Farewell, Chicago!
This is the last post that will be posted on the blog.
The July art actions that took place in Chicago were an unparalleled success and will surely be remembered by art historians for years to come.
For you, who are surely from the future, and wish to browse this website, be mindful that there are three types of posts here. “Original,” that is to say posts originating from this blog. “Documentation,” which shows what other people have been doing with the project. And “Borrowed,” posts that are simply appropriation from other blogs on Tumblr.
Reprinted here is the text of the original press release, which was sent to several publications at the start of the project.
If You Seek It, Look About You, Pt. 1 by Mary Jane Boltz
Chicago (That Toddlin’ Town)
Chicago (That Toddling Town)
As many of us already know, art is the highest form of art. There are few works of art as high, however, as George Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. This piece was gifted to the Art Institute of Chicago during the first half of the twentieth century. The painting was in the possession of collector/artist Frederic Bartlett and was given to the institute in memory of his second wife, Helen Birch Bartlett. Clearly a pinnacle of the artistic form, and also the inspiration for Stephen Sondheim’s powerful musical Sunday in the Park with George.
today josh and i visited the excellent art institute of chicago, where we happened to stumble upon “a sunday afternoon on the island of la grande jatte” by georges-pierre seurat. of course, we don’t know this painting because we are art connoisseurs, but from the montage in “ferris bueller’s day off” (which, in my opinion, is one of the greatest movies ever made). we took a series of photos that mimicked the scene in the movie - cameron frye stands in front of this painting and focuses on a little girl in the scene. the camera cuts back and forth from his blue eyes to the little girl, with increasingly closer shots, until the girl is nothing but a series of painted dots, and his eyes are totally spaced-out and sad. it’s an extremely short but very memorable part of the movie.
That’s strange, I don’t ever remember seeing the back of someone’s head in the pointillism painting by Georges Seurat. Must be a commissioned piece.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte
Georges Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte ….. and me!
Lydia in a Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte
They support Chicago, and Chicago supports them.
