Monday, May 28, 2012

Lichtenstein Comes to Chicago

Red Horsemen

So what do you do when you're not running Belmont Stakes scenarios through your head in that span of time between the Preakness and Belmont Stakes? If you're in Chicago, I recommend a stroll through Millennium Park then the Lichtenstein show. As most head to the greener tableaus of Wisconsin or Michigan, I stayed in the hundred-degree city with the piercing sun rifling  indiscriminately off the ugly Gehry bandshell (not sure why people like this guy). But there's also the Cultural Center which rises out of the pavement with elegance and stateliness -- an homage to the powers of civic duty. It used to be our public library, apparently the Queen of England when hearing about the Chicago fire felt deeply grieved by our loss of a library and donated money for new books, and the city obliged with a beautiful building. Little did the Queen know that Chicago didn't have a library before the fire.

The glare from the 11am sun was blinding even with sunglasses. My wife and I ducked into the Art Institute for a reprieve and AC. The Lichtenstein show was going on so it was packed, luckily we're members.

The first thing that hits you is the dots and how they play with your vision, skewing depth and context. It reminded me of summers when I was young and would walk into our dark kitchen for something cold to drink. I would drink slowly as my eyes adjusted and stare into the tesseract pattern in the carpet which took away all my depth perception. My mind would float with my vision and with the summer exhaustion you could sit and imagine things.   

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