Chicagoist Art Picks: The This Exhibition's an April Fool's Joke, Right? Edition

By Ben Schuman Stoler in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 2, 2010 8:30PM

What’s more of a joke: the extreme fringe of contemporary art, or April Fools Day?

It’s probably true that the internet has killed April Fools because people can just, you know, flip their logo around or something and it counts as a prank, but the Art Institute, Timeout Chicago, and Chicago Art Magazine went to town online with art “pranks.” Some were just okay, but when we saw most of the jokes we were like, “That’s mental! Buuuuuut, considering some of what’s out there these days, it’s actually not such an outlandish proposition…”

So a solid bow to TOC’s piece on hipster apartment galleries (seriously, not such a bad idea), and CAM’s on a blindfolded exhibition. AIC didn’t really fool anyone with the idea of putting real lions out front, but that seems way cooler than Koons’s giant flower Puppy.

Anyway, there are real art things happening these days, and actually, Spring has brought with it some hot shows.

Tonight is the monthly first Friday Big Color Dance at Flat Iron, where you can vote which polychromatic piece gets the $1,750 prize. See CAM's preview vid here.

Also, if you haven’t been to AIC recently, you’re missing out. Besides the ongoing holy-crap-I’ve-never-seen-so-many-masterpieces-in-one-room Matisse exhibition, there are two other can’t misses. First is the William Eggleston photography exhibition, which is basically what crappy Polaroid photographers dream to do with light and composition.

But second is our pick of the week. Go see Modern in America, Works on Paper 1900-1950. It's a treasure trove. The title is a little misleading because there are not only American artists on display. There are some brilliant pieces by George Grosz, the rarely shown Irving Norman, and Edward Hopper, George Wesley Bellows, and more.

Also don’t forget: The Alderman Project is closing this weekend; and Ed Paschke is still viewable at the Alan Koppel Galleries and at the Russell Bowman Art Advisory.