Tag: art

Georgia O’Keeffe Exhibit

I just mentioned it briefly, but I wanted to write about it “properly.” Not even to write – there is not much to say about it except that it is marvelous, but just to show the pieces I admired the most. And I am sure I will visit this exhibit many-many times…

:)

I got out of my office building and hopped on the J14 bus to get to the Art Institute. I was smiling, because I saw the Big News just twenty minutes before. And everybody was smiling. And those who didn’t smile when they got on the bus started smiling when they got themselves situated and took out their phones. The seats on the right and on the left of me started to fill as the bus was making stops. A lady on my right looked up at me and asked: Did you hear? Yes, I did! They were fast to decide! Well, not that fast … but I am glad it didn’t take days! Yes! And now the question is, what’s next!

I got off the bus and went straight to the Art Institute. Today was the first day of the Georgia O’Keeffe exhibit preview. I almost never can make it to the first preview day, and that’s the best time to see a new exhibit with very few people attending. Miraculously, there was almost no line at the bag check, and the virtual line for the exhibit was also almost non-existent.

While I was there, I received several texts from my friends – Did you hear? – Yes, I did! I do not know how many people around me were answering similar texts, but there were a lot of smiles around. OK, this could be all for Georgia O’Keeffe 🙂

I knew were I wanted to go when I got out of the Art Institute – just across the road to Amorino!

Several new flavors, including biscotti and cinnamon:)

And when I got off the Red Line, I saw that sign by the Jarvis Square Tavern:

… I love living in Rogers Park!

Mini-Vacation In Boston. Day 2: More Art

Each art museum is different, and there is no such thing as “too much art.” It does not matter that we have the Art Institute in Chicago, it does not matter how many art museums I visited in my life. It does not matter how many Florentine icons I’ve seen in my life, or how many Monet’s or Van Gogh’s. Each one is a new one.

Can you guess who the artist is? I could not believe it when I read the name!
Maybe there are more chances to figure out who’s work is this one, but it was not obvious for me either.
And you can see the artist’s name here 🙂
Toulouse-Lautrec, of course!
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Mini-Vacation in Boston Day 1 – Afternoon

After the Isabella Gardner museum, we went to the Massachuset Fine Arts Museum:

I am trying not to post too many artworks because my amateur photos do not do them any justice, but since I can’t talk about these artworks without showing them, I tend to post too many:). The picture below struck me, and when I read the story, it struck me even more.

And then to a Korean place for more desserts:

Mini-Vacation In Boston, Day 1 Morning

The first day went just perfect! The building where my friend live has a great gym

We went for breakfast to Tatte:

And then to the Isabella Gardner Museum:

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Guggenheim Museum

A surprising advantage of a large portion of the museum being closed for renovation was that I could focus on some interesting paintings and actually consider them.

I love Kandinsky, and I am usually very good at decoding his symbolism, but I had moderate success with his “Pleasures.” The only object I was able to undoubtfully identify was a fork on the right!
Surprising Picasso
Henry Russeau
Paul Gauguin – I never saw horses on his paintings
Gorgeous Van Gogh
Toulous-Lautrec!
And guess who’s painting is that one!

I also saw several interesting installations by women artists and a large exhibit of art made by children participating in the museum workshops. But as I said, I focused on a small number of paintings (and I am still intrigued by Kandinsky’s work – still wondering what to make out of it).

Saturday In Chicago

Anna and her Family visited me this weekend. They arrived on Friday night. On Saturday morning, we had a little kids’ concert, then we went to the Art Institute and Millennium Park and had dinner at my house.

I think it was one of the best Chicago weekends we had so far. This time, Kira actually sat and listened to the concert and was engaged all the time. Also, it was almost the first time when she wanted to see the exhibits before rushing to Ryan’s center. The projects that they had at Ryan’s center this time were probably the best we ever made: creating your own miniature rooms.

Anna said right away that she wanted to make her own project, too, not just helping the girls, so I ended up helping everyone:). It was a very fun project, indeed. Anna told Nadia that adults rarely do crafts, and Nadia asked why. We had to admit that there are no good reasons not to do them (and, in fact, some adults do quite a bit!).

Here is the music room Anna crafted (with a little bit of my help :))

Some other people’s crafts:

Norman Simon Museum

One of my old friends, with whom we unintentionally fell out of touch about ten years ago, lives very close to Pasadena, and I messaged her on my way to the conference. To my delight, she immediately responded, and we agreed to meet. We ended up meeting twice: on Friday night, when we mostly talked, and on Saturday night, when we went to the Norton Simon Art Museum.

The museum is incredible – the whole collection was put together by one person, and although relatively small, it contains an amazing selection of the finest works of world art. I also quite enjoyed reading the annotations to the artworks: detailed, clever, thought-provoking. I didn’t even notice the time when we were informed that museum was about to close.

Just a couple of artworks to illustrate my point: in an hour and a half, a complete history of European art from 13th to 20th century is unfolding in front of you, and each major trend and style is covered. I recall this visit and smile 🙂

National Art Gallery

To say the weather in DC was bad is not enough. It was the worst you could imagine! There was pouring rain all Saturday, so we had to change our plans and head to the museums. Unfortunately, we were not alone: everybody who came to DC for a weekend, did the same, so there were crowds everywhere.

Boris and I headed to the National Gallery of Arts. The first thing we saw there was an exhibit of German Expressionism.

“Sorrow” by Egon Schiele
“In God’s Hands”
Gramatte “Self-pportrait with wife”. It took me a while to see “a couple”

We stopped by Cauguin an Van Gogh, because you can’t pass them, and then we saw the Flemish collection.

“An Old WOman Dozing over a Book” seems very familiar 🙂

Unfortunately, the side effect of all museums in DC being free is the requirement to get passes in advance, and since we didn’t plan for it, we couldn’t get into many of them. Once again, something for the next time!

Radical Clay Exhibit

My friend, who moved from Chicago to Boston last year, was in town last week, and we went to the Art Institute for the Thursday evening hours. We saw an exhibit I hadn’t seen yet – “Radical Clay,” which presented the works of Japanese contemporary female sculptors made of clay/porcelain. 

The exhibit is small, but all the artworks are extraordinary! Here are some pictures that I took and some from the official webpage. 

This one is called “Looking for a crush”
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