Art Institute of Chicago, 2

Below is an assortment of pix from three more days at the Art Institute of Chicago. As earlier, we tried to get on as many highlight tours as we could and then wander aimfully between them. The museum opens at 11 and closes at 5--and it's already dark outside just past 4--so these are pretty short museum days for us. The tours are staff-led and really are quite excellent. Typically the staff member chooses 3 or 4 works to address, usually but not necessarily in the same division of the museum, so it is a bit of a kaleidoscope. We've been on five of these tours so far and have seen the same work twice just once. Always edifying, especially when the guide talks.

Trying to get on the same plane with the bodhisvatta 

A very early Velazquez, St. John the B...so where are
the skins?! we ask;  but, hey, it's a Velazquez

Botticelli...1470s...mom and bambino

Vasari's Temptations of St. Jerome, 1540s; study for 
a larger work; personally, I still prefer the St. Anthonys,
which are generally more lurid

The Christmas "Creche"; 18th century, with more recent additions

Still of interest to me...a South German oil on panel,
Christ carrying the cross, dated 1425...would be one of
the earliest known European oil paintings, if correct...
still looking into its provenance...

The Hartwell Memorial Window; Tiffany, designed by
Agnes F. Northrop, who worked for five decades doing
designs for the company; depicts a scene in New Hampshire;
moved from a Providence church to the AIC largely to
ensure its preservation

Moving right along...now we are in the modern division,
looking at things that are nearly contemporary; above is,
seemingly, a detail of a toile, a kind of French wallpaper of
the 18th century or so; studying it in the 1990s, artist Renee
Green became intrigued by the relation between its production
and the Atlantic slave trade...and then created her own toile,
representing the horrors and injustices of that trade...click
to enlarge

The fuller installation she created, which depicts the trade, with ships,
ports, the languages the slaves spoke, and more

Love this...from a little distance, could be a b&w photo
of a European city...up close, just smudges...Gerhard Richter,
Townscape, 1968

Roni Horn, Water Double, 2016; it's a long story...

Eva Hess, Hang Up, 1966; an even longer story, perhaps originating

from the 16th century dispute about which art form, painting vs. sculpture,

was superior...

Mike Cloud, F of J, 2016; I think it's Toulouse-Lautrec in his Montmartre

studio

Paul Thek, Meat Cable, 1968; fire up the grill!

Munch's sole lithograph of The Scream; we saw one of
the two original oil paintings in Oslo, 2009; this was in the
"Symbolist" temp exhibit

Odilon Redon, Flying Clouds, 1903

James Ensor, The Entry of Christ into Brussels, 1898; we saw a
much larger, earlier such work at the Getty last October

Munch's rather blasphemous 1895 Madonna; sperm
swimming around the frame, the fetus looking up from
the left...hand colored litho

Max Klinger, the Glove,1881 portfolio...all 12 in a row...very long
story...definitely not the Klinger from MASH...

Richard Prince, Untitled, 1990s; Prince is the prince of
re-photography and appropriation, also the most
controversial artist of the various tours we were on, most
people finding his works dishonest and repulsive, 
especially when informed of the million$ they have
fetched at auction; personally, as an extremely lazy wannabe
artist, I find his work encouraging and heartening

You can barely see it, but the "self-portrait" in this room is printed

high on it walls...significant events in and bearing on the life of...

Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Untitled, 1989-present...by contract with the

museum, it has continued past his death...converting a selfie to an

ussie...

Manet, Beggar with Oysters, 1865

All six of the AIC's Monet Haystacks; evidently there was a discount
for bulk purchases

Ivan Albright, Picture of Dorian Gray, 1945; this was the
painting used in the 1945 movie adaptation of Oscar Wilde's
famous novel; interestingly, the painting, as it evolved, was
shown in color in the otherwise black and white movie; the
museum could barely manage the crowds that wanted to see it!

Hopper's Nighthawks, 1942; one of the AIC's real treasures; Hopper
was a New Yorker, but evidently wanted the painting here, in Chicago

Another treasure...Grant Wood's American Gothic; the woman is
Wood's sister, the man, his dentist; entered into a 1930 AIC
contest, it won 3rd place, $300; if there's an American Mona Lisa,
this is probably it