Art in Practice

I believe I mentioned this before, but I started learning about art history after my visit to the Louvre on my honeymoon.  We were able to skip the lines because we showed up an hour before closing and made a whirlwind tour of the major exhibits, culminating in a blurry photo of the Mona Lisa over several other visitors' heads.

So, I was able to say that I'd been to the Louvre and seen some of the most iconic pieces in art, but I couldn't tell you why they were iconic.  That's when I decided to buy a copy of The Annotated Mona Lisa.  

Flash forward to last week, when I re-upped my membership to the Art Institute of Chicago.  I knew, going in, that I wanted to create a plan, but, luckily, the Institute already had me beat.  They've got short tour suggestions and the ability to create your own (no more than 6 works).  We decided to follow the Route 66 mini-tour with a few detours (sorry, not sorry), and I'm happy to say that I was able to understand a lot of the basic themes behind the art and the mechanics.  I was also able to explain a lot of the concepts to my wife.

It was refreshing to look at approximately 10 works in about 90 minutes and understand why they're important rather than just running around the museum trying to find something pretty or famous and avoiding modern art because I don't get it [I still don't get a lot of it, but I'm starting to understand more of its place in the art timeline and the impetus behind its creation].

I don't think I'll ever have the patience to stare at a work of art for 10 minutes or attempt to sketch my favorite pieces in the museum to gain deeper insights about their compositions, but it's nice to know that a little education can pay dividends and even help others understand the intricacies of the art world a bit more.

Until next time, my human and robot friends.