Tag Archive
Seeing Red
Koretsky’s innovative, confrontational style is grounded in experimental techniques and emotionally charged imagery. Its bold assertion of a universal vision for mankind—a world free from racism and capitalist oppression—marks a departure from the patriotic classicism characterized by the Socialist Realist art of Koretsky’s contemporaries. »
Sacred Echoes
A headless god of stone sits with his legs crossed, a red and blue halo encircling the empty space above his neck. A stripe of faded green is still visible on his robes. His left hand is bent backwards, the palm facing out; the right hand is gone, but one imagines that it too... »
Beyond Postcards: Music of Spanish modernism unfolds at Mandel Hall
For a few decades at the beginning of the twentieth century, between the collapse of its fading colonial empire and the eruption of a civil war that led to 39 years of dictatorship, Spain saw a brief period of intense cultural revival. The painter Picasso and the philosopher Ortega y Gasset are internationally known,... »
Domestic Disturbance: Grim themes pervade prints at the Smart Museum’s “The Darker Side of Light”
On one wall, a woman cradles her dead child in her arms. On another, bloody birds are tacked to a barn door. Turn around and you will find—if your eyes are sharp enough to see across the dimly lit gallery—soulless corpses hovering above a dark Parisian skyline, victims of a cholera epidemic. You’ve been... »
The Grand Tour: Vedute di Roma at the Smart Museum
Considered an essential component in the education of young English aristocrats, the Grand Tour’s objective was to broaden the mind, to polish one’s command of foreign languages, and to establish valuable personal and diplomatic connections by means of a lengthy stay abroad. The Tour’s standard itinerary included visits to all the major European capitals.... »
Chicago’s Heartland
A tall man from Mississippi stands in the doorway to his little house near 95th and Colfax. Across the tracks from Lake Calumet and a couple miles from the Indiana-Illinois border, he invites our 44-person group in with an enthusiastic wave. The man’s name is Travis, and he is a visual artist, musician, Vietnam... »
Where the Heart Is: The Smart Museum Discovers the Real America
At the Smart Museum’s student sneak preview of “Heartland,” curator Stephanie Smith asked the audience what they had expected from the title. Quilts, admitted one woman, shrugging. The title recalls images of hard-working, humble, and devout farm families working to feed all of America, their art limited to hand-stitched flags and corncob sculptures. In... »
Picture Im(Perfect): The Smart Museum chronicles changing notions of photographic accuracy
Photographs are an interesting thing: since their debut in the middle of the 19th century, they’ve promised the perfect vision of the world, entirely truthful and unaffected by human biases. Yet we have always tried to manipulate this medium to present ourselves in certain ways, to present a certain vision of the world. This... »
