A visit to the Richard H. Driehaus Museum, a magnificent late 1900’s mansion on East Erie Street, is a double treat.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec “Jane Avril” 1893, color lithograph. John Faier Photo (c) Driehaus Museum
In 2016, the museum hosted an exhibit of Downton Abbey’s fabulous costumes. The mansion’s elaborate rooms which hold several items from Driehaus ‘ vast collection of decorative arts, perfectly fit the exhibit titled “Dressing Downton: Changing Fashion for Changing Times.”
This year, the museum is featuring art of a different kind in “L’Affichomani: The Passion for French Posters.”
Spread across two upstairs floors of the museum, the exhibit comes from Driehaus’ own large collection of turn-of-the-last-century posters.
Dating from the Belle Époque of about 1875 to 1910, they show off the wonderful lines and colors favored by their artists: Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Alphonse Mucha, Jules Chéret, Eugene Grasset and Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen.
Alphonse Mucha ” Sarah Bernhardt as “La dame aux Camelias,” 1896, color lithograph. John Faier photo
Of course as posters, they do more than serve as advertisements for particular artists. They advertise entertainers, products and events of the time. In doing so they turned the streets of Paris in art galleries while bringing together art and commerce.
So go for the exhibit, but stay to see the mansion. The Driehause collection includes Tiffany glass.
“L’Affichomani: The Passion for French Poster” Is at the Driehaus Museum, 40 E. Erie St., Chicago, through Jan. 7, 2018. For admission and hours call (312) 482-8933 and visit Driehaus.
Each time you walk into another room up on the fourth floor of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago you’ll hear a gasp or a wow. The responses are to the wall-filling, psychedelic art of Takashi Murakami.
Visitors were taking photos of Takashi Murakami’s works throughout the exhibit at the MCA. This room held “Tan Tan Bo Puking – aka Gero Tanm 2002, courtesy of Galerie Perrotin, and its companion piece. Photo by Jodie Jacobs
A Japanese artist who has studied the traditional methods of his country but favors anime (Japanese animated film) and manga (Japanese comics), Murakami mixes folklore, politics, Asian culture and contemporary pop art in highly-patterned or deeply contrasting paintings and with fanciful or foreboding sculptures.
Titled “Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg,” the MCA exhibit is a retrospective that begins with early, fine-art works using traditional Japanese Nihonga materials on paintings of turtles. However, look closer at their themes and you understand that Murakami is concerned about industrial pollution and nuclear power..
As you walk through the exhibit and see different themes and materials that Murakami favored during the past three decades, you will understand that the title refers to regeneration. If an octopus eats off a damaged part a new one will grow.
Some motifs are scary or critical commentary. Others are cheerful and playful. But no matter the subject matter, Murakami’s works are eye-catching and show great attention to detail.
To accomplish his more complex and very detailed works, Murakami has a studio of artist assistants. Indeed, one room shows what a work looks like when drawn but not completely painted in. It looks like a page from the currently popular patterned coloring books enjoyed by youngsters and adults.
It’s also okay to see commercial value in what Murakami does. He worked with pop star Kanye West on an album cover and with Louis Vuitton on a fashion product.
But as you walk through the rooms, remember that Murakami has done and continues to do is what other artists do. Their works express inner emotions and also are responses to surrounding cultures and what is happening in the world.
Murakami has merely been responding in hi definition and amplification.
”Takashi Murakami: The Octopus Eats Its Own Leg,” organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and curated by Michael Darling, is at the museum now through Sept. 24, 2017.
The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is at 220 E. Chicago Ave., Chicago. For admission, hours and other information call (312) 280-2660 and visit MCA.
“Rashid Johnson: Hail We Now Sing Joy” is worth the drive across Illinois’ northern border. Up now through early fall at the Milwaukee Art Museum, the most current works of Johnson are monumental.
Milwaukee Curator of Contemporary Art Margaret Andera and artist Rashid Johnson in front of “Antoine’s Organ.” Photos by Jodie Jacobs
More often than not, an exhibit features works large and small. And Johnson, a Chicago native and New York-based artist, has worked with a variety of formats from photography to installations. Many of those works were in a 10-year retrospective at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary in 2012.
Now, isitors to the MAM show are likely to get the message of how Johnson, a black artist who grew up in Evanston and studied at Columbia College Chicago and the School of the Art Institute, views the world today. They are immediately aware upon entering the exhibit that this time Johnson is thinking large scale.
