Results tagged “theart”

At this point, most of us have graduated from decorating the walls of our humble abodes with the typical college posters of yesteryear. The dilemma then becomes a matter of how to display our personal sense of artistic style without succumbing to the availability of “artwork” sold at places like Bed Bath & Beyond, and without dropping vast amounts of money at the River North galleries or the summertime street art festivals.

Here are some things going around town to make you consider giving the weather a big ol' raspberry.

The double whammy of the Mondays and cabin fever can drive the most stout constitutions deep into their comforters. Here are some things to inspire you to layer up and head out.

This was a good year to be a large cultural institution. If cuts in state arts funding and unstable financial markets made a dent in Chicago’s largest museums, they sure weren’t letting on. The Art Institute remained one of the city’s prime attractions, attracting hordes of frugal visitors on free Thursday nights to piece together Richard Misrach’s disorienting beach photography and William Pope.L’s naïvely charming travelogue, or to enjoy Jeff Wall’s mind-bending photography — his mid-career retrospective was the year’s most breathtaking exhibit.

Liar, liar, half-man half-goat sculpture on fire! Turns out the Art Institute's "Faun" sculpture is a big fat forgery. The sculpture is not in fact the work of French post-impressionist painter Paul Gauguin but is instead a fake, made by Shaun Greenhalgh, whose family has been running an international art forgery business from England for the last 17 years. The Art Institute bought the statue from a private dealer in 1997, and the dealer...

We hope some of you got a chance to go to something at the Chicago Book Festival last week, but if not, here’s your chance. Our take on the second week: Jeffrey Toobin, CNN’s senior legal analyst, discusses and signs his newest book The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, and maybe adds a few pointers for broke Chicagoists. Monday, Oct. 8, 6 p.m., Harold Washington Library, 400 S. State St., Cindy...

Some of you foodies may have heard that Alice Waters, the godmother of the American localvore and slow food movements, is in town this week. If you don't have reservations to Saturday's sold-out farm-to-table brunch at North Pond Restaurant, you can still catch Chef Waters at Green City Market at 9 a.m. Saturday, where she'll be signing copies of her book The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution. She'll...

While many of you shuffle back and forth from stage to stage in Grant Park this weekend, we thought we'd take the opportunity to show you how it looked about 80 years ago. It's just a touch different today, isn't it? While the landscaping had yet to take its place in 1929, Buckingham Fountain and the general layout of the park are clear. The Art Institute is in place and looks exceptionally lonely, and while...

Well, we've been hearing about Looptopia for awhile. A big overnight festival held in the Loop, blah blah. We didn't think too much about it. We pretty much dismiss the Loop after 5 p.m. and give it up for lost on the weekends. Looptopia is obviously working hard to change all that. It's going on this Friday through early Saturday morning and since we're going to be down there, we decided to check out the...

"Clouds as beacon" by kudzuplanet.

Chicago basically shuts down on Christmas Day and, with few exceptions, the artsy folk follow suit. It’s one of only three days all year The Art Institute’s in hibernation. Mondays are typically slow anyhow, so we’ll barely feel inconvenienced. On the 25th, family, worship, Chinese food and a movie, and/or that date with Shaq and Kobe take priority.

A while back we reported on the illustrious Oprah Winfrey's love of a certain sandwich. This sandwich was just one of many Margaux Sky created for her restaurant, The Art Cafe and Bakery. Chicagoist was lucky enough to get a copy of Sky's new cookbook a few weeks back and we're finally getting why Oprah was so into Sky's cuisine. The cookbook features not only the 'O Special' but many other 'Beautiful Breads & Fabulous Fillings' thus the name of the cookbook. After paging through the slick pages of the cookbook, complete with scrumptious color photographs, we decided we were going to try our hand at one of Sky's Sandwich Loaves.

We like highlights, we like getting them, doing them and giving them. There’s a ton of cool stuff going on this week, check out the quick highlights, and let us know which author is going to get your attention. First off, it’s the closing night party for the Literary Gangs. They’ll finish up with a finale including Andy Ross and Jonathan Messinger. You can see the Literary Gangs on Tues., May 16th, 6:30PM, at the...

Last month, when a University of Chicago study revealed that Chicago’s museums were disproportionately attended by white, educated and affluent visitors, admission fees and visiting hours were among the reasons listed for the disparity.

Your big Valentine’s Evening need not be threatened by a lack of ideas or lack of cash. You can impress that special someone tonight for absolutely free! Yes, that sounds like bad email spam but it’s true. Many of our favorite museums are free on Tuesdays.

Once in a while an event comes along that makes you question your preconceptions and reexamine the meaning of life, the universe, and the forbidden donut. That would be tonight's discussion, entitled “The Simpsons: Cultural Criticism and America’s Favorite TV Family,” at the Chicago Cultural Center. Faculty from Columbia College, The Art Institute of Chicago and Northwestern University will hold court on why the megahit show has made such an impact on our collective consciousness. The panel discussion will be followed by a Q&A, when we hope they’ll clear up a few pressing issues:

It’s the art world version of a rock band stuck with a bad sound engineer or a gifted author languishing in B-list hell. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s “Scene de Ballet,” an early painting that curators and critics previously designated a hazy minor work, was given a much-needed restoration by the Art Institute. And wouldn’t you know, the painting’s more beautiful and more important than the art world realized.

Chicagoist knows you dig architecture. And we also know that, sometimes, one heavyweight architectural event just isn't enough to scratch your architectural itches. Lucky for you, Millennium Park will be double-fisting it this evening with two high-profile architectural goings on: the awarding of the 2005 Pritzker Prize and the unveiling of the plans for the Art Institute of Chicago's new wing. We've told you a couple times about the Pritzker Prize, the architectural world's...

If you're not into celebrating the Cubs home opener all day and all night on Friday, go over to Rotofugi where they'll be having the opening party for their next gallery, Plushtastrophe: The Art of Plush. Just what is Plushtastrophe, you ask? Well in the words of it's creator, Bwana Spoons:

When I feel a plushy in my hands, and hold it close to my heart, I feel warm inside. That is why I must do the Plushtastrophe. The big question is. What is plush? I don’t think there is a clear definition, however…there are a few telltale signs of a good plush. It is usually a bit soft, sometimes furry, maybe has an eye or two, and some kind of appendage. Plushtastrophe is a gathering of a few of my favorite designers, illustrators, and plush makers from places near and far. When all is said and done there will be upwards of 100 fancy fabric critters for your pleasure and mine.

Chicagoist makes this solemn promise to you: this is the last post we will be writing about any film fests that are running in Chicago. At least until next week. But we’d be remiss in our reporting duties if we failed to alert you to the 13th Annual Independent Filmmakers Conference at the School of the Art Institute.

Helmut Jahn is speaking at the Art Institute tonight as the guest of the Architecture & Design Society. Yeah, it's a steep $15, you cheap-o bastard, but it's worth it: the guy's a living legend. Jahn's work is all over town—IIT student housing, the United terminal at O'Hare, the Thompson Center, and a handful of other structures were all "archi-neer[ed]" by Jahn. Tofutti break.