Art Institute of Chicago

I know...supposed to post about the family, right? I'm kind of sick of it. I did some calls this afternoon for Prop 8, but then I got distracted because I need my laptop to do it, and pretty much when it comes to having internet access there is no end to the amount of distraction I can find online. I'll have to go to the call center if I really want to make any real headway on that whole thing. So the bottom line is...I just don't feel like writing or talking about it anymore. Or at least right now.

I feel like talking about art right now. I was going to put in some more pics, but I can't really find much. Next time I'm in Chicago I'm not going to the Institute on a weekend. Way too many people, plus I'm sure the marathon traffic made it a lot more crazy than it might be otherwise.

Anyway, I had higher hopes than what we ended up getting, but it was still really cool. Like I mentioned before, they didn't have out all the Van Gogh and Picasso pieces that are prominent features of their collection, but we still saw some amazing work.

It always seems like the photography exhibits are what I always enjoy the most. I wish I had written down the names of the specific pieces, but some of the photographers that had some really cool stuff on display were Robert Frank and Gilles Peress. Gilles has a photo taken in Ireland during some of the tumultuous times of the last couple decades. It's a mother hitting her daughter, and their motion is blurred, but the best part is that on the television in the background captures a frightened women's expression and it's just perfect. It looks like that woman's face was inserted in there just to complete the photograph, but the whole thing perfectly captures the tension.

I guess Robert Frank was commissioned to do some photography while travelling the United States. I can't find my favorite pieces, but this one is really cool:

The cowboy is actually in France, during the 50s or 60s, and it's in starkcontrast to the Cold War period with America's place in the world, just because of how at ease the cowboy looks in his surroundings.

Without talking about every piece I saw let me just mention a few more of the artists' work that I liked by name, and then feature my favorite pieces to wrap up.

I like Lichtenstein's comic-booky art, although they didn't really seem to have anything very cool of his there. Sol Lewitt had some cool pieces I'm sure, but even after looking online at some stuff shown on the web I can't remember what it was exactly that I liked. They had some JL Gerome paintings, who also happens to have done one of my favorites, Pygmalion and Galatea. I like that one as much for the painting as for the story. So it was cool to see some of his actual art, Chariot Races, I think it was called, or some derivative of that. Roger Brown had some nice stuff, but it's very Thomas Cole-y. And of course there are the big ones that are still on display, like Grant Wood's American Gothic, portraying President Eyring carrying a pitchfork with his wife, Hopper's Nighthawks, and Seurat's featured here below:

Marth Rosler had a really cool exhibit, Bringing the War Home. It's photocollage of images from scenes you would find in Good Housekeeping coupled with actual wartime photography. What we saw featured images from Vietname, but I guess she has reprised the exhibit to focus on the current conflict in Iraq. I thought it was a really cool pairing, and emphasizes how the Vietnam war in particular was the first war that American civilians were able to experience at a more personal level with the amount of media coverage there was at the time.

My favorite pieces by far came from the modern art section, which makes me doubly sad because that is the wing of the museum that they will be opening up in the winter, so I'm sure we missed out on a lot more good stuff that they have.

Here are my two favorite pieces:

This first one is Ivan Albright's Nightlife. I loved the colors that were in it. Why is it that art before the last century doesn't seem as vibrant? I think it gets movement pretty well, but I really like the facial expressions in the painting, and the color seems to get at the mood, which I think is kind of sultry. Very cool. And this one was by far and away my favorite piece in the museum:

I know exactly what you're thinking: how can someone so handsome look so grotesque? I was inspired by the painting. It was done in the 40s or 50s for the film version of the book, The Picture of Dorian Gray. It's one of my favorite books ever, and it's written by Oscar Wilde. It's the only novel he ever wrote, but it's very creepy and when you see this painting, it is very alarming. Seriously. You walk around the corner and then it's this 6' ugly portrait and it's awesome. I guess the artist was known for his macabre work and that's why he was commissioned to do it in the first place. Apparently, the film is in black and white until the painting gets on screen, and it's the only thing in color to exaggerate the hideous nature of Dorian's soul. Very, very cool stuff. Anyway, Dave aptly named the photo Dorian Silva. It's available for a small fee. Don't let anyone tell you that the book is called Portrait of Dorian Gray. It's picture.

Well...looking at these images again makes me want to go to more museums. I need to hit up New York and DC.