The first gallery is dominated by a 10-foot high black scaffolding that is overflowing with plants in hand-built ceramic pots, small shea butter sculptures, books, a video, an upright piano and lights.
A gallery is covered with the faces of the “Anxious Audience” pieces made with wax on black soap backed by ceramic tiles.
Titled “Antoine’s Organ,” the piece is Johnson’s nod to the African Diaspora but the work is named for Antoine Baldwin, a pianist and music producer. Musicians will be up in the grid of scaffolding periodically to play the piano.
It doesn’t matter which way visitors continue behind the grid into the next galleries. There are just four rooms. Each has one theme: “Antoine’s Organ,” “Anxious Audience,” “Escape Collage” and “Falling Man.”
Faces, all looking as if they were inspired by Edvard Munch 1893 painting, “The Scream,” look from the walls in the “Anxious Audience” gallery. Made with wax on black soap backed by white ceramic tiles, the faces seem to reflect the racial violence and conflicts in the news.
“Escape Collage” in another gallery, goes in the opposite direction. The
Colorful paintings, all titled “Escape Collage” offer a hopeful view of tropical warmth.
works, made from custom wallpaper appear to have black smudges that may be figures entering a colorful, tropical world of multicolored tiles and paint. Johnson has said he equated palm trees with success because they meant being able to leave a cold climate for a tropical one.
A table filled with blocks of Shea butter will capture viewers’ attention in the fourth or second gallery depending on which way visitors walk after “Antoine’s Organ.”
Johnson leaves it up to the visitors to interpret the meaning of the butter although Shea is often thought to be soothing and even a balm.
Table with blocks of Shea butter surrounded by “Falling Man” art work.
However, all the works on the walls of this gallery are called “Falling Man.” They are made with red oak flooring, pieces of mirrors, black soap, wax and white ceramic tiles.
Although the figures resemble video game people, the pieces’ titles of “Falling Man” beg other interpretations such as violence or unsuccessful economic ventures.
Viewers should find Johnson’s work relevant now and reflective of the past given that art through the ages has historically reflected the times when created.
“Rashid Johnson: Hail We Now Sing Joy” is at the Milwaukee Art Museum, 700 N. Art Museum Drive, Milwaukee, WI 53202, now through Sept 17, 2017. For admission and hours call (414) 224-3200 and visit MAM.
It’s likely no surprise to art aficionados that an extraordinary exhibit has opened at the Art Institute of Chicago this summer.
Paul Gauguin, 1889 “In the Waves (Ondine l). Photos taken at the exhibit by Jodie Jacobs
Chicagoans don’t question an oft used phrase referring to the Art Institute as a world class museum. Arguably, among the things that have made it so in their minds are its large collection of French Impressionists and such famed paintings as Grant Wood’s “American Gothic,” Edward Hopper’s “Nighhawks,” Pablo Picasso’s “The Old Guitarist” and Georges Seurat’s “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884.”
But a great institution does more than collect. It investigates well-known works were created and why and also presents new and lesser known works.
There was “Seurat and the Making of ‘La Grande Jatte’ ” back in the summer of 2004 which revealed other figures in the famous painting and included related sketches and paintings.
Then there was “Matisse: Radical Invention 1913-1917” in spring of 2010 which revealed new information about “Bathers by a River -1909-1910” found through technical research. It also offered a more in-depth view of the artist’s works.
More recently, the museum focused on the paintings: “Van Gogh’s Bedrooms” which were researched and compared in order to shed more light on the artist and his time in Arles.
Visitors at that exhibit in 2016 may remember that Van Gogh set aside a room for Gauguin whom he greatly admired and hoped would help start an artists’ commune there.
Now the museum is turning its spotlight and technical research onto Gauguin. The resulting exhibit sheds extraordinary light onto an artist who is much more than a painter particularly fond of Tahitian figures.
Go to the Art Institute of Chicago to see some fascinating paintings of Breton and Tahitian women or of Martinique landscapes by Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin.
Gauguin, 1889 “In the Waves (Ondine I), oil on canvas. Photo taken at the exhibit by Jodie Jacobs
Or go to the museum to see extraordinary ceramics by Gauguin. He called them his “monstrosities. They really aren’t.
Or go the museum to see Gauguin’s fine prints and woodwork.
But no matter what you expect to see in the Gauguin exhibit now at the Art Institute of Chicago through Sept. 10, 2017, you will be astonished.
