Agreed, Ferris.
Tania and I were desperate for a “day” off and decided a tour of the mid-west was called for, after all we had already gone to the East Coast and we’re from the BestWest Coast, the only thing left is the middle. On the agenda for this “day” was a stop in Chicago and then Minneapolis, we had a lot to do.
Welcome to beautiful Chicago!
A breathtaking view of Lake Michigan.
Our first stop wasn’t even really a stop; we encountered so much public art on our walk to the Art Institute of Chicago that it took us an extra hour to get to the museum. Here are Untitled by Pablo Picasso, Cloud Gate (or The Bean) by Anish Kapoor, and the portraits Looking Into my Dreams, Awilda; Paula, Laura, and Ines; and The Crown Fountain by Jaume Plensa.
The Art Institute is well known for paintings such as A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat, At the Moulin Rouge by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Cow’s Skull with Calico Roses by Georgia O'Keeffe, The Drinkers by Vincent van Gogh, American Gothic by Edward Hopper, American Gothic by Grant Wood, and Time Transfixed by René Magritte.
Here’s Tania giving her seal of approval for Sky Above Clouds IV by Georgia O'Keeffe.
But, possibly more importantly, the Art Institute is known for its guest appearance in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Did you know some super-fans have pegged Ferris’ day off as June 5, 1985? Happy 30th anniversary you degenerates.
You’ll see John Hughes’ love note to the museum and some of his favorite artworks by Amedeo Modigliani, Auguste Rodin, and Marc Chagall in the film. It’s also a great opportunity to recreate your favorite scenes.
After a whirlwind trip through the Art Institute it was time to head over to Minneapolis and the Walker Art Center for the Superscript Conference.
Superscript is a first-of-its-kind conference about the role of arts journalism and criticism in the digital age. It touched on a lot of aspects that Sartle is involved with and we were extremely excited to hear from speakers like Ryan Schreiber, founder and CEO of Pitchfork; Carolina Miranda, staff writer at the Los Angeles Times; Eugenia Bell, executive editor of Design Observer; and Veken Gueyikian, co-founder and Publisher of Hyperallergic.
I’ll be honest and admit that I knew very little about Minneapolis and even less about the Walker Art Center. Most of my knowledge about Minnesota comes from The Mighty Ducks …
Any team that flies in a V-formation is a winner, right? RIGHT!
Luckily, all you need is art … and art-themed mini golf.
I know how to play golf, I swear!
Here is a slideshow of a few more holes on the course from our instagram:
A video posted by Sartle (@sartle.arthistory) on May 30, 2015 at 1:48pm PDT
The Walker Art Center is housed in a beautiful new building done by the same architects who did the de Young Museum and there is an extensive outdoor sculpture garden that is great for instagram posts -
Spoonbridge and Cherry by Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen. There are also more sculptures and installations by James Turrell, Deborah Butterfield, Mark di Suvero, and Frank Gehry.
Inside the museum are even more hits like this piece by Yayoi Kusama titled Passing Winter:
This print by Roy Lichtenstein titled Look Mickey:
Nice job, Minneapolis and Chicago way to blow every single misconception I had about the Mid-West out of the water.
By: Lauren
Sr. Editor