Exhibits

Georgia O’Keeffe: “My New Yorks” Member Reception – Chicago Art Institute – June 24, 2024

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Note to self – next time you go to an event at the Art Institute that features “light bites,” skip everything but the chocolate banana bread.

It stands to reason that trained experts know a lot more than I do about their chosen fields, but that doesn’t mean that all the opinions they serve are easily digested. So, when curator Annie Morse told us that she viewed Georgia O’Keeffe’s Black Cross as, in a way, a self portrait, I had to take it with more than a grain of salt to make it appealing to my uneducated palate. (No amount of salt could have helped the quiche.)

That said, Morse gave an interesting, educational presentation in a nice half-hour package that included, not only photographs of New York from her husband Alfred Stieglitz, but also some mention of and visuals from other artists who Morse saw as influenced by O’Keeffe, including Roger Brown and his famous Leaning Tower of Touhy, housed at the Art Institute.

As for the exhibit itself, it was crowded, so I’ll have to go back to spend more time with it. It’s probably good, so I’ll give it a provisional four brushes for now and salt it away for future reference.

007 Science: Inventing the World of James Bond – Museum of Science and Industry – June 18, 2024

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It’s never too late for a new career, so why not secret agent, although, with James Bond, there never was anything secret about who he was (even repeating his last name to make sure everyone knew) or who employed him. His idea of a disguise was putting on a pair of glasses in Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

Nevertheless, after gazing bleary-eyed at the massive amount of information about, and science behind, Bond’s gadgets, I tried the interactive, computerized, disguise station at the exhibit. I failed miserably, most notably in how well I would have blended into my environment (not at all).

Moving on, I killed myself multiple times attempting to recreate stunts from Goldeneye, The Man with the Golden Gun and Casino Royale (the remake).

What was left of the car from the CR stunt was present, looking exactly as battered as it appeared post stunt in the movie after rolling over seven times. Intact vehicles, however, abounded throughout the exhibit: cars, submarines, submarine cars, flying cars, motorcycles, boats, snowmobiles, jetpacks, etc.

My talents for a field assignment were further dashed by one look at Hang Time, which I skipped after reading the sign that said “ For your safety, do not use Hang Time if you have hand, knee, back, neck, or shoulder problems.” The only thing was missing was my picture.

I also wasn’t great at hiding listening and viewing devices, so a Q position is probably not in the offing.

Finally, I gave myself some hope with success at the decoding station. So perhaps a desk job with MI6, although I’m certainly not prepared for the British equivalent of a Three Days of the Condor adventure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Level Up: Writers and Gamers – American Writers Museum – May 23, 2024

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The only thing I know about Dungeons and Dragons is what I’ve seen on The Big Bang Theory. I also have seen the movies Ready Player One, Free Guy, Tetris, The Last Starfighter, Cloak and Dagger, Tron and Pixels, and the first season of Fallout, all together unfortunately still not enough to make me a hit at those geek parties I long to attend.

Way back when, I played Zork and Myst, not particularly well.  Both are mentioned in the exhibit, giving me at least a smidgen of credibility and knowledge that I thought I could at least quadruple by attending the exhibit’s opening event.

Alas, my attention span for such things is sorely lacking and I learned nothing except that game playing had changed the lives of a couple of creators who gave heartfelt and mercifully short speeches.

I spent a few minutes chatting with a couple guys from an organization of people who make movie props. They had a table with some samples, including guns, which I quickly found out were rubber, so phew.

Money Museum – Chicago Federal Reserve Bank – April 23, 2024

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First answer – yes the museum gives out samples. Really. But they’re of shredded bills and you’re only supposed to take one piece (though I don’t think anyone was watching).

And, you have to reach into a dark hole, ala something Indiana Jones might do, and though I doubted there were spiders or snakes guarding the paper (actually 75% cotton and 25% linen), I decided to forego the experience.

Second answer – “not a clue”, to the question of whether, after spending my whole life here, I had any idea that this museum existed (before yesterday).

Third answer – definitely worth the visit. I may have spent more time there than I did at the Louvre. And the Buy Bonds posters are worthy of any art gallery. I was particularly fascinated by the one featuring Joan of Arc (probably Jeanne D’Arc on any copies at Musée du Louvre).

I learned a lot about Military Payment Certificates used during the Viet Nam troop deployment, including how easy it apparently was to counterfeit them.