As Gloria Groom, curator of “Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist” says in a video on the museum site, “Just when you think you know what he is doing he does something extraordinary and surprises you.”
What you will see are images that may start as drawings or be used on a ceramic piece and end up in paintings. You will also see decorative art.
But also look up on the walls. There are quotes by Gauguin that offer insight into the man, the painter, the philosopher, the traveler and the artist who influenced other artists. So don’t hurry through the exhibit.
“I must work seven or eight months at a stretch absorbing the character of the people of the country, which is essential for good painting… You must remember that I have a dual nature,” says a quote high on one of the exhibit walls.
The introductory panel at the entrance explains the exhibit’s title. “As an alchemist converts one element into another, Gauguin believed in the artist’s ability to take raw materials and transform them into something entirely new.”
Paul Gauguin 1890-91 “Portrait of the artist with the Yellow Christ” Musee d’Orsay. Photo thanks to Art Institute of Chicago
Look for objects including furniture that Gauguin decorated. Also take time to watch some of the videos that show how the artist worked with different materials.
A short movie near the entrance talks about trying to define Gauguin’s style and changing focus. It offers more insight into the artist and his works.
In the video on the Art Institute site, Groom says, “This man is so amazingly layered. He’s so complex.”
So, it is very likely that what “Gauguin: Artist as Alchemist” does for viewers is introduce them to an artist they only thought they knew.
The Gauguin exhibit at the Art Institute requires tickets. Tip: get the ear phones available near the exhibit entrance. They are quire helpful. The exhibit will go to Grand Palais in Paris in October 2017.
The Art Institute of Chicago is at 111 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Illinois. For ticket and other information call (312) 443-3600 and visit AIC.
There’s another place to put on the must see list when visiting the Art Institute of Chicago.
Two armored horses and riders dominate a great hall in “Saints and Heroes: Art of Medieval and Renaissance Europe” at the Art Institute of Chicago. Jodie Jacobs photo
Tourists and regular Art Institute goers often have a must see stop when visiting the famed museum.
Some visitors head to the French Impressionist galleries while others go to the Modern Wing. The Thorne Miniature Rooms are also a draw as are such works as Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks” in the Modern American galleries that lead to Regenstein Hall’s special exhibitions.
But now, the museum has redone a space for its armored horseback figures, swords and such altarpiece panels as Bernat Martorell’s “Saint George and the Dragon.”
Opened this spring, it’s the Deering Family Galleries of Medieval and Renaissance Art, Arms and Armor, a gorgeous, Gothic-style space for nearly 700 items from the years 1200 to 1600. The museum has titled these displays “Saints and Heroes: Art of Medieval and Renaissance Europe.”
Up on Level 2, a darkly mysterious archway sets a “Game of Thrones” tone as visitors step back in time in Galleries 235-239. Vaulted ceilings are reminiscent of chapels and great halls that once held the objects.
“Ayala Altarpiece,” a 24-foot funerary chapel altarpiece from 1396 dominates the first room. “Saint George and the Dragon” is further along in another vaulted gallery.
Bernat Martorell, “Saint George and the Dragon” in the Art Institute of Chicago’s “Saints and Heroes: Art of Medieval and Renaissance Europe” galleries. Photo by Jodie Jacobs
The great hall at the end of the space beckons with its impressive armored horseback riders but the galleries leading up to it are worth perusing. They offer clues on how some people lived from jewelry to art and dining.
After first walking through an arms-filled rotunda, patience is rewarded as visitors ooh and ah when stepping into the great arms and armor hall.
An armored horseback figure is ready to battle but look behind him. Another rider is dressed for sport. Snap the photos then gaze around and up. Two figures are battling on foot. More arms are displayed high above the figures.
There is one more gallery. It features fine firearms and hunt equipment.
Visitors who don’t go through too quickly will see digital labels that are there for an interesting, interactive experience.
The Art Institute of Chicago is at 111 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago. For hours, admission and other information call (312) 443-3600 and visit AIC.
The Field Museum is known as a good place to visit dinosaurs. All photos by Jodie Jacobs
Say T-Rex around the Chicago area and chances are the response will be Sue at the Field Museum.
However, beginning May 26 Field visitors can get almost within a ferocious T Rex’s drooling distance one floor down from where Sue resides.
The Tyrannosaurus rex is caged in a large tent outside the museum’s east, ground level entrance where its neighbors (never mind different time periods) include a Velociraptor, Brachiosraurus, Stegosaurus and other dinos and even a lab where dinosaur eggs are cultivated and embryonic dinosaurs are incubated.
