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Sep. 11th, 2004 09:33 pmI went to look at art, and I came home with books.
The Seurat exhibit closes next week, and there were another couple I wanted to see that close tomorrow, so I went to the Art Institute for a day of culture. Although I'm not a big fan of Seurat, I did enjoy the exhibit. It included a great many pieces by other artists, from Rembrandt through the Impressionists, who influenced Seurat. And it did something that I really like, which was to include a great many of the studies for L'Après-midi Dimanche sur La Grande Jatte as well as other of his works. I do like shows that focus on process! I also found that I much preferred the conté crayon studies, but then I generally prefer prints and drawings to paintings.
As usual, I visited the Asian galleries to see what was up from the Buckingham collection. They had a series of prints by the mystery man of ukiyo-e, Toshusai Sharaku, the insignificant actor who suddenly turned out 145 amazing images of actors over a period of ten months, and then disappeared. Then to the exhibit of Japanese Art from the Alsdorf Collection, mostly scroll paintings, but also some lovely pottery, wood and lacquerware. Some interesting collaborative pieces, two with calligraphy of Hon'ami Koetsu on paintings by Tawaraya Sotatsu, and one I particularly liked of three crows, each by a different artist, based on the "Snow, Moon, Flower" triad, so one crow is on a snow covered roof, the second flying in front of the full moon, and the third sitting on a plum blossom branch. There was one very unusual scroll painting of a weasel, with a painted mounting; I've never seen that before. It's really beautiful.
While I was there I picked up a ticket for the Eric Wright lecture next month (he's FLW's grandson), and had a very nice lunch in the garden restaurant. Good day for it, mild and sunny.
Oh, the books:
Sunday on La Grande Jatte Tunnel Book
The Alsdorf Collection of Japanese Paintings
The Hidden Alphabet
The Seurat exhibit closes next week, and there were another couple I wanted to see that close tomorrow, so I went to the Art Institute for a day of culture. Although I'm not a big fan of Seurat, I did enjoy the exhibit. It included a great many pieces by other artists, from Rembrandt through the Impressionists, who influenced Seurat. And it did something that I really like, which was to include a great many of the studies for L'Après-midi Dimanche sur La Grande Jatte as well as other of his works. I do like shows that focus on process! I also found that I much preferred the conté crayon studies, but then I generally prefer prints and drawings to paintings.
As usual, I visited the Asian galleries to see what was up from the Buckingham collection. They had a series of prints by the mystery man of ukiyo-e, Toshusai Sharaku, the insignificant actor who suddenly turned out 145 amazing images of actors over a period of ten months, and then disappeared. Then to the exhibit of Japanese Art from the Alsdorf Collection, mostly scroll paintings, but also some lovely pottery, wood and lacquerware. Some interesting collaborative pieces, two with calligraphy of Hon'ami Koetsu on paintings by Tawaraya Sotatsu, and one I particularly liked of three crows, each by a different artist, based on the "Snow, Moon, Flower" triad, so one crow is on a snow covered roof, the second flying in front of the full moon, and the third sitting on a plum blossom branch. There was one very unusual scroll painting of a weasel, with a painted mounting; I've never seen that before. It's really beautiful.
While I was there I picked up a ticket for the Eric Wright lecture next month (he's FLW's grandson), and had a very nice lunch in the garden restaurant. Good day for it, mild and sunny.
Oh, the books:
Sunday on La Grande Jatte Tunnel Book
The Alsdorf Collection of Japanese Paintings
The Hidden Alphabet
