art institute of chicago

By -
over the weekend, i was in briefly in chicago to celebrate the engagement of my friend, kelene, through attending her bachelorette party!  while i was waiting for the party to get started, i stopped into the art institute of chicago. when i was little, we would travel to chicago to visit my grandparents and definitely spent a few trips in the art museum.  

this is officially visit #176 to museums since i started this blog almost 4.5 years ago!  i cannot believe i have kept this up as long as i have.  also seeing two more paintings at the museum puts my 1001 painting list almost to 25% seen.  24.88% is so close!

it was a chilly friday afternoon, so it definitely was hopping in the museum.  it was quieter once i got out of the main entrance and the impressionism wing, which of course is very popular!  

overall, i was surprised at how hard it was to get around the museum.  i had to do a lot of backtracking to go see something different.  it reminded me of the MET a little bit in this regard, but within the MET, at least everything is still connected.  some of this was due to construction, so i am excited to see what it is like once that is completed.  

i wondered through the impressionism art, some of the modern art, medieval and renaissance art and the american art.  i had forgotten how much i love renoir's paintings.  they are paintings that you could look at every day and enjoy.  i was also happy that i was able to successfully play the "name that artist" game in the museum.  i did pretty well!  i feel that the museum was very strong in the impressionism art and american art areas.  they really do have some very iconic paintings.  i wish the american art was slightly more prominent in the museum since it was pretty hard to find in the back!  it definitely took a little extra effort to get over there!

time in museum: 1.5 hrs
times visited: 1 (in recent years)
overall: A-
Location: Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL 60603, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

detroit institute of arts

By -
i went to the detroit institute of arts museum to see the rembrandt and the face of jesus exhibit.  it was really great. we bought tickets online the night before to reserve our viewing time.  our biggest gripe about the entire experience was the $3.50 "convenience fee" that was tacked onto each ticket purchased.  the ticket price was $16, so this "convenience fee" was almost 22% of the ticket price.  at this point, purchasing tickets online is cheaper for the museum since they do not have to employee someone to speak to me and they don't even have to print the ticket!  if they are really counting on this fee, just roll it into my admission price please; it would make me a little less grumpy while still getting the same amount of money out of me! we arrived a little early to the exhibit, which ended up being a good move since they had completely sold the exhibit out for the day.  they let people into the exhibit in batches, so it was fine that we got ther
Read more

neue gallery

By -
i went to the neue gallery with my college sister. i had wanted to go for a while. the first time i wanted to go, there was a line out the door and i ended up going to the whitney instead. i found out later it was one of the first weekends for a new exhibit. well, this time we went, unbeknownst to us, but a new exhibit on klimt was opening the weekend we were there as well. we were able to get in no problems, but as we were leaving we noticed that a line (again) out the door had developed. the museum itself is quite small, which i think causes this out the door problem. we really enjoyed the museum. it was just about the right size and pretty easy to navigate. they limit the number of people in it because it just would get to hard to move. the klimt exhibit itself was quite nice. my sister knew a lot more about klimt than i did. i recognized some of the paintings, but my sister knew much more about his background. the museum did a nice job putting the exhibit together
Read more

metropolitan museum of art

By -
i went to the metropolitan museum of art today to see the art of the samurai: japanese arms and armor, 1156-1868 . this exhibit was in the typical special exhibit location....second floor to the left passing through the marble statues. the exhibit was fantastic. as described in the introduction to the exhibit, it is the most comprehensive exhibit ever devoted to samurai art. most of the art were designated as "national treasure" and "important cultural property." i found quite a few of the items on the wikipedia page for japanese national treasures . the exhibit had a number of swords, sword mountings and armor. a number of the items (~60) will be switched out in the next week with new items. most of the items cannot handle light for such long periods. some of the armor was fantastic, in particular one. this particular armor was replicated 100 years later for a child in the same family. this helmet was absolutely fantastic. i cannot believe that i spent
Read more