I leaned a lot about counterfeiting, not how to do it (darn), but how to spot it and the fact that, at the time of the U.S. Civil War (also, strictly speaking, not a war) almost one-third of all the U.S. currency in circulation was counterfeit (today only about .03%, but who uses cash anymore anyway, probably just counterfeiters).

To show how hip they are, the curators also have an area dedicated to the first Secretary of the Treasury (and Broadway star), Alexander Hamilton that included quotes from the musical.

There was plenty more, but perhaps the best thing was the Life Cycle of a Dollar section featuring a wonderful Rube Goldberg-type contraption that would look great in my living room.

 

 

A Night at Mr. Kelly’s Exhibit – The Newberry – April 16, 2024

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I’ve never read or seen The Accidental Tourist, but accidentally joined a tour of the A Night at Mr. Kelly’s exhibit at The Newberry (running through July 20) when I unknowingly burst into the back of a gathering just as the docent began her spiel.

I think the last time I did something like that was in Luxembourg City in the mid 1980’s when I had the good fortune to stumble upon the back of the pack of a group of American college students (not my status at the time) being shown around the walled city.

Alas, I remember nothing about Luxembourg City, other than the McDonald’s where I grabbed an orange juice. Nevertheless I’m sure that experience didn’t include stories about Barbra Streisand’s signature being forged for patrons because her hand got tired, the building burning down just as Lainie Kazan was about to sing Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and the audience being handed their checks as they fled the establishment. Also, where else can you see Lenny Bruce’s bar tab.

I saw Woody Allen at Mr. Kelly’s the night of my senior prom and the docent confirmed for me that such parties were accommodated, no fake IDs required. Woody is not mentioned in the exhibit, though, again, the docent confirmed that he appeared at the club several times and his lack of inclusion in the exhibit was not related to later accusations against him, the only person purposefully excluded being Bill Cosby.

The exhibit makes a point of the diversity in Mr. Kelly’s performers and audience members often not found at other clubs of its era, but, I might add, also not in today’s tour group.

Dan Friedman: Stay Radical – The Art Institute of Chicago – February 2, 2024

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When modernism just isn’t enough, why not radical modernism, of which Friedman was apparently the father. But that was years ago, so I looked up ultraradical to see how far things have gone. The second definition of that involves the complete surgical removal of organs in a body cavity, so I’m glad he didn’t go there. What would that design look like – a blank canvas?

When asked, the security guard standing ten feet away from the door to the Architecture and Design room where the exhibit was housed didn’t know where the exhibit was, so I dared to be great and read the sign next to the door, which informed me.

I liked Friedman’s work, in particular the Gallimaufry and ICA Street Sights posters, Deep Sea Meltdown (a startling replica of my hall closet) and Tornado Fetish (an even more startling replica of my brain in the morning).

Friedman was said to have scavenged streets for materials and displayed them at home, using his apartment as a lab, recycling at its best.

And, just when I thought I had seen it all, I read that he was inspired by the futuristic decor of the Jetsons. If I could have snuck his Asteroid Lamp under my coat, I would have considered it. I wasn’t worried about the security guard noticing.

Coming Attractions (or not) – September, 2023

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I was berated today for not telling people about events before they happen. So, for all of you out there who haven’t yet learned how to use your computer, and since I have a little time to kill, here are some ideas for things to do in September.

First, and foremost, and before you tire of my sarcasm, you must go to the Porchlight Music Theatre’s Icons Gala on the 8th at the Athenaeum Center. It will, as always, be a very entertaining evening and, if you buy one of the top-tier tickets, you get to mingle with me at the pre-show cocktail reception. Also, the guest of honor, Ben Vereen, will be in attendance.

As I alluded to in an earlier post, the Chicago Jazz Festival comes to town the first few days of the month. You’re on your own as to which acts might interest you. I stopped going years ago, as I tired of the modern, atonal nonsense they inappropriately call music, but there are a few acts on the calendar this year that I either have seen before and liked or am confident enough about to risk a trek down to Millennium Park or the Cultural Center for a look-see.

The Fourth Presbyterian Church takes its Noonday Concerts indoors starting this Friday, which seems premature to me, but allows them to put to use their big honking organ, though, fortunately for my tastes, not until the end of the month, so, again, why not keep things outdoors until then.

The Harris Theater for Music and Dance is celebrating its 20th Anniversary (seems like 40 years taking into account having to traverse all those stairs) on the 9th in Millennium Park. The unprecise schedule makes it hard to know when I might want to drop in, though the likelihood of families attending the afternoon sessions is fair warning to avoid those.

