With our day off for President’s Day last week, my friend and I decided to visit the Art Institute of Chicago.

Although my experience with art is limited to my two and a half semesters of ceramics (and a tangential interest in art history), for this week’s blog I’ve decided to offer some commentary on the pieces I saw at the museum. Enjoy!

America Windows – Marc Chagall
(1977)

I got very excited when I saw these windows because this is where Ferris and Sloane share a kiss in a scene from my favorite movie, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Unfortunately, these windows have been moved to their own exhibit in the 40 years since, so any dreams of recreating that scene have vanished.

These gorgeous stained glass windows were gifted by Chagall himself to the Art Institute of Chicago in the late ‘70s, which blew my mind because I had no idea Chagall was even alive in the late 19th century, let alone actively creating art – I was under the impression that he was only active in the early 1910s and ‘20s. In fact, there’s a recreation of a Chagall painting from 1911 (I and The Village) hanging in the hallway leading to North’s ceramics classroom. 

 

Lozenge Composition with Yellow, Black, Blue, Red, and Gray – Piet Mondrian
(1921)

As one of my favorite modern artists, Mondrian holds a special place in my heart – I even based one of the tiles I made in ceramics last semester off of his works. I love the simple, yet striking, nature of his compositions, and it fascinates me how these combinations of lines and primary colors can create a work that’s so geometrically harmonious. 

 

Water Lilies – Claude Monet
(1906)

Perhaps no artist exemplifies art’s impressionist period better than Monet. Although I’d seen pictures of his paintings online, seeing these famous flowers in person drew my attention to an oft neglected facet of his artwork: the texture. Each brush stroke ends in these little dimples and freckles of paint, creating this sense of relaxed airness, almost like the ripples of a pond. 

 

Landscape at L’Estaque – Georges Braque
(1906)

I initially thought this painting was by another one of my favorite artists, Henri Matisse. It turns out, however, that both Matisse and Braque belonged to a French art movement in the early twentieth century known as Fauvism, which is characterized by bright, almost lurid, colors, and coarser brushwork. I love the warm, golden hour-esque colors of this piece – the painting somehow captures the essence of sunlight without directly depicting the sun or its rays. 

 

The Interior of the Palm House on the Pfaueninsel Near Potsdam – Carl Blechen
(1834)

For such an impressive name, this painting certainly delivers on the grandeur. There’s a fantastic sense of depth created by both the palm fronds framing the exterior and the dark recesses of the atrium in the back, leading to this lofty, open-air sort of feel. I’m a sucker for any plant/botanical related art, but I also included this painting because I think it contrasts the way sunlight is expressed in the previous work. Whereas the previous one focused almost entirely on the sun aspect, this one emphasized the light. I can’t explain it, but this painting feels like a breath of fresh air. 

 

Liz #3 – Andy Warhol 

(1963)

My only thought upon seeing this painting: the eponymous “Liz” looks like Michael Jackson. 

 

The Key – Jackson Pollock
(1946)

This work feels disorientingly flat, as if Pollock managed to compress all dimensions into one. The brighter, more textured brushstrokes (from a distance, the piece almost looks as if it was drawn with crayons) depart from the usual neutral-toned splatter-paint works that Pollock is more known for, which was a pleasant surprise. 

 

Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler – Pablo Picasso
(1910)

The obvious question: Who was Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler? 

The ever-helpful blurb to the right of the painting answered it: Kahnweiler was an art dealer from Picasso’s era and one of the earliest supporters of cubism. This work, indeed, is in Picasso’s famous cubist style. For me, the most interesting thing about this art style is that it’s no longer color or shading that distinguishes features, it’s geometric shape. 

In AP Psych, we learned that as long as the first and last letter remain intact, people can generally recognize a word if the interior is scrambled. I wonder to what extent the same can be said for faces. How many facial features can be distorted or omitted entirely until we no longer recognize it as a face?

 

Distant View of Niagara Falls – Thomas Cole
(1830)

I (quite proudly) recognized this painting because it appeared in the APUSH textbook as an example of American romanticism, the movement that emphasized individual emotion and a return to nature. For a painting whose subject is so grand, however, I was taken aback by how small the physical painting is – it’s only about a foot and a half long. 

 

Although my visit to the Art Museum was accompanied by six total miles of walking, two extremely sore feet, and the joy of Chicago public transportation, having the chance to see some of the world’s most famous (and more obscure) paintings in person is invaluable – I highly recommend it if you get a chance. 

For now, I hope you all enjoyed this virtual tour!