A Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1884-1886) by Georges SeuratThe Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institue of Chicago is home to works by greats such as Edward Hopper, Georges Seurat and Vincent Van Gogh
The Art Institute of Chicago is one of the oldest and most popular museums in the United States. It boast an extensive collection of American and international art and some of the most iconic works in the Modern art canon. Here are five highlights:
A Sunday on La Grande Jatte- Georges Seurat
Georges Seurat is perhaps most famous for developing a style known as Pointillism which involved an almost scientific approach to the blending of colors, and a painstaking application of small dots of paint onto the canvas. Look closer at the grass in the foreground for example. Initially it might seem like the plainest part of the picture...
A Sunday on La Grande Jatte Georges Seurat 1884-1886 (From the collection of The Art Institute of Chicago
...but zooming in reveals how Seurat recreated the effect of shade by combining darker hues of purple, orange and blue into the green.
Detail from Sunday on La Grande Jatte Georges Seurat 1886-88 (From the collection of The Art Institute of Chicago)
The painting appears on a wall by itself at the AIC, encouraging viewers to take in all the meticulous details without being distracted by other works. Check it out on the Museum View below.
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Museum View of A Sunday on La Grande Jatte Georges Seurat 1884-1886 (From the collection of The Art Institute of Chicago
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The Bedroom- Vincent Van Gogh
While the image is full of bright, primary colors we can see how Van Gogh tried to capture the rustic charm of his room in Arles, adding blotches of grey and white to the blue walls and furniture to give the impression of peeling paint. And although it all looks very homey on the surface, there’s something that seems off about the painting the more you look at it—the back wall, for instance, is completely out of proportion to the bed. Some critics have interpreted as a case of Van Gogh’s inner turmoil seeping into his work.
The Bedroom (1889) by Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890)The Art Institute of Chicago
The Bedroom Vincent Van Gogh 1888 (From the collection of The Art Institute of Chicago)
The painting hangs in a room filled with other masterpieces by Van Gogh and by his one-time flatmate, Paul Gauguin, with whom he lived in the Yellow House at Arles in which this bedroom was located.
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Museum View of The Bedroom Vincent Van Gogh 1888 (From the collection of The Art Institute of Chicago)
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American Gothic- Grant Wood
Everyone from Miss Piggy and Kermit to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton has featured in parodies of Grant Wood’s famous portrait of a rural farmer and his daughter. It stands alongside Leonardo’s Mona Lisa and Munch’s The Scream as a painting which has transcended art to become a recognized part of pop culture. Some continue to interpret it as a satirical take on supposedly dour Middle America, but it’s more likely that Wood’s intention was to celebrate the humility of midwesterners and elevate them to the status of icons. Painted just after the 1929 Wall Street Crash devastated the US economy, these two serve as a symbol of the stability of traditional rural American values.
American Gothic (1930) by Grant Wood (American, 1891-1942)The Art Institute of Chicago
American Gothic Grant Wood 1930 (From the collection of The Art Institute of Chicago)
You might be surprised to see just how small this hugely influential painting is. take a look on Museum View below.
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Museum View of American Gothic Grant Wood 1930 (From the collection of The Art Institute of Chicago)
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Nighthawks- Edward Hopper
In the small hours of the morning, four people while away their time in a brightly lit New York cafe. The stillness, heavy silence and bright fluorescent light piercing through the dark create a sense of drama and mystery. Who are these people? What brings them here at this time of night? The scene looks like its straight from a Hollywood noir film, and we can imagine that perhaps the man smoking is a detective troubled by a case, while the redhead next to him (modeled on Hopper’s own wife), his femme fatale. Or maybe they’re just four lonely insomniacs looking for some company in a big alienating city.
Nighthawks (1942) by Edward Hopper (American, 1882-1967)The Art Institute of Chicago
Nighthawks Edward Hopper 1942 (From the collection of The Art Institute of Chicago)
City Landscape- Joan Mitchell
If we look closely at both the top and bottom of the canvas we can make out numerous misshapen squares and rectangles piled on top of one another which could be seen as a series of skyscrapers on opposite sides of a road. In the middle is the colorful blur of city life; all the chaos and vibrancy of traffic, street-lights and bustling commuters, painted in such a way so that it resembles a photo taken in slow shutter speed mode. Without even remotely resembling any specific real city, Mitchell’s painting becomes a kind of universal landscape of urban hubbub.
