Retroblogging: Chicago Trip 2012, Art Institute

This should wrap up our brief tour of the Art Institute of Chicago. I didn't cover nearly all of it's collections, installations, or exhibitions, but it did whet my appetite for a return visit. Not to toot my own horn, or anyone else's,

but it's a great place to see art from many vantage points. You never know who might mosey on by while you are taking a rest to take everything in.

 

Vater Staat..
By Thomas Schutte [German, born 1954]
2010/ patinated bronze..
Vater Staat, which translates to “Father State", Schuttë’s ongoing interest in the effect of totalitarian regimes on the human condition.

The marker read..
The sculpture of Thomas Schutte mines both his own earlier work and the art of previous eras - particularly monumnetal and memorial genres - to address the burden of traumatic history. He is primarily concerned with human condition and the effect that contemporary political structure have on the lives of individulas. In Vater Staat [which translates as "Father State"] an imposing bronze statue towers over the viewer, immediately establishing a power dynamics within the space. The Patriarchal figure, representative of a totalitarian regime or state, is shrouded in a cloak that binds his arms, rendeing him helpless and immobile. Schutte selection of material, in this case, patinated bronze, allowed him to address the historical use of the figure as a staple of public art. Here, is in other works, the artist engaged in the tendency toward monumentality in order to subvert it - this figure is actually an antihero.


The Gift Shop is also stocked with lots of fun trinkets and souvenirs. Sadly, my favorite pieces, and the ones I really wanted to take home, were not available. If I could only use these various accessories to warn people of my mood, maybe they wouldn't bug me when I wasn't in the mood.

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This is the "leave me the hell alone" accessory.







The one below means you might approach.

Henry Wilson
English, 1864-1934

"Diana" Diadem, c. 1908
Enameled gold, rock crystal, moonstones, sapphires
6.4 x 16.5 cm (2 1/2 x 6 1/2 in.)
Restricted gift of Quinn E. Delaney and Kathryn and John Gilbertson, 2002.16