20 August 2009

The Art Institute of Chicago

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It has been a long time since we checked out the Art Institute of Chicago. And I had heard that they added a new wing so I thought it would be fun to explore that too. Sorry, I couldn't resist taking these pictures. They allow you to take pictures as long as you don't use flash. Where did this priceless collection of Impressionists come from?

See the Wiki article mentioned below, but it looks like there have been a large number of donors rather than one big one. Apparently a lot of newly rich in the late 19th and first half of the 20th century in the Chicago area managed to collect a lot of really good stuff from the not so rich and newly poor of Europe of the same time. And when they cashed in their chips they managed to give their stuff to the Art Institute rather than their youngsters. Good for them.

As for the new wing, the less said the better. It is all contemporary and almost all have lost interest in reality and the human project if they are not downright certifiably insane.

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How can we pass by a very large Georgia O'Keefe without stopping to have a look? When asked why she wrote about such bizarre characters, Flannery O'Connor said that when talking to a deaf world one needs to shout.

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This was a total accident. I like the pose of the live model on the left. Another reason I take a 100 pictures so that one will turn out.

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The haughty lions in front of the Chicago Art Institute on Michigan Ave guard their treasures zealously. I wonder if they know what they are doing?

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Impressionists are all over the place. This is a reflection of some brick buildings on a glass building seen while walking down Adams St on the way to Union Station.


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