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AIC - Van Dyke, Rembrandt, and the Portrait Print
Rembrandt, self portrait, 1648I am grateful for this New City Review by Stephen F. Eisenman that got me to head down to the Art Institute yesterday to see whether I agreed with his conclusion:" the...
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Remembering Perimeter Gallery
As every artist knows, gallerists are blind, greedy, and backward.But for every person who might be called a gallerist, there must be a  thousand who might be called artists.Which might suggest that...
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Kipper Collection of Asian Jewelry and Ritual Objects
As a vicarious experience of exotic lands, this is a very enjoyable exhibit.Regenstein Hall has been filled with vitrines of jewelry and other precious objects, while its walls have been covered with...
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Milwaukee Art Museum - Summer 2016
Ludwig Meidner, self portrait 1912 (age 28)We drove up to Milwaukee this weekend to see the Tom Benton show -- and I hated it.The period movie snippets (especially from John Ford's "Grapes of Wrath"...
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Frank Varga : Alleluiah
I chanced upon this relic of mid-20th Century sculpture on Friday. It's the only permanent installation in a small, hall-way art gallery in Concordia University Chicago (in River Forest).It's quite...
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Drawings: Recently Acquired by the Art Insitute
 A Sunlit Path through a Wood Thomas Gainsborough English, 1727-1788 1750/59When paintings enter the collection of a major museum, they may, or may not, ever be seen again.Display space is...
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Art Expo Chicago: 2016
Willem De Kooning, 1965Early last year, I had the unpleasant experience of being stopped at the entrance to a commercial art gallery in Chicago and being asked to pay a $20 admission fee.Who me? You...
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Two new paintings at the Art Institute
Sebastiano del Piombo Christ Carrying the Cross (1515/1517) Here's the Italian High-Renaissance painting that was recently purchased by the Art Institute.It was originally part of a triptych...
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Remembering Ann Nathan Gallery
More galleries seem to be closing than opening -- at least, the galleries that I like.Ann Nathan's gallery showed more dramatic figurative painting than any other gallery in Chicago, and I began...
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The Remarkable Aay Preston-Myint
This was the most eye-catching piece in the DePaul Art Museum last weekend -- and that includes three exhibits on two floors. It's symphonic. It's overwhelming.Not even the early Modernists...
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The Definition of Classical
Antoine Coypel, detail from the ceiling of the Royal Chapel, Versailles, 1716"Le dessein elegant de l'antique sculpture, Joint aux effets naifs que fournit la nature" - Antoine Coypel  The above...
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Molly Zuckerman-Hartung at Corbett Vs. Dempsey 2017
I've written about this artist in 2012 and then again in 2014 . If she had a fan club, I'd join it - at least for her larger work.The gallery shows many of her small, quickly done pieces and even...
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Whistler's Mother
I first saw an image of  "Whistler's Mother" as printed on a bubble gum wrapper when I was about ten years old. Apparently that association seemed unlikely enough to have stayed in my memory ever...
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Curators Curated
Lelde KalmiteLelde Kalmite of the Bridgeport Art Center has curated an exhibit of her fellow artist/curators from around Chicago.None of them are curators at the area's major museums - but if they were...
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Robin's Catalogs
I have been gifted with a large box full of old exhibition catalogs.The donor was Robin Mumford, a friend and art consultant. It looks like a great opportunity to continue my art...
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Zhou Brothers : Waterlily Pond of Life
Water Lily 2, 1976Xugu (1824-1896)Wisteria and Goldfish (detail)
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Strolling through Art Expo 2017
 Nicholas AfricanoLooking back at my view of the 2006 edition; I realize that I'm finding less figurative art at the annual Chicago art fair.Though there are some artists, like the above, who have...
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Jennifer Packer at the Renaissance Society
These are some of the most luscious, passionate florals I've seen by contemporary artists.Their beauty is diverse and wanton - as if the plants want to keep growing - with new and different blossoms -...
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Ludke Visits the Solovetsky Monastery
Apparently Chicago's climate is too mild for my friend Ludke. She's always traveling to the less temperate places in the world - including this journey to Nepalthat I recorded here ten years ago.This...
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