Art Institue of Chicago – Chicago Theater and Arts

Georgia on a New York Mind

Painting featuring a dense city view bisected by a bright blue river with a tugboat headed right. Factory smokestacks and industrial structures define the far bank. The near back features a mass of close-together structures in different styles and heights. A smoky haze permeates the view, softening the sharp diagonals and corners of the cityscape.

Georgia O’Keeffe. East River from the 30th Story of the Shelton Hotel, 1928. New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut, Stephen B. Lawrence Fund. © Georgia O’Keeffe Museum on loan to Art Institute of Chicago

Highly Recommended

If you think you know something about Georgia O’Keeffe, be prepared to be pleasantly surprised.

Yes, there are one or two bleached skulls and a few super closeups of the interiors of flowers but overall this exhibit entitled “My New Yorks” focuses mainly on the work she did during the 1920s while married to famed American photographer and gallery owner Alfred Stieglitz.

The couple lived in the Shelton Hotel which at the time was one of the city’s tallest buildings offering the highest living space in NYC. From this vantage point the two visual artists could witness the growth of the sprawling metropolis.

They each derived inspiration from the crush of towering buildings and the interesting shapes provided while looking up during walks at street level as well as from their particular bird’s eye view.

O’Keeffe continued her work with abstracts by making impressions of the city in which she hoped to capture not what it looked like but rather how it felt. Massive structures dominated her canvases and spilled off the edges as though they were unable to be contained.

Her styles at this time seems to have generally drifted away from her previous more colorful works and amorphous forms. Instead, they varied from monochromatic abstracts to more realistic sepia-toned cityscapes reminiscent of Stieglitz’ photos

They also went to more colorful waterfront images and compositions that included shocks of color between or behind a darker field of monolithic buildings as though the natural world was trying to breakthrough this concrete barrier.

It’s notable to mention that her work is virtually devoid of human subjects or foliage. One exception depicts a small sprig from what might be the stem of a flower comprised of a few green leaves on a windowsill with the sharp-edged shapes of the city below. This is one of the few organic and curved subjects in what is otherwise a collection of geometric designs drawn with nearly draftsman like precision.

It is during this time that O’Keeffe made the first of what would be many visits to the Southwest. She brought back at least one cow skull which adorned her apartment terrace and also many bleached bones. It is here in New York that she began to work with the subject matter that would be most identified with her.

Another odd exception that includes organic forms is the random placement of colorful flowers in a 1932 work entitled “Manhattan.”

The large composition of skyscrapers is, itself, more colorful. It has been suggested that the flowers are a nod toward her growing love and an interest in the American Southwest that will ultimately come to dominate the later part of her career.

It’s fitting that this collection be exhibited here in Chicago. Born in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, she studied at the School of the Art Institute from 1905 to 1906. In later years, she made several donations of her work and the works of Stieglitz to the museum.

A complimentary audio tour is available on the free AIC app which can be listened to via your smartphone.

Details: Georgia O’Keeffe: “My New Yorks” is at the Art Institute of Chicago at Michigan Avenue and Monroe through September 22, 2024. General admission plus an extra fee for the exhibit is required. For details visit Georgia O’Keeffe: “My New Yorks” | The Art Institute of Chicago (artic.edu)

Reno Lovison

(For more about Georgia O’Keefe visit Fun Facts.)

Where to find unusual gifts

One of a Kind gift show at theMart includes a good gourmet food and candy section. (J Jacobs photo)

Shopping the old fashioned way, leisurely browsing in person without worrying that the items will be gone by 8 a.m. or that the internet will be overloaded, can be a treat at museums and annual gift shows.

Listed here are two examples of excellent gift shows and really good, large museum shops. They are likely to take a while to explore and are fun excursions while filling the gift list. Continue reading “Where to find unusual gifts”

Holiday Happenings Part One

Seeing A Christmas Carol at Goodman Theatre (2018 production)is a holiday tradition. (Goodman Theatre photo)

Instead of going crazy trying to get to even a quarter of the all terrific festivals, shows and events in and around Chicago this holiday season, make a plan. Figure out which show and happening you and/or your family want to see most, put them on the calendar, then list the next couple of things you would like to do.

