Art Institute day

It was my birthday a couple days ago, and since I went all-out last year I didn't do much--a friend took me out to dinner, I invited some friends to a bar, and I took the following day off from work and went to go see a movie.

A lot of my friends have January birthdays too, so on Sunday I went with friend Gwen and some others to the Art Institute of Chicago to get some culcha. Even though I think the high was like 15 degrees, it was a perfect day to go because of the Bears/Packers championship game, and consequently the crowds were light. As in, no crowds. As in, stare at that painting for as long as you want without someone breathing down your neck and getting in your space, causing you to seethe silently and despise all of humanity, then feel guilty for being such a misanthrope. OK, maybe the last part is just me.

We started out seeing watercolors by John Marin, who was also Georgia O'Keeffe's husband. I actually liked his drawings better, particularly one of a boat that was just a series of short lines, really, and then an image of a canal in Amsterdam made of all horizontal lines. Most of his watercolors didn't thrill me but his technique was really interesting--he would scratch lines in the paint, let it pool down, draw little dots around the painting, etc. It made for some very kinetic works and you could see the influence or at least awareness of the same forces that caused Cubism. A lot of movement in those paintings.

I always have to go visit the European paintings from before 1900, although I wish they had more Dutch and Flemish paintings on view. They always have tons of works by Monet and Van Gogh, who are not my favorite. They just don't move me on an emotional level. My favorite work on this visit was "The Maid" by Francois Bonvin, for the bright red coat and the way it reminds me of a Vermeer. The photo doesn't do it justice. It's like a little jewel, small and shiny and precious. I also like to look at the Hubert Robert paintings of romantic ruins. They're not actual ruins--I don't think there are many that oversized in Rome, except for maybe the Colosseum and the Baths of Caracalla. There are four of his paintings in one gallery, and they're so big you get the feeling you could walk into them and chat with the women gathering water at the fountains and other passersby. In fact I vaguely remember a childhood book where the protagonist did exactly that with some murals.

The Art Institute itself is actually a beautiful Beaux Arts building constructed for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Today the Modern Wing gets all the attention, but I love the old building, with its pretty courtyards and arches. There are some lovely and peaceful little parks with fountains on either side of the building as well, which never seem to be that crowded.

We finished the day with wine (a Rosso Conero from Le Marche region of Italy) and delicious food at Purple Pig, which I had wanted to visit for a while but it was always too crowded and rather noisy. Thanks to getting there around 4 PM and the Bears/Packers game, they had plenty of open tables and we had a fun, peaceful meal. The pig's ear is the thing to get, but we passed on it for this visit. We did have bone marrow on toast with salt, capers, and parsley; anchovies with arugula, puntarelle (a green that is really rare on these shores) and orange; caponata; whipped feta with cucumbers; fried balls of butternut squash and sage; and jamon serrano with wild mushrooms and a fried egg on bread. It was really delicious and I highly recommend this place.

The day made me wish I worked downtown instead of having to drive to the suburbs every day! There are so many little parks you can relax in and the lake gives a great feeling of expansiveness. In fact I'm coming to realize that living near a large body of water is more important to me than I had realized.