Your Art Lesson for Today

Recently Jim and I visited the Art Institute of Chicago to see it's latest exhibition, "Picasso and Chicago".  His work was first exhibited here 100 years ago at the Armory Show, which was a modern art showcase. Picasso had never been to the Art Institute nor had he even set foot in Chicago. Yet he donated this famous sculpture, (although unnamed, dubbed "The Picasso" by Chicagoans), to the City of Chicago, refusing to accept the $100,000 check, insisting that this was a gift.

Sculpture weighs 160 tons, 50 feet tall

You mention the name "Picasso" and most people know who you are talking about. You either love his work or hate his work. Maybe I should rephrase that....you either respect his work, or hate his work. I fall into the  love/respect his work. I may not understand some of it, but I can respect it. This man was talented, no doubt about it.

photo credit: Wikipedia

I have to say that I am so happy that museums are allowing cameras into the exhibitions (no flash allowed). This way, I can share it with all of you, AND you don't even have to pay the price of admission!

You're welcome!

First thing we saw as we entered the gallery was this which I thought was pretty cool:

Here is your vocabulary lesson for today. That smaller model sculpture is called a maquette, pronounced (ma-ket, muh).  Who knew? Not me. Until today, that is. Anyway, how cool is that? With the backdrop of the unveiling of the original sculpture back in August 1967.

If you ever go to an art exhibit and you have a chance to rent headphones, I highly recommend them. You get to hear more background about the pieces that you wouldn't ordinarily get from just walking around the museum. There was talk about the above piece and what people thought the sculpture was of: head of a baboon, a horse, or even Picasso's afghan dog. Officially is it supposed to be of a woman's head.

Here are some examples of what I learned because of wearing the headphones:

This is called, "The Old Guitarist" and was painted during Picasso's "blue" period. But what was really interesting was that there were two other paintings underneath this one! He just painted over the canvas again and again.

This painting is entitled, "Villa in Villarius", and is a view from Picasso's home of his garden and valley when he lived in southeastern France. He painted this outside because tests found a lot of dirt in the paint. There were a lot of dirt particles in the air from the many pottery kilns in the area.

Which is where he made this large vase with dancers.

I love this painting. It's called, "Mother and Child", from Picasso's Classical period.

A few feet away was this painting. It is said that when Picasso saw a photo of his "Mother and Child" in the museum catalog, he went into the other room and handed the visiting Art Institute Trustee a rolled up painting. It was the fragmented painting below that he had cut off from the original painting. When it was one large painting, the man had one arm around the woman and the other arm dangled a fish over the baby. That is what the baby was reaching for. I don't know why (or can't remember) why he decided to cut this piece off.

This is called, "The Red Armchair". It is a portrait of his mistress Marie Therese Walter, who had "blonde hair, a strong profile, and a voluptuous body", according to the description of the painting. I like that it looks as if the woman is looking face forward, and then it shows her profile. The true meaning of a "two-faced" woman!

To be continued.....

Let's Get Artsy-Fartsy

The purpose of Art is washing the dust

of daily life off of our souls.

Pablo Picasso

Continuing on with my fun day downtown......

We at lunch at "Elephant and Castle", a cool restaurant with good food, great drinks and yummy desserts. This was the "smaller" version of a dessert! It consisted of 6 brownies sprinkled with powdered sugar, topped with a scoop of delicious vanilla ice cream and a pouf of whip cream. TO.DIE.FOR.

We hopped into a cab and our worst fear was realized. 

It smelled.

Or should I say, the CAB DRIVER smelled. His b.o. was very pungent, and he tried to cover it up with overpowering cologne.

It did not work.

So we were dealing with two strong, offensive smells. Throw in the heat from the car and you get instant upset stomach and headache. I was stuck in the middle; Therese rolled down the window all the way, and stuck her head out like a dog who's ears flap in the wind, gasping for breath . Luckily the ride was a short one and we piled out of the cab like nobody's business. 

It was recommended that we go into the back entrance of the Art Institute so it wouldn't be as crowded, although I wasn't expecting large crowds in the middle of the day. We breezed right in, paid for our tickets, and this big guy welcomed us. And I mean he was REALLY big, like maybe 15 feet tall?

