I don't know about you, but I love going to art museums. There is just something about being surrounded by works of art that have been put together by the masters of the craft that just leaves you slightly breathless. But maybe that's just me, I don't know. This past week though I was able to have the opportunity to visit the Art Institute of Chicago museum for the first time. While I have been to Chicago plenty of times in my life and have visited most of the other museums in the city, this was the first time I'd been to an art museum in Chicago.
Walking into the building, which sits just off of the lakefront next to Millennium Park, I couldn't help but look up at the arches of the entrance from the modern wing. The high ceilings that gave you the feeling of something important being inside. That was the thing that struck me most about the museum right off the bat. How vast the building is and how much important art was held inside those walls. Standing in line was almost unbearable because I just wanted to rush off and look at everything.
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Now obviously, one cannot look at everything in the Art Institute of Chicago in one day. There are three whole floors and a basement full of art to look at, and my dad and I only had maybe three hours to see what we could. So you have to pick and choose your battles as to which pieces are the most important to you for that day. It being my first time at the Art Institute, I picked the pieces from my favorite artists that I knew I could see, which meant that I started looking at the second floor in the American art from the 1900s to 1950. From the modern wing entrance, it was the most obvious place to get to the second floor, which had all the pieces I was really looking for.
We walked right into the wing and the first painting I notice out of the corner of my eye is Edward Hopper's Nighthawks. It's a recognizable painting with the three customers all sitting around the empty corner diner in a city late at night. It's a piece with so much depth despite showing so little of a story that it can take one's breath away. That is one of my favorite things about art that I really noticed at the Art Institute. Art has such a power to stop you in your tracks and force you to stare, to see and try and understand what is going on in the piece, or the message the artist is trying to send.
Art can impact people in so many different ways. You could find something different from looking at the same art piece I am. That's one of the things that makes art so wonderful and stood out to me in Chicago. I, of course, went with my dad and we definitely had different opinions on pieces, which is because we all have different backgrounds and different things that impact us. So something different will stand out to us in each piece because of our mindsets.
One of the other things I found so impactful while at the Art Institute was what it's like to see a piece you've looked at on a screen or in a book in person. My favorite art piece is displayed inside the Art Institute of Chicago, and up until a couple of weeks ago, I had only seen pictures or copies of it. But when I stood in front of Georges Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, I was overwhelmed with emotion. Being able to get up close to the painting and see each little point that made up the whole was a feeling almost indescribable. To know the care and the innovation put into a painting of that size shows how much artists are dedicated to their craft. How much they care for a piece of art because they know it can do some good for the world. Or at the very least bring a smile to someone's face for a moment.
It's a feeling that moves you, which I felt there in the Impressionist wing, surrounded by the art of the greats. Because it wasn't just Georges Seurat's artwork that made such an impression on me like that. It was also Claude Monet's, Vincent Van Gogh's, William Glacken's, and Archibald John Motley Jr's works. The list could go on and on of the amazing artists who's work can tear right through your heart into your very soul. It's a feeling unlike any other that everyone should get to experience at least once in their lifetime.
I know that I am so much better as a person for having now seen these pieces and visited the Art Institute of Chicago. Art has a way of transforming us and making us realize how much there is in the world to explore. I went to different lands through these works of art, I learned things about myself I didn't realize before. Or they showed me something about myself I knew but was maybe too scared to admit before.
Everyone can't get to the Art Institute of Chicago, this is something I know. But I would encourage you to go out to your local art museum, or go to a local gallery with artwork from the local artists in your area. You never know what art piece may bring out something new in you. Art is a transformative experience that everyone deserves to have at some point in their life. I think that's the main thought I take away from visiting the Art Institute of Chicago. Everyone deserves to see art and learn something about themselves. I hope you get the chance to do such a thing soon.
