Tag Archive
Final Metal
Physics professor Sidney Nagel held up two forks: one metal, one plastic. “Who would like me to stick this one in there?” Nagel asked, gesturing with the metal fork to a nearby electrical socket. “No one? What about this one?” He held up the plastic fork. “Doesn’t matter, right?” This was the opening exchange... »
Fantastically Bored
Chris Vorhees and SIMPARCH's fantastically mundane “Uppers and Downers”has transformed the Smart Museum lobby into a grand domestic scene of clean contrast. »
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... »
