Yesterday Jay and I managed to get our asses out of bed early enough and wandered over to The Art Institute Of Chicago for a look at the Edward Hopper and Winslow Homer exhibits since the shows are due to close on the 10th. The last time we went to the AIC was....forever and a day ago? And so we were eager to see how much the AIC had changed since we were there last.
After we got tickets we headed over to the northwest wing and were semi-shocked to see that we had to stand in line to get into the exhibits. But it wasn't bad, fifteen minutes and we were in. The place was crowded, surprisingly so since it was a Wednesday afternoon but I suppose the weekends were even worse.
The exhibits were brilliant, although in truth I much preferred the Winslow Homer exhibit to the Hopper show. I gathered that a lot of people came to see Hopper's most famous work, Nighthawks (1942) but as the picture hangs in the AIC all year round we have had studied it pretty much to death. We were interested in Homer's The Gulf Stream (1899), alas, although there were a few similarly styled paintings, the real deal was not on display.
After that Jay wanted to take a quick peek at Ivan Albright's Picture of Dorian Gray (1943-44), unfortunately the painting was in storage! Boo!! But we did swing by Georges Seurat's La Grand Jatte (1884-86) for a Ferris Beuller moment..hahaha kidding...There was so much artwork in the museum it was mind boggling...and I heard that the stuff on display was only a teeny part of the museum's collection...
The Modern Wing is nearing completion, I for one know that Jay is most excited to take a look at the modern art collection when the building's completed.
After that we went to The Cultural Center (a stone's throw away) to see a Tony Fitzpatrick show there called "The Wonder - Portraits of A Remembered City", a collection of collage work and some sculpture, interesting stuff.. somehow the work had the feeling of old Balinese or Indonesian art from afar, although upon further inspection the pieces were filled with clippings and cuttings of vintage Chicago memorabilia.
To complete the day of art appreciation, we swung by an artist's "studio" in the pedway under the Cultural Center, Mike Genovese was showing there himself.
All in all, a brilliant day of art and the city. I love Chicago!!
The Gulf Stream
The Picture of Dorian Gray
La Grand Jatte
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