We went to the Art Institute yesterday. A field trip: Free February at the 'Tute. Took the Red Line all the way into the heart of the Loop. The Museum was jam-packed with people.
Free is good. We wandered through the New Wing. Saw Wm. Eggleston photos of the south in early 60's - mid 70's. Big colorful portraits, small black and white snaps. A hushed beauty to the work - the American South - a sad and vibrantly weird place.
Then we trekked over to the Modern stuff. My favorites: Francis Bacon, Philip Guston, Jean Miro and Jean Dubuffet. I always get dizzy going to museums - maybe too many people, too much conflicting energy coming from the pictures.
I find it confusing - especially so many works crammed together without any context except - it's here in a museum - this place now. The mind reels - why these works? Why these artists?
Every time I go something new calls out to me. I guess this time it really was the room with the Philip Guston stuff. Big, cartoony, funny, ominous. I think that kind of sums up my world too.