Both Kim and I had been to the museum before, it was the first time for Therese. We only had a couple of hours to spend there. According to the brochure that we received with our tickets, there were recommendations listed if one only had an hour to spend at the museum. We thought that was a good plan to follow. There were 12 in all, I took pictures of nine of them. (Of the 3 not shown? One was not worth it, another wasn't available for viewing, and we totally missed the third one.)

1. First stop - American Gothic by Grant Wood. For trivia on this painting, visit an old post of mine here.

2. Marc Chagall's American Windows. This video shows the step-by-step of how the windows were made. It's quite interesting, although a little long at over 9 minutes.




This photo is from the Art Institute's web site and shows all three windows. It was either a cloudy day, or taken towards the evening hours.

I couldn't get all three windows in my photo. Obviously, it was a sunny day.

A close-up

3.  Seated Buddha (made of granite - 63 inches high)

4. El Greco's The Assumption of the Virgin. 157.9" H x 90.2" W
The artist - Domenikos Theotokopoulos, was called "El Greco". This was his first commissioned painting. He divided the painting into two halves - earthly (bottom) and heaven (top). The apostles are on the bottom and look at each other in astonishment as the Virgin Mary is ascended into heaven on a crescent moon (which symbolizes her purity). The angels in the top half are rejoicing her arrival.

5. A Sunday on La Grande Jatte 1884 by Georges Seurat. 81.7H x 121.3W This is a good example of "pointillism", a technique in painting in which "small distinct dots of pure color are applied in patterns to form an image." Developed by Georges Seurat and Paul Signac in 1886, branching off from "impressionism". (Wikipedia)

In 1889 the artist re-stretched the canvas to add a painted border of red, orange and blue dots that provides a visual transition between the interior of the painting and the white frame. (Art Institute of Chicago)

Here is a photo of the painting without the white frame, so you can get a better look at the border (courtesy of the internet). 

If it's still hard to make out, try looking here.

6. The Bedroom by Vincent Van Gogh. This is a painting depicting Van Gogh's bedroom in the Yellow House in Arles in the South of France. The artist called his home "Studio of the South". It was located in an area with like-minded artists. The first version of this painting was used to decorate his house for his visitor, the artist Paul Gauguin, who planned to spend some time and paint. But that arrangement didn't go well; Van Gogh hacked off his ear, and Gauguin fled back to Paris. This rendition of "The Bedroom" was painted when Van Gogh was in an asylum.

7.Pablo Picasso's The Old Guitarist. Painted during his "blue" period (1900-1904) where he mainly used blue or blue green with possibly a splash of another color. Could you imagine having a box of 64 crayons and only using once color? Sheesh! A couple of interesting facts about this painting - x-rays of the painting (who knew you could do this?) shows that there were two earlier paintings under this! Talk about recycling! Not only that, it is believed that the wooden supports for the painting was once a large breadboard. X-rays revealed deep cuts in the wood. Unbelievable!

8. We are going to step away from paintings and go to a sculpture by Salvatore Dali. He was also a surrealist painter. This sculpture is called Venus de Milo with Drawers. Odd? Yes. Art comes in many different forms.This is painted plaster with metal pulls and mink pom-poms. Supposedly Dali was influenced by Sigmund Freud, and was quoted as saying, "The only difference between immortal Greece and contemporary times is Sigmund Freud, who discovered that the human body, purely platonic in the Greek epoch, is nowadays full of secret drawers that only psychoanalysis is capable to open." (Art Institute of Chicago)

Capice? or should I say καταλαβαίνω? (Greek for "understand")

9. Last on our recommended list is this unusual mask. "Originating in the 16th century and reaching its peak of influence in the 19th century, the Kuba kingdom united numerous ethnic groups in south-central Democratic Republic of Congo. Mukenga masks such as this one are worn at funerals of influential, titled men in the northern part of the kingdom. The mask’s form and materials combine symbols associated with status and leadership. Constructed over a wooden frame, its surface is comprised of raffia cloth upon which glass beads, cowrie shells, raffia fibers, and animal fur are attached. The carefully arranged cowrie shells, once prized as currency, signal wealth and status. The beardlike ruff of the large and dangerous colobus monkey refers to powers of the forest. A prominent trunk projecting upward and over the front of the mask represents the elephant, the supreme symbol of leadership." Art Institute of Chicago



That's all I know is, this would have made a helluva Halloween costume!

I hope I didn't bore you with this art lesson. I found it fascinating once I dug into the history behind each piece. The next post continues with more art pieces, some famous, some not-so-famous.