Tag: museum

Albertina Museum In Vienna, Part 2

Paul Klee
Boris Grigorjew. A couple: Thief and Prostitute. 1917

Once again, I didn’t know anything about this artist, so I saved some notes from the exhibit:

Boris Grigoriev is one of those artists who, despite the omnipresent search for new forms of avant-garde expression in the contemporary Eastern European art centers of Moscow and St. Petersburg, stuck to figuration and the classical genres. A brilliant draftsman, he initially worked as an illustrator for magazines and made a name for himself as a recognized portraitist of well-known personalities. Self-Portrait with a Cigarette is one of these powerfully expressive portraits.

Grigoriev’s portraits thrive on a direct confrontation with the sitter and the exaggeration of gestures and facial features, as well as the expression of an emotion that captivates the viewer. In this sell-portrait Grigorier presents himself in a defensive posture: the raised shoulder and the skeptical, grim gaze suggest a defensive aloofness; in addition, the figure is viewed from below, by which the artist elevates himself while subordinating the viewer it is through such powerful means that Grigorier lends this traditional genre o modernity that a comparable and roughly contemporaneous with the visoalizations of Expressionism and New Objectivity. Not lost because of the criticism of his “European style,” the artist left Russia in 1919 and settled in Paris in 1921

I recognized Deineka, and was wondering how he could possibly paint a baseball game, and it turned out that he was “awarded” a trip abroad, including the USA, approximately at the same time as Ilf and Petrov
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Albertina Museum In Vienna, Part 1

On Sunday, we planned to visit both Albertina and at least some of the Hofburg museums, but we ended up spending the whole afternoon in Albertina (including lunch, which took longer than we expected for a museum cafe).

We started with the State Rooms exhibit, then moved on to Monet to Picasso and Fascination Paper.

This very unconventional piece of furniture was made for Archduke Carl, who got tired of the constant presence of the staff who didn’t allow him to do anything by himself. Having this very modern looking, and for his time, revolutionary, this stand allowed Archduke to put things on it and take them off independently (do not ask, that’s what the exhibit description says!)
And that’s how Archduke Carl looked
On the opposite side of practicality – a porcelain table
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Bruce Goff Exhibit

I briefly saw this exhibit when I was at the Art Institute with my granddaughters during their winter break, and I wanted to go back and see it one more time when not in a rush (and possibly more times later – I usually try to visit each new exhibit several times). My original plan to do it on January 3 didn’t work, so my next opportunity was this Thursday, when the Art Institute is open until 8 PM. I still had to visit my mom on that day, so I planned to be there for no more than 1.5 hours, and maybe come one more time later.

When I entered the hallway which led to the exhibit, I saw a sign “Free event today,” but since I had never seen any evening free events in the Art Institute (just fancy receptions sometimes), I thought that this sign was left there since midday. But to my surprise, when I walked into the exhibit hall, I heard a conversation which sounded exremely interesting, and I hurried up to join it.

It turned out that there were two docents conversing with the group of visitors. I can’t even call it a tour, because it was very informal, and both docents were passing the ball of the conversation to each other, happily including the visitors, and turning their questions into the prompts to tell more. It was a million times better than any lecture!

These drawings represented different music genres

Goff was an artist, an architect and a composer, and he didn’t want to follow conventional way in anything he did, including the choice of materials.

From Goff’s shirt collection. He loved extravagant shirts, and people were gifting shirts to him.
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2025. Part 2

Civic activities

Here, there are more negative than positive results. My biggest regret of 2025 is that I didn’t do enough during the election campaign. To be precise, I did zero canvassing and a very moderate amount of convincing people of what the right thing to do is. I knew it was wrong, but I kept telling myself that organizing Prairie Postgres is more important at that moment, and that I can’t do everything, and… I didn’t speak up enough, which I also regret. I post very little, if anything, political on LinkedIn, where I am most visible, and the list continues. I will never do it again!

I’ve done a little bit better at supporting DEI, regardless of the political climate, but I wasn’t consistent enough, so one of my goals for this year is to always keep this support on my radar.

Even with simple things like attending the rallies, I did way less than I did in previous years. Once again, my excuse was that I was twice as busy as before because of Prairie Postgres and my activities in the professional community. Still, I should always remember that if the country’s civic values are at risk, the interests of my professional community are at risk as well. I want to make an intentional effort to attend rallies when I really care about the cause. I know that society’s well-being depends on each individual’s actions, so I have no excuse. I know that each person matters. Earlier in 2025, I tried to become more involved in local initiatives, but I had to drop these activities because they looked like a very insignificant outcome for the time spent. I will try to get involved again in a couple of years, when I retire.

Cultural activities and reading

According to Goodreads, I read fewer books in 2025 than in 2024, but I believe that’s because I didn’t record books that ended up being a waste of time, and there were more of those in 2025. The majority of books were audiobooks, and that’s something I want to address. I switched to audiobooks because it is easier to listen while I am doing something else, and also because of my vision problems. Now that my vision is better, I am looking to find ways to read e-books again. Today, I realized I have a new option: I started taking the L more often, and when on the L, I can find a place to sit, but there isn’t enough space to open my computer, especially since I switched from Mac Air back to Mac Pro. This is the time when I can read e-books.

As for the other cultural activities, I attended many exhibits, concerts, operas, and different theatrical performances, but I didn’t keep track of them, and that’s something I want to do next year. I am still hungry for more cultural activities and want to see more performances than I have time to see, and oftentimes I feel disappointed because I do not like the show. Next year, I want to get more organized with all these activities, keep track of them, and what I like and what I don’t, so I can figure out how much I really want to see and what exactly.

