This past Sunday, Greg and I attended the fourth installment of ArtFeed, an innovative opportunity for museum visitors to gain an in-depth perspective on The New Contemporary collection, currently on view on the second floor of the Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC).
ArtFeed is a brunch series, hosted by AIC’s Evening Associates, that fuses an in-depth lecture about a particular current exhibition with a breakfast buffet and a Bloody Mary bar. Following the conversation, guests are also invited to visit the galleries and have the opportunity to engage with the aforementioned exhibit.
The must-see collection, without a doubt, gives viewers a taste for contemporary art movements taking place in the United States generally since the 1950’s, with a large number of work emblematic of Pop-Art and Abstract Expressionism. Andy Warhol and Cy Twombly are just two of the artists represented in the collection of 44 paintings, photographs, and sculpture, gifted by Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson; one of the largest and most important gifts in the museum’s history.
Overall, I would say the exhibit is vibrant, punchy, and engaging. During brunch, our lecturer cleverly pointed out that there is no distinct start or end to the exhibit, and works of art are not displayed in chronological order - but rather allow for the viewer to choose at which point they enter and exit this particular moment in art history. One of the benefits of this in-depth look is the opportunity to notice certain patterns in the collection as a whole, like for example the recurring theme of the female body, the trope of the gaze, and, of course, the referential nature into popular culture, evident in the work of both Warhol and Lichtenstein.
But for someone like me, who has studied Warhol and the others ad nauseum at school, this collection is particularly exciting to see together, jumbled up without a sense of chronology or hierarchy. I myself am not a fan of pop-art, nor of Warhol. But what I do find both significant and imperative, which I am sure became evident to both Development and Curatorial staff in the first few conversations with the gifting family, is that the collection itself allows one to stand back and view the historic moment in mid-century America more generally: an opportunity to view a moment in time through a variety of perspectives in an effort to understand our own culture more distinctly at a transitional moment in our history.
The New Contemporary is currently on view and more information on upcoming events can be found here: http://www.artic.edu/affiliate-groups/evening-associates
All photos by Greg Birman.
Andy Warhol
Cy Twombly