Because there are so many events, they are divided into two parts with shows (because they need tickets) and special events (because they may be one-time, date-specific) in Part I which is a sampler and not a complete list.

Continue reading “Holiday Happenings Part One”

Hairy Who exhibit captures sixties mood

Jim Nutt. “Miss E. Knows,” 1967. The Art Institute of Chicago, Twentieth-Century Purchase Fund. © Jim Nutt.

There’s an exhibit, actually a divided exhibit, up at the Art Institute of Chicago that humorously and poignantly portrays six artists’ views of the world, of the battles between the sexes and of the troubled sixties.

At first glance you might think that the works of the six artists who comprise the Hairy Who, Jim Falconer, Art Green, Gladys Nilsson, Jim Nutt, Suellen Rocca, and Karl Wirsum, all graduates of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, are alike.

Well, yes their style is similar enough to group them together. They gravitate to comic book and advertising colors for their picturesque commentaries. And they enjoyed puns and colorful wordplays.

But when going through the glass doors separating the main entry lobby from the museum, take a left into print and drawings gallery. You get to know the works of each artist in rooms basically dedicated to his and her prints and drawings.

By the time you head west through the museum to see their finished works in the Rice building you should be able to know whose work you are seeing without looking at the painting ID.

Gladys Nisson "The Great War of the Wonder Women," Watercolor on Graphite on paper. (J Jacobs photo) — Gladys Nisson “The Great War of the Wonder Women,” Watercolor on Graphite on paper. (J Jacobs photo)

The exhibit celebrates the 50^th anniversary of a Chicago show, but in Rice building the works are primarily grouped by the Hairy Who’s six exhibitions from 1966 to 1969 in Chicago, San Francisco, New York and Washington D.C.

Among the best commentaries made on the wall descriptions of each show is one that notes that in San Francisco, the art teachers where the show was held disliked the exhibit but the students understood and loved it.

A phrase in the Art Institute’s online site about the show perfectly sums up the Hairy Who’s messages as “progressive ideas that challenged prevailing notions of gender and sexuality, social mores and standards of beauty, and nostalgia and obsolescence.”

DETAILS: “Hairy Who? 1966-1969” is at the Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave., through Jan. 6, 2019 For hours and admission information visit artic.

Jodie Jacobs

Four new exhibits worth a look

The Chicago Cultural Center is worth visiting at any time but try to get there to see an exhibit up now that brings back Chicago's musical legacy. — The Chicago Cultural Center is worth visiting at any time but try to get there to see an exhibit up now that brings back Chicago’s musical legacy.

You know Chicago’s heart beats in time to jazz, blues and ragtime and turns dramatic with modern gospel. So a new exhibit, starting this weekend at the Chicago Cultural Center, that brings back the history of the city’s music legacy is an exciting event.

Up north in Glencoe, an important exhibit is going up next weekend at the Chicago Botanic Garden. It paints eye-catching, environmentally-driven botanical stories.

Also next weekend, a world renown painter’s disturbing views of the human condition opens at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Then, another picture of life in Chicago, the good, the bad, the real, opens the following weekend at AIC.

“Bronzeville Echoes: Faces and Places of Chicago’s African American Music”

Located in the Chicago Cultural Center’s Garland and Landmark Chicago Galleries, “Bronzeville Echoes” is filled with such artifacts as 1920s records, old sheet music and even a telephone booth. Up April 28, 2018 through Jan. 6, 2019,the exhibit is an excellent way to become acquainted with the city’s musical history. Presented by the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, entry is free. The Chicago Cultural Center is at 78 E. Washington St. BTW The building itself is worth a visit. For more information visit DCASE Events.

“Against Forgetting”

The show is a non-forgettable statement by Santa Barbara-based artist Penelope Gottlieb on what is happening in the plant world. The works, representative of the three groups: Extinct Botanicals, Vanishing Series, and Invasive Series, range from vibrant to reflective. The exhibit is up in the Joutras Gallery in Chicago Botanical Garden’s Regenstein Center, May 4 to Aug. 12, 2018. The Chicago Botanic Garden is at 1000 Lake Cook Rd., Glencoe. Entry to the Garden is free but there is a parking charge. For more information visit CBG Exhibitions.

