The Art Institute of Chicago - There is a 120 years old connection between this place and a
lot of Indians. Swami Vivekananda spoke in the International Parliament of
religions, talking about the pride of India and Hinduism across to the west. I
am not going to talk about an event that most Indians know. I am going to write
here about a very thought provoking experience that I had while visiting this
place.
The plan to visit Chicago over the long weekend was just
made 3 weeks before. Chose to take train, opted for a cheap hostel in the
middle of the city instead of an expensive Hotel or Motel outside the city. My
transportation during the entire 3 days was just a 20$ CTA pass and lots of
walking. Planning on sightseeing, I acquired a CityPASS for Chicago that offers
me discounted entries to 5 important attractions in the City. “The Art
Institute of Chicago” came as an option to choose alongside the Adler
Planetarium. After missing on my schedule to continuously for 2 days to make up
to the Planetarium, was taking a second look at the suggested attractions near
the Michigan Avenue on my Trip Advisor – Chicago App. #1 of 595 places to see
in Chicago was “The Art institute of Chicago”. Planned it as the first thing
the next morning and joined the long queue 40 mins before the institute was
open for public. While waiting in the queue, a visitor guide came along and
suggested that I can download the institute’s Android app to plan my tour
inside.
Being an early bird has its own benefits as I got my free
Audio guide equipment which otherwise costs 7$. While I still have some
unanswered questions on how most of these exhibits are available in Chicago
from across the world, the wide range beats my previous experiences of similar
exhibits in Tanjore museum or the Egmore museum. Apart from the Saraswati and
Mahaveer statues from North India, there were some exhibits from the
excavations in Tamilnadu like that of the Ardhanareeswarar and
Dhakshinamoorthy. The historical learning and audio commentary on some of the
art works were so intriguing and raised by hair so many times.
The Chinese and Japanese artworks went deep as Pre-Buddha
and Post-Buddha eras on their clay utensils and architectures. The Greek
depiction of minute stone works for various art on the walls should have been
the fore father of modern day collage art. If one has to predict the level of
beauty by just studying the art and architecture across the world, I would rate
that Greek men and women must have been the most beautiful looking at their
marble bust.
Setting aside the appreciation of the art and history of
Japan, India, Indonesia, Greece, Egypt and France, there were few exhibits that
arouse some emotional connect and boundless questions. These were the exhibits
from Africa and Native Americans. Digging deep into the history of the Americas
in the last 400 years, it is the sweat of one and the blood of another on which
the foundation of the skyscrapers were laid on. The story of the blood and
sweat were associated with the transformation of the art and crafts from these
areas. These people were wearing the most decorated pieces of art on themselves
while the others were putting it on the pots and architecture. Still have some
deep questions and anger on how many artisans were caught, cuffed and shipped
to just do plantation around the clock. It is still believed that they were the
one who brought most of the technology of working with metals from the forests
of Africa to the yesteryear Americas.
A special collection of Art works by various artists from
Europe on nudity was indeed thought provoking. Most artists appreciate nudity
as art beyond vulgarity. But most of the items in this collection went a step
beyond depicting humanity and culture beyond flesh.
There was a big crowd of members of the Art institute on
this day to watch another special collection on “Impressionism, Fashion and
Modernity” all the way from France. These were series of oil paintings on
Canvas by a bunch of artists from the 18
th and 19
th
century of France. Some of the best art works I have ever seen and probably the
best of the life size portrait painters of that era. Photography was not
allowed in this exhibit and the art works were accompanied by the actual
props/apparels used by the models of these paintings. I spent a lot of time
taking a close look at the hue distribution and color shadings being a keen
learner of arts myself.
The next time I happen to have a transit though Chicago for
more than 5 hours, I might just take a bus to this place to spend a couple of
hours more. If you are a true seeker of art in life and life in art, it is THE
PLACE!
