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:

David Goldblatts’s No Ulterior Motive - Separate Bog Post Link

Picasso Drawing from Life - Separate Blog Post Link

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.

On this trip to Chicago, I was lucky enough to see the Picasso: Drawing from Life exhibition before it closed on April 8th. I always enjoy seeing the works of the great artists up close, so I can inspect their craftsmanship detail. Experiencing well-crafted artwork always makes you better at your own craft regardless of if their medium is the same or different as yours.

The curators designed this exhibition to examine the people in Pablo Picasso’s life who supported him as he developed as an artist. It considers his artist network, the art dealers who promoted his work, the printers who crafted his editions, his family and friends, as well as his lovers. The exhibition is centered on his works on paper to tell this story. The exhibition illustrated how Picasso needed this support network to achieve the prominence he gained in his career.

The exhibition is arranged chronologically and showcases over 60 of his works to illustrate Picasso’s incredible 70-year career. It was incredible to consider all the world events that occurred during the period in which Picasso lived and how they impacted his works.

I loved drawing as a child, my mom knew how important it was to be creative while developing, but I have never been satisfied with my drawing or art skills. I always wanted to be more accurate like several of my talented friends were. I assume that desire to better with a pencil or brush may have helped influence me becoming a photographer. I loved seeing the artist’s had in this work above, Seated Female Nude - Sumer 1909, I was probably drawn to the detail with this work more than the whole image.

The lithograph above, Paloma and Her Doll on a Black Background, got my attention because I was interested in how he documented his feelings for his daughter for his daughter with it as well as the innocence element of Paloma’s relationship with her doll. As today’s world gets more tense, I have paid more attention to examples of the innocence of youth and their fragility. It is deeper than I want to go in to here, but this print had an impact.

CHI DSC 6181 3-26-24 William Karl Valentine

I loved seeing this drawing Six Busts of Women because I was able to spend so much time on the trip photographing the actual statue in Daley Square. For all the time I have spent in Chicago I have never explored Daley Square before as much as I did on this trip. Loved learning more about the subject matter in my photographs from there.

One of Picasso’s most important Cubist Portraits, a painting of Picasso’s long-standing promoter and influential art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (1884-1979) (Below)

Below are more random selections of works in the exhibition. I truly appreciate Pablo Picasso’s work, especially how he worked with so many different materials and was not afraid to explore with his creativity.

*Still Life with Glass Under the Lamp - March 19, 1962*

The Art Institutes copy of the famous Picasso etching Minotauimachia (Above)

In honor of Picasso’s titling style (maybe his dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler handled the titles since so many are obvious descriptions of the work, seemingly assigned for record keeping purposes) I title my photograph below: My Daughter Alyssa by sign for the Picasso Exhibition at the Chicago Art Institute.

Detailed Separate Exhibition Reviews:

One of Picasso’s most important Cubist Portraits, a painting of Picasso’s long-standing promoter and influential art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (1884-1979) (Below)

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