Showing posts with label Spertus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spertus. Show all posts

Monday, May 16, 2011

In Search of Beauty

A Day In The Life - page 8 color pencils

"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not." Ralph Waldo Emerson's words ring in my mind quite often, especially when my wants and needs rear up their heads! This past week in Chicago was no exception. These days though, finally, more often than not, I use my camera to bring home the beauty. (The airline luggage restrictions help too!) And, more importantly, I understand what he meant. 

In the past couple of days there have been two stories on NPR about art, beauty and collecting-  'World's  Richest Man Opens Flashy Museum in Mexico' and 'Chasing Aphrodite and Other Dirty Art World Deals.'  The stories mentioned 'object lust', 'because they wanted it', 'they lose reason', 'minor and mediocre pieces by big name artists.'  When I finished listening, I was quite disillusioned by the elitist  mindset of some of the museum directors, curators, professors and one reporter whose tone I definitely did not care for.  I realized how easy it is to judge another or lose one's way when dealing with issues of ethics, art, culture, and greed.   I love going to the museums, admire the collections, but, I was once again wondering about the ethics, pros and cons of collecting, standards of beauty, value of art pieces etc.  

On a much simpler note, having just completed my sketchbook Fiction Project for Art House Co-op, A day in the Life, I was also very excited to see on display,  "Color and Rhythm: Henri Matisse's Jazz " at the Art institute of Chicago. 

  



As I had mentioned before, working on my book has given me a new appreciation for others' efforts and I marvel at the end results! 

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Stark Beauty

The dark long shadows are so beautiful on the sparkling white snow.  I walked across the road to the Grant Park and spent a good part of the morning trying to capture the beautiful shapes. Above is one of my attempts. 
Chicago is also famous for public art -  Agora   by Magdalena Abakanowicz is a sight to see and I trekked on the snow to take a few more photographs.   By then, having been gloveless for a while for the sake of art, I had to escape from the cold! I spent the rest of the day at Spertus Museum. The museum building is unique and has won awards for its architecture. They had a special commisioned art Consider by Ranbir Kaleka. Its a very untraditional and hauntingly beautiful 'video painting' memorial on the holocaust.  On their changing gallery Twisted Into Recognition Cliches of Jews and Others explores the ways images, expressions and objects depict stereotypes. Its a multimedia exhibit by various artists - on the whole very powerful.  Now I have one more book to read - a memoir  The Girl From Foreign by Sadia Shepard.  It promises to be an interesting story about mingling of religions and cultures. 
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