My daughter and I have maintained a membership at the Art Institute of Chicago for time, I love the museum and I always find something new and interesting to advance my knowledge each visit as well as catching up with some old favorites on permanent display. This post is just a visual diary of some of the things we saw this visit with a few links to learn more.
We started the day in the Modern Wing as usual and found this new work in the hall. The Deluge, 2021
by El Anatsui (Ghanaian Born 1944). It was awesome to see such a recent piece and it the scale is perfect for the space. I also loved seeing the response to it by all the school kids in the museum on field trips, once they found out it was made from aluminum cans, they got all excited.
The Photography and Media Gallery 188 in the Modern wing is a favorite space and location. To have my work on those walls one day would be a dream come true.
It took me a moment to realize the change with the Modern wing, the last time I was in Chicago was 2020 when my son and I were driving across country trying to get back to California before the Pandemic Shut Down. Margaret Honda’s Double Feature with Short Subject is a perfect fit for the space. It is scheduled to be up through October 7th, 2024 and personally I would like to see it stay up longer. It definitely is a different experience depending on which direction you are traveling. Chair and Curator Matthew S. Witkovsky made a great decision bringing this in.
Threaded Visions: Contemporary Weavings from the Collection is on display until August 26th, 2024. I enjoyed seeing a different medium especially since it featured a piece by a 28-year-old artist dealing with a contemporary issue.
The Classics, always great to see and I love photographing the people interacting with them. Museums can be great places to photograph people interacting. Paris Street; Rainy Day and A Sunday on La Grande Jatte — 1884
The Coffin of Nespahertahat (about 1069 –945 BCE) was incredible on so many levels. Foremost when I considered I was looking at something created 3,000 years ago, and then thinking about the conservation of wood that old. All the Egyptian art is fantastic. The history lesson is important enough, but I was just in awes of all the craftsmanship and skill it must have taken to create the works they have on display.
I grew up watching movies from the 1940’s this piece immediately reminded me of The Maltese Falcon.
More things I found interesting below.
Detailed Separate Exhibition Reviews:
Unfortunately, O’Keefe Opened in June long after our visit but it is up until September 22, 2024 so maybe I will get back in time to see it. Love this body of work.