Day 30 - Vincent

Our last day in Chicago, and another blustery one. Not quite as cold as yesterday, not quite as windy, but enough to make us question Mark Twain's quip that the coldest winter he ever spent was summer in San Franciso. Lake Michigan and the coast off the Pacific Northwest must have the same heating contractor.  

A good day to stay indoors, and the Art Institue of Chicago was the perfect venue. We had anticipated this visit from the first days of planning our trip. When you first reach the stairs of the museum you see two stately lions. Much like the lions that greet you at the New York Public Library, they are there to put you at your ease. Their names are Defiance and Prowl, and they protect all museum attendees.

Besides the Museum's own incredible collections, we lucked out on the visiting exhibits, Van Gogh and the Avant Garde: The Modern Landscape and Salvador Dali: the Image Disappears. We started with the Van Gogh, thinking that we would check out Dali when we were done. We never got there.

Van Gogh's exhibit focused on the mid to late 1880s, especially the two years that he was in Paris. Influenced by Seurat's work, a group of artists spent time along the Seine River at the outskirts of city focusing on the interface between the rural fields and the encroaching industrial development. The painting style they were developing came to be called divisionalism, which includes pointillism and cloisonne.

It's hard to appreciate how much these artists, who are now iconic, were breaking with the accepted art school styles. Bernard was expelled for painting a background in streaks of bright red-orange and green rather than the conventional grey-brown. 

Van Gogh apparently was too enthusiastic to be limited by a single style. Bernard described him as wearing a paint-spattered smock and waving his palette around, spraying paint on passers-by. He was in a frenzy, credited with 190 pieces in the two Paris years before he left for Arles. In a room full of beautiful paintings by Seurat, Signac, Angrand and Bernard, Van Gogh's stand out for us (even before we knew they were Van Gogh's).

After several hours in the special exhibit, we staggered out, dazed. A reviving cup of tea and a chocolate chip cookie set us off again through the Impressionist section of the Institute, which included a strong selection of American painters (like Lungren's lady in the cafe), Sargent, Whistler, Cassatt, Hopper, Pollock and more. We then hit the French impressionists, Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cezanne, Pissaro, more Van Gogh and, for Tom Briggs, Gustave Caillebotte. It was over the top.

Then as we walked out, we passed Chagall's beautiful American windows. Kaboom!

The Art Institute of Chicago, while only a third the size of the Louvre in Paris, is similarly overwhelming. After five hours at a steady (not studious) pace, we saw about a third of the second of five floors.

We started walking the mile back to the hotel hardly talking. A glass of Abruzzi wine at the Volare Ristorante Italiano and some hearty pasta (for Gary and Leonard: mallorredus alla Sarda and linguine arselle e bottarga) pulled us out of our reverie and provided a memorable cap to a great four days in Chicago.

Here it is Deb!! After walking around the astounding Art Institute of Chicago, Erik Larson's book is a must read. His Devil in the White City celebrates the World's Columbian Exhibition also known as the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. The facades of the neo-classical buildings were made of white staff, or white artificial stone, which gave the fairgrounds the nickname of the White City. And so Chicago is known. Larson's story is a rich narrative of the master builder, the killer and the great exhibition that obsessed them both.

After drifting around this magnificent building and viewing the Van Gogh paintings the song of the day has to be Vincent by Don McLean. 

Don McLean - Vincent (Live in Austin) - YouTube