Modern isn't boring

Magnet #527 - Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884

Yay, I finally got to visit the Art Institute of Chicago!!

I loved every minute of it - even when we got lost and had to pass the same little elephant statue in the Asian art gallery four times. There was entirely too much to see in one day, let alone half a day. Though, detours and funny layouts made for a heck of a lot of walking around!

After reading so much about Renzo Piano's new Modern Wing, I was happy for the chance to check it out myself - yes, there's a separate magnet for that.

Dudes - most of what we saw today, I haven't seen in person - from Hockey's Collectors and Ruscha's City to Motley's Nightlife to architectural drawings by Louis H. Sullivan and Louis I. Kahn and Mies van der Rohe, and remants of reliefs and doors and windows saved or scavenged from various buildings around town. Good gravy, I could spend days there.

The AIC had a few Monet magnets that I've blogged on - the Artist's house at Argenteuil, and of course, different versions of his haystacks, and his Japanese footbridge at Giverny. But, they also had an extraordinary number of his paintings that I've never seen - ever. Which is just fantastic, if you've scoured the eastern hemisphere for all the magnets Monets you can possibly see.

The AIC collection also includes the final Sunday on La Grande Jatte that was submitted for the 1886 Impressionists Exhibition. I actually bought this magnet in NYC, because I've been visiting the piece at the Met for years. Of course, now I have to go read the back of the magnet, or pop on by the Met to verify, but, from what I can tell, the Met has one of the 50 studies he did for that final piece. Who knew?

Honestly, while I'm glad to have seen it here in town, I'm slightly annoyed that what we have at the Met is a study. (But then again, I also have issues with all the various Monet haystacks and lillies running around this giant Earth.)

Anyway, I've uploaded the unedited, somewhat haphazard (for now) FB album for the AIC and the supercool Millennium Park, sans any real captions yet.

Enjoy. Then, get your bums to the AIC and have a looksee for yourself. You won't be sorry.