Dinosaurs from Jurassic World are at The Field Museum
They are cavorting in “Jurassic World: The Exhibition,” a traveling production put together by Universal Brand Development and Imagine Exhibitions and co-produced by MagicSpace and IES. The Field is the third stop on a tour that began in Melbourne, Australia followed by the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, PA.
Designed by The Creature Technology Company, the animatronics dinosaurs’ roars paired with sudden neck swivels and gazes frightened a couple of tots during the preview May 24 but most children there were fascinated.
“Cool,” “great” and “liked it, were just some of the comments overheard walking through the exhibit. But an area where budding paleontologists spent more time was a lab mock-up that had fossils, specimen props and a map of “hot” fossil digs.
Where the fossile action is now.
The map shows digs in United States and all over the world. BTW, Sue was discovered by paleontologist Sue Hendrickson in western South Dakota in 1990.
If the fun Jurassic exhibition whets appetites for more dinosaur info visitors should go up one level to see Sue by the north entrance of the Great Hall, then to the upper level to walk through four billion years of life on Earth in Evolving Planet. It includes outstanding recreations of dinosaurs.
“One of our goals as a museum is to provide visitors with the best dinosaur experience in the world,” said Field Museum President Richard Lariviere. “Our fossil collections are one of the greatest things about the Field Museum and the Jurassic Wold dinosaurs are an incredible way to spark our imaginations about them,” said Lariviere.
If interested in the next movie in the Jurassic World franchise, it currently is scheduled to be released June 2018 and star Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard.
“Jurassic World: The Exhibition”, is at The Field Museum, 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, May 26, 2017 through Jan. 7, 2018. For exhibit tickets information call (312)665-7959. For general admission information call (312) 922-9410. Visit Jurassic or The Field.
There’s something for all ages and interests in and around Chicago. Just dress for the weather. After all this is Chicago.
‘Where Did We Sit on the Bus’ at Victory Gardens with and by Brian Quajada. Joel Maisonet photo
Theater
There is just a short time left to catch the awarding- winning actors, playwrights and shows is Victory Gardens’ Up Close & Personal series. Begun April 27 and running through June 4, 2017, the series features three plays.
“A Little Bit Not Normal,” written and performed by Arlene Malinowski, can be seen at 7:30 p.m. May 20 and 21. “Where Did We Sit on the Bus,” written and performed by Brian Quajada, is at 3 p.m. today, May, 20, and June 2 and at 7:30 p.m. May 24, 26, 28, 31 and June 4. “St Jude,” written and performed by Luis Alfaro is at 3 p.m. May 38 and June 4 and at 7:30 p.m. May 25, 27, June 1, 2, and 3.
The shows are in Victory Gardens’ Richard Christiansen Theater at 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue. For tickets and other information call (773) 871-3000 and visit Victory Gardens.
Stories
Chicago-area storytellers share experiences in “Israel: Many Voices from and of the Land 3:30-r:30 p.m. May 21 at the DoubleTree by Hilton. Doubletree is at 9599 Skokie Boulevard, Skokie. Local theater and TV actor singer (Steppenwolf, Drury Lane, CSI: NY) Dan Tatar is the emcee. Tickets of $5 advance and $10 at the door (if available) include complimentary Middle Eastern hors d’oeuvres before and after the program. For advance tickets and other information visit Spertus and call (312) 322-1773.
Be greeted by a robot at the Museum of Science and Industry. J.B. Spector and MSI photo
Robots
Interact with more than 40 robots at the Museum of Science and Industry’s Robot Revolution now through Feb. 4, 2018. Organized by the museum in 2015, the popular exhibit is back to have fun with Chicago area youngsters and adults following a highly touted tour. However there are also new robots such as Cube Solver that can do the Rubik’s Cube. But be sure to visit with RoboThespian, a humanoid robot that greets guests at the entrance and talk to Omron LD Mobile robot who roams the exhibit. Watch Soccer ‘bots play an autonomous competitive game and challenge Baxter, an industrial robot, to a game of tic-tac-toe. Visitors can also build their own robots with Cubelets.
