slight peeling up of the poster (Pic 6) which reinforces my thought that this was not originally printed on board.
On top of these mentioned issues there is a slight worm trail indentation along the upper center which I've tried to highlight in picture 8.
As mentioned, this piece came framed so the back of the board has several indentations along the edges from the spring clips (Pic 9).
This is a large piece at approximately 38 inches by 25 inches.
I'm especially fond of the vibrant colors that exist amongst the many flags and how they pop in an otherwise void of blackness.  I suppose it is a fitting representation of our little spinning globe in a vast universe.  It seems that the artist meant to make this point - That we are one amongst an unknown, especially considering the Carl Sandburg quote that was chosen.
From what I can tell this is a one of a kind.  I have searched at length and can find no other.
I suppose this is Chicago's million poster.
As far as the artist of this piece is concerned, I am unsure as it is not signed, but stylistically I find similarities to the work of William Wondriska.  Particularly his poster for the Manchester Symphony Orchestra.  Wondriska born in Oak Park Illinois and worked for many years in different capacities with the Art Institute of Chicago.  Little clues that lead me to him possibly being the designer, but again, I am not certain.
Pieces like this are interesting to me not just because of my love of Chicago or World Fairs in general, but because it represents something so great that wasn't.
In this case it represents tens of millions of dollars and years of time lost in a city long known for it's corruption.
It represents ideas that people thought could change their city and their lives but didn't.
In a funny way this piece sort of represents Chicago in the 1980s.  Hopeful but handcuffed by it's own inability to govern diplomatically.
Due to the size of this piece, it is unfortunately going to cost a lot to ship but please bear in mind I will make every effort to reduce the cost of shipping.  Also please note that I will refund any shipping overages over 99 cents.
I'd be more than happy to take additional pictures at your request or to answer any questions you might have.
Thanks for stopping in to check out this neat little piece of forgotten history ✌️