The Printers Row Lit Fest is that same weekend (both days). It always presents a plethora of interesting exhibitors and programs, if you can find them in the event’s labyrinth (watch out for the Minotaur).

And, not finally, but I’m tired, the American Writers Museum is hosting Get Lit: Grown-Up Book Fair on the 12th, which will feature refreshments, carnival games, and an Adult Spelling Bee, which, I assume, means either dirty words and/or easier ones than the obnoxiously well-prepared kids at the real one have to tackle.

Wheels – The Newberry – July 19, 2023

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What happens when you run out of ideas for a new exhibit? The Newberry came up with the perfect answer by asking what happens when you search your collection for a certain word, in their case ”wheels”.

They came up with enough material to line a couple walls and inspire this column.

Among the highlights they found are photos from the Chicago Railroad Fair of 1949, which Walt Disney attended, and which, it is said, was one of the inspirations for Disneyland.

There also are pictures from a roller derby (which I watched religiously in my youth); a wheel of fortune (not The Wheel of Fortune); the original Chicago Ferris Wheel (not Ferret Wheel, which you can buy online at friendlyferret.com); and more.

I don’t need to fill two walls, only half a page, so, lacking any originality, I decided I would search for “wheel’ among my past blogs. This, as it turned out, was smarter than looking for the plural, like they did, as it opens up the world of compound words.

I’ve mentioned my limited wheelhouse when it comes to Jeopardy categories; a wheelchair, when discussing Bette Midler’s alter ego Delores Delagoa; a wheeled emergency stretcher, when reporting on an incident at a concert; and a wheelbarrow, when recounting working in the park.

And, lastly, I recalled that a Newberry speaker (see how I got back to them) cited Nutcracker choreographer Christopher Wheeldon.

Museum of Contemporary Art – May 9, 2023

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My whole ignorant life I thought tepee was spelled like that, but it turns out it’s actually tipi, the conical tent that is, not the hygiene accessory used to adorn other types of abodes on Halloween.

There are no fully constructed tipis at the Duane Linklater mymothersside exhibit, but several animal pelts, plenty of poles and attractively-designed linen covers, and, for some reason (things his mother owned?), a Kenmore refrigerator, a flat screen television, and a mini Apple Mac. I guess the addition of these items qualifies the exhibit for an art, rather than natural history, museum.

The Enter the Mirror installation includes the work of 19 different artists that the curator scrapped together under one name from stuff the museum didn’t see fit to put on display before or for a really long time, sort of like what I made for dinner last night.

For me, the highlight was Sam Durant’s Partially Buried 1960s/70s Dystopia Revealed (Mick Jagger at Altamont) & Utopia Reflected (Wavy Gravy at Woodstock), a couple of piles of dirt on mirrors, simulating graves, which made me wonder, why not the appropriately-named Grateful Dead at Woodstock, especially in light of the band not making it into the movie or soundtrack album.

I can’t think of anything even remotely interesting to say about the other four exhibits, other than that Endless, gratefully, is not.

Pop-Up Books through the Ages – The Newberry – March 21, 2023

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First I had to learn the vocabulary posted on the wall. A volvelle is a wheel chart, not one of those plastic horns they blow at soccer games.

A flap is a flap, not to be confused with Jeff Leonard’s one flap down home run trot in the 1987 NLCS.

A pop-up is any book with three-dimensional pages, including both of the above, but not something that triggers the infield fly rule.

Finally, a globe gore is a sector of a curved surface that lies between two close lines of longitude on a globe and may be flattened to a plane surface with little distortion, a gore being a triangular or tapering piece of material, not the name of Quentin Tarantino’s next movie.

Among the highlights, there was a pop-up book showing Pinocchio and Geppetto emerging from the whale’s mouth, but not one of Tommy Lee Jones emerging from the alien bug’s innards near the end of Men in Black.

There was a glass-enclosed book that was upside down, on purpose, because, I was told, the volvelle inside the book was upside down for some unknown reason. I’m wasn’t sure how a wheel could be upside down, but I let it ride.

There was a Civil War battle plan map with flaps to show the progress of the battle, there apparently being no computer programs available at that time.

There were paper cut-out nesting dolls that didn’t look anything like Natasha Lyonn.

And my favorite, books depicting flowers that were flaps that could be lifted to reveal naked women, handy for use in public places, so as not to create an additional flap.