The Museum of Science and Industry is at 5700 S. Lake Shore Dr. For admission and other information call (773) 684-1414 or visit MSI
Beer
Chicago Craft Beer Week started May 18 but goes through May 25, 2017 and it’s not only inside the city limits. Beer events are also in Itasca, Antioch Lindenhurst, Plainfield, Lisle and Oak Park. They are also happening in Aurora, Evanston, Buffalo Grove, Darien, Romeoville, Glen Ellyn, Mokena and Schaumburg. To find an event near you on the date you want visit Chibeerweek and click on the date.
Chicago Riverwalk
OK, it’s raining Saturday, May 20, 2017 when the city celebrates its new fun area along the Chicago River next to Wacker Drive and Michigan Avenue. But you can also check it out any day. The May 20 events go from 9 a.m. through 9 p.m. Visit Riverwalk for event schedule and suggestions.
Lobby of American Writers Museum in Chicago. Photo by Jodie Jacobs
There is a suite of rooms where you can go to soak up inspiration, visit authors, try an interactive literary game and learn where authors’ homes are across the country. The place also has a charming children’s lit space.
This amazing suite is the American Writers Museum opening to the public May 16. Spread across the second floor of a vintage building at 180 N. Michigan Ave., it is easy to wander at approximately 11,000 square feet.
But oh, what is packed into this tiny museum gem is amazing.
Imagine a wall that is, in a way, a bookshelf where the front of lit boxes can be slid sideways for info about a novelist, non-fiction author, poet or song writer.
Fill in the blanks a a game console at the American Writers Museum. Jodie Jacob s photo
Look for the room with a game console where one or two players can guess what words should fill in the blanks of a famed piece of literature.
Then go to the Readers Hall, an open space where talks are given but also where visitors can vote for their favorite books and authors.
Another fun space has the Featured Works Table where you tap a symbol on a ribbon and it will move over to you to tell you about its genre, author or work.
Or walk along a 60-foot wall that gives examples of literary works beginning back with Native American lore.
Wall of literary history at American Writers.Jodie Jacobs photo
Create your own literary work in the Story of the Day room. Do it the old-fashioned way with pencil and paper or typewriter, or you can use digital media. Post it on the wall, take it home or add it online to the museum’s “story of the day.”
Want to get into a groove to write? There is “Anatomy of a Masterwork,” a wall that includes such author work habits as have a cigarette, get a drink, etc. But you can touch screens that make sense to you.
Do stop at the Children’s Literature Gallery. It is likely to remind you of books read or books you read to your children. The artwork is gorgeous. There is a place to read or come back for an author story-time.
Children’s books and pictures might encourage young readers to write their own stories. Jodie Jacobs photo
Before leaving, look at the map that shows what authors live near you.
The museum is small but absorbing the information in its exhibits and doing the interactive stations could take half a day.
BTW, you might even bump into a writer while there.
On a recent visit to check out the museum, award-winning author Francine Pappadis Friedman who had been wandering through the rooms, took time to chat.
“I’m so impressed by the AWM’s beautiful layout with so many interesting and fun interactive exhibits,” Friedman said.
“The tables were turned: as a writer and former English and journalism teacher, I was the one who learned so much about many authors—some of whom were “new” to me—just by visiting the museum.
Of the spaces that spoke to her, one particular one stood out.
“One of my favorite sections was The Writer’s Room, a rotating gallery that will highlight the lives and works of American authors. The current author that is highlighted is Jack Kerouac, with his phenomenal manuscript’s scroll on display, “ she said.
Friedman believes the AWM will be a destination. “I’ve already mentioned it to many of my friends, and we’re getting our calendars out and making plans to visit it.”
Details: American Writers Museum, opening May 16, 2017, is at 180 N. Michigan Ave., Second Floor, Chicago, IL 60601. For admission, hours and other information call (312) 374-8790 and visit American Writers Museum
Appearances are deceiving would be a good warning when walking into “Smoke, Nearby,” the gallery at Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago currently exhibiting works of Mexico City-based sculptor Tania Peréz Cordova.
“We Focus on a Woman Facing Sideways” 2013-17, Bronze, Swarovski Crystal Drop Earring and a Women wearing the other earring. Photo by Jodie Jacobs
Her works are not meant to be looked at in passing. They require more than a glance at something mounted piece before going on to a work displayed on the floor.
As explained on a board near a sculpture with an earring the artist explains: “A woman s missing her left earring. It is suspended on a brass ribbon in the gallery. Until it is reunited with its mate the sculpture exists in both places simultaneously.”
Thus her pieces are experiential. Or as Cordova said when interviewed before the exhibit opened, “They are stories and possibilities.”
