Inspiration at The Art Institute of Chicago

I took my "bonus" day in Chicago and put it to good use by going to the Art Institute of Chicago.  The very sweet Margie Higuchi...

...came and met me at the museum and we had a good time together! I feel like all of those afternoons at MoMA have really paid off.  Even in this unfamiliar collection I was able to easily identify many of the artists. 

I took A LOT of photos.  So many that my phone (i.e. my camera) died before I left.  So I thought I'd share just a few with you.

Matisse always reminds me that it takes so few lines to communicate.  Realism schmealism.  This painting clearly communicates that those are people.

I am fascinated by hands.  I find them impossible to draw.  And there were many interpretations at the museum:

I'm not sure who the first piece is by, but the man in the tuxedo is by Max Beckmann, then we have Matisse, and finally Picasso.  Each artist has handled the hand issue differently.  And yet, clearly each subject has hands.

Robert Rauschenberg is my very favorite collage artist ever.  And so I was delighted to find this one hanging on the wall:

Everything he does looks so effortless and yet it is clearly full of intention.  And he is a master of purposeful messiness.  And the way he mixes disparate elements is brilliant.  Love, love, love him!

Whenever I go to museums I am blown away by the impact of scale.

Simple objects rendered large communicate in a totally different way.  I am very interested in playing more with outsized images in my own work.

I found a little bit of New York in Chagall's amazing stained glass.  (The photos do not do it justice.)

It made me long for Rockefeller-like money.  Wouldn't it be amazing to be able to commission talented artists of all kinds to make beautiful things for your home like stained glass windows and intricately carved doors and hand hewn furniture?  Well, a girl can dream.  Or I suppose she can get to learning how to make it herself!  Add stained glass to list of "someday" skills!

The Art Institute has an impressive Impressionism collection.  I usually find myself fascinated with the backgrounds in Impressionist paintings.  (These are all by VanGogh, except for the pointillistic piece -- I'm not sure who the artist is on that one.)
 

Gorgeous stuff!

I was also struck by this painting:

And it got me thinking.  If it were a photograph for a scrapbook page I'd likely crop it.  Then I'd bemoan the fact that the child wasn't facing the camera.  Silly, really.  This composition tells the story so much better, don't you think?  An excellent reminder to capture life as it is.

And of course, the museum was filled with fantastic patterns:

Before I left I even found a self-portrait:

And so I left the museum filled with the exuberance of art:

Thanks for stopping by!