To be continued

Weekend With The Girls

Since we spent most of Friday waiting for the heater to be repaired, we didn’t go to the Navy Pier as we originally planned. However, the weather was great, so I insisted on going outside at least for a little bit.

Kira is great in spotting little things, like noticing this ladybug in the fallen leaves
Also, if it weren’t for Kira, I wouldn’t notice how beautiful the ginkgo yellow leaves are!
And I never paid attention to the ginkgo fruits
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The Moomin Exhibit At The Architecture and Design Museum

After spending time in the Oodie Library, we relocated to the Helsinki Architecture and Design Museum. Since the whole of Finland (and probably the whole world) is celebrating the 80th anniversary of the first Moomin book, the museum opened an Escape to Moomin Valley exhibit.

I feel like it’s the best Moomin exhibit I’ve ever seen. It was so interesting to see how Tove Jansson’s ideas can be viewed through the architecture and design lens.

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Art Institute And CSO

On Thursday, I had a very packed after-work schedule. First, I went to the Art Institute to finally see the Strange Realities exhibit. Usually, I am among the first to see a new exhibit, but this time, I have something going on each Thursday, and I didn’t have time to make a separate trip to the Loop on any weekend.

Upon entering the exhibit, I realized that symbolism as an art movement had completely dropped from my radar many years ago. In high school, we studied symbolism in literature, including Alexander Blok and Andrei Bely. We “obligatory loved” Balmont, Annensky, and other poets of the “Silver Century” of Russian poetry. I just tried to find (unsuccessfully) a blog post where I wrote about how an “intelligent person” in Soviet Russia was supposed to admire certain poets and writers, who were not explicitly banned, but were not praised by the official propaganda; loving symbolists was one of those “requirements.”

Now I realized that for many years, it was not obligatory anymore, and this artistic movement dropped from my sight, and it took me a while to realize: yea, I know what it is all about!

Kupka: The Fools
Ensor: The Entry of Christ into Brussels
Hans Thoma: The Dream
Felicent Rops: The Greates Love of Don Juan
Alfred Kubin: Judith with the Head of Holofernes
Grasset: Morthin Addict

I think I will go see this exhibit again; I didn’t have enough time because I also wanted to catch up on the Elizabeth Catlett exhibit (I saw it as a “second one” when we were at the Art Institute with Boris in August, and it was not enough).

Next stop was the CSO. A week before, they advertised the pickup dinners at the Rotunda. I think it was in response to the disappearance of the affordable “before the show” dining options, which I also complained about. So I tried it, and the answer is no :). I would rather stop at Lea!

As for the concert, it was absolutely amazing! It was an all-Berlioz program with Klaus Makela conducting, and now I have finally started to like him. I won’t say I disliked him when I heard him conducting for the first couple of times, but he is so different from Riccardo Muti that it was a difficult switch! This time, I sat with my mouth open throughout the whole concert 🙂

Oh, and the violist Antoine Tamestit was absolutely outstanding!!! Loved every moment of his performance in the Harold in Italy.

Moomin Museum

Tampere has the only Moomin Museum in the world, and it happens to be in the same building where our conference lunches were served (and adjacent to our hotel building, so we could walk there, staying inside). I loved it! I hope that I will be able to take Nadia and Kira there!

I took a lot of pictures there, so for those who want to see them all, I made a separate album – enjoy!

The museum has a separate room for each of the Moomin books, exhibiting original illustrations by Tove Jansson and the Moomin house!

Moomin Library with books on two dozen languages!

Afterwards, I took the pictures of everything in thr museum store, and send them to Anna so that she and the girls could choose what they want, and then I had to pack it into my carry-on, which was not an easy task, especially because I am also bringing back mine and Boris’s Moomin cookie jars :).

One More Museum Day

This summer, I had more museum days than ever, and I loved it! We had very limited time when I could take M. around, and I was glad that the conference folks did half of my job and organized several groups to do activities which I considered a must in Chicago.

A half-day at the beach was non-negotiable, but we also had a half-day on Saturday, and it was hard to choose. When M. learned that there is an Aquarium in Chicago , she immediately prioritized and, and I was happy to oblige, because I love Aquarium, and not everyone would prioritize it. There were some adventures in tha morning (a heavy thunderstorm, plus I mixed up her hotel, waisted even more time, and we ended up taking Uber, even though I taught her to ride CTA a day before and she was very enthusiastic to utilize her newly aquired skill).

At the end, everything worked out, and we were in the first group of people entering Aquarium. I am unsure who enjoyed it more: M. exploring the exhibits or me, watching hee excitement.

We saw the most interesting exhibits, and since I left all the options open, and she decided to relocate to the Field Museum, where we ate lunch, and I left her with the 3D movie ticket and the member ticket to all exhibits.

When already have a long list of places to visit and things to see when M. will be in Chicago next time!

Weekend With Lena

Lena finally made it to Chicago – in September instead of July, and it turned sharply cold, and we could not go to the beach. Still, our interests are so much aligned that we made it an absolutely perfect weekend.

Lena arrived on Friday evening and met with her Chicago-based coworkers. We chatted for a bit before and drafted the plan of activities.

Saturday was chilly, and since Lena uses each of her Chicago visits as an occasion to dress nicely, and I am happy to join her, we ended up being dressed not precisely to the weather, and were moderately cold most of the time :).

We started the day in the Field Museum, and I was able to properly see all the exhibits (and the recent updates to the “Evolving Planet,” which Lena didn’t see yet).

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