“Ivan Albright”

A retrospective of this Chicago native known for his nightmarish paintings will be at the Art Institute of Chicago’s Gallery 273, May 4 through Aug. 5, 2018. Considered controversial, fascinating and macabre, his works made him the perfect artist to have painted “The Picture of Dorian Gray” for the 1945 movie. For more information visit Albright.

Along with visiting old favorite works see a couple of new exhibits at the Art Institute of Chicago.

“Never a Lovely So Real: Photography and Film in Chicago 1950-1980”

The exhibit, whose title was taken from a Nelson Algren description of the city in Chicago: City on the Make, opens May 12 at the Art Institute of Chicago. Up in Galleries 1-4, the show reveals different sides of city during the second half of the 20^th century. “Never a Lovely So Real” is part of Art Design Chicago sponsored by the Terra Foundation for American Art and the Richard H. Driehaus Foundation. It runs through Oct. 28, 2018. The museum’s admission is fee based with some free days and times. The Art Institute of Chicago is at 111 N. Michigan Ave.. For more information visit ARTIC/exhibition.

Enjoy!

Jodie

Around Town: February

Instead of organizing the desk (or you name it), and wishing the groundhog prognosticators were wrong about six more weeks of winter, take in a show, find a special event to dispel gray skies and moods and take advantage of museum free days.

Theatre

If the family has a Saturday available, get tickets to ‘Short Shakespeare! A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at The Yard, Chicago Shakespeare’s newly added theater on Navy Pier . The show is a fun 75 minutes that merges the Bard’s humorous mismatching of characters in his comedies. The production is offered Saturdays now through March 10, 2018 at 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.. To get tickets visit Chicago Shakes Plays.

Concert

Listen as famed tenor Lawrence Brownlee performs ‘Cycles of My Being,’ a recital that puts forth what it is like to live as a black man in America. Co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall, Lyric Opera/Lyric Unlimited and Opera Philadelphia, the program will only be in chicago Feb. 22, 2018 at 7 p.m. at the DuSable Museum of African American History. For more information visit Lyric Opera Cycles or call (312) 827-5600.

Walk around gorgeous, delicate orchids at the Chicago Botanic Garden.

Botanics

Go to the Chicago Botanic Garden Feb. 10 through March 25, 2018 to see orchids with an Asian accent. This year, the Garden’s Orchid Show blooms among kimonos, parasols and Asian plants. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. plus open later Thursdays to 8 p.m. For more information visit Chicago Botanic Garden orchid.

Museums

How about a night at the museum, that is among the fish?

Explore the Shedd during an overnight stay.

For Presidents Day weekend stay the night Feb. 16, 2018 in a special program at the Shedd Aquarium that allows participants to explore the museum, see an aquatic presentation and do a scavenger hunt. The cost is $75 per person ($60 members). For tickets and more information visit Shedd Aquarium Overnight.

Free Days

Presidents’ Day, a federal holiday when most schools in Illinois are closed to celebrate Presidents Washington and Lincoln’s birthdays, is Feb. 19, 2018. Fortunately, some of Chicago’s museums are free that day.

Some Chicago museums have free admission.

The Adler Planetarium’s general admission is waved for Illinois residents Feb. 19-22. For more information visit Adler.

Art Institute of Chicago has free admission to Chicago residents under age 18, every day. See ARTIC.

Chicago History Museum is free every day to children under 18 who are Illinois residents. Visit Chicago History.

The Field Museum has free general admission for Illinois residents all of February. Visit Field Museum free days.

Art

The National Museum of Mexican Art always has free admission. See National Museum of Mexican Art.

Find this amazing dome and room at the Chicago Cultural Center

The Chicago Cultural Center has a new exhibition on its fourth floor. Titled “Nina Chanel Abney: Royal Flush,” it was organized by the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University. The Cultural Center also has other exhibits on its first floor. While in the building go to the third floor to see gorgeous glass domes and rooms. Admission is always free. Visit Chicago Cultural Center.

Get out and enjoy Chicago

Jodie Jacobs

Paul Gauguin revealed

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 — 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.

Continue reading “Paul Gauguin revealed”