Chicago Bound

On June 18, Jill and I headed for Chicago to attend a two day symposium presented by the Terra Foundation for American Art, followed by visits and research for the modernism exhibition. It was a whirlwind couple of days, but definitely well worth it. Even if things had not gone well, the trip would still have been great - think Chicago and great food, awesome shopping, and amazing architecture.

Friday was spent in downtown Chicago where we attended the first day of the symposium: What Is Modern about American Art, 1900-1930?. The sessions were held at the Chicago Cultural Center. In the evening we attended the key-note session by by Michael Kammen at the Art Institute of Chicago. The various presentations and discussions were helpful for framing some of the debate we want to tackle in our exhibition.

Saturday morning we arrived at the Burnham Hotel to catch the bus to the Milwaukee Art Museum for the second day of the symposium. The day included additional presentations, a tour of the exhibitions The Eight and American Modernisms and Art and Design 1900, and gallery talks by various authors of the accompanying exhibition catalog.

The symposium addressed the question of American modernism throughout the two days. The format of the symposium consisted of a series of brief "keyword" talks, panel discussions, and exhibition gallery talks that looked at the many manifestations of American modernism in progressive painting and design between 1900 and the early 1930s. It was a great opportunity to meet up with old friends and colleagues and make new ones.

Sunday evening, Jill and I took part in the Devil in the White City boat tour organized by the Chicago History Museum. For those of you who have read the book, we even met H.H. Holmes, the strange serial killer from the Chicago World's Fair. Since the exhibition catalog will touch on the importance of the World's Fair to artists from that era, it was an interesting journey back into time to experience what the Fair would have been like.

On Monday we visited the Chicago History Museum and the Richard Norton Gallery. The Chicago History Museum has a few displays that touch on the World's Fair of 1893, including a wonderful exhibition on Mrs. Potter Palmer, the woman in charge of the Women's Building for the Fair.

On Tuesday, we spend the morning and early part of the afternoon at the Newberry Library doing research. Afterwards we took a long and very hot cab ride to the airport (i.e. the air conditioning didn't work and we were in a van that didn't have a lot of windows that opened).