Went downtown Saturday with some friends on the train, with plans that included seeing the Burnham commemorative sculptures and visiting the Loyola Museum of Art for a visiting show of Rodin's sculpture.
I was very dismayed to visit the Burnham White sculpture at Millennium Park, because I was so enthralled with it during my first visit. It looked in terrible condition and there were signs everywhere saying "Please do not climb on sculpture" Apparently some miscreants had been climbing on the various soft curves, eroding the materials and chipping away the skin of the sculpture. The neighboring sculpture was surrounded by construction fence and all sorts of building materials and looked equally a mess while workers continued installation. Not the right day to show your friends what you thought would wow them.
Instead, we grabbed a cab and took off for LUMA at 820 N. Michigan Avenue, which turned out to be next to the historic Water Tower that survived the Chicago Fire. There's a pretty little green park and modest fountain there and parking for horse and buggy rides which were constantly pulling up on the small divided avenue. The Loyola Administration building, with a beautiful facade, lies just west of this peaceful space, and next store, oddly out of place, is a crowded Hershey's Chocolate store. We climbed the dozen steps inside to find a very modern space and the entrance to the museum along with a modest gift shop. The entry fee is only $6 (a bargain compared to The Art Institute) and the price suits the modest size of the museum.
The exhibit consisted of roughly 25 pieces. Several sculptures were heads or "masks" as Rodin refers to them, and there were two alarmingly large full figures - both holding palettes (see picture I managed to shoot with my cell phone before I was told no photos allowed), and a pair of hands (one of an adult, one infant sized.) The most striking to me were the many male figures in various poses. The really intriguing bonus of this show, which is called "In his own words" is that each sculpture was accompanied with a paragraph by Rodin explaining his motives, feelings, public reaction to his work, and his aesthetic.
Rodin wrote about how he purposely pumped up and slightly exaggerated each muscle and hyper stretched and extended every limb to exude life and energy within. He was thoughtful about where light would hit each fractured surface on his sculpture. This really added to the feeling of power and movement. His work revealed a very different portrait as you walked around it. I was especially entranced with how beautifully he could portray the arched bottom of a foot - it expressed so much about the figure. There was a replica of "The Thinker" there, but my favorite was "I am Beautiful", a strong figure of a male lifting a female high and close so her legs are curled under her - it's an unusual and beautiful pose.
In the rooms beyond was an interesting photography exhibit with photos of both Parisian and Chicago architecture. I must say Chicago holds it's own! Upstairs, in lovely deep jewel colored rooms are a very nice collection of Renaissance art - definitely worth the trip to the second floor.
