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Once upon a time, the Sun-Times had a jazz critic and an opera critic, a book editor and a TV reviewer. All those experts, that passion and specialized knowledge, were washed away in the endless internet storm. Now their titles seem wild indulgences plucked from the deep past, something out of Louis XIV France: the keeper of the king's slipper, the reviewer of rock 'n' roll concerts.
I don't believe we ever had a museum critic. A shame, in a city like Chicago. I think I could step away from this general interest column hamster wheel and happily devote three days a week apprising you of what's up at the Art Institute, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Field Museum, That Rich Guy in Florida Whose Name Sticks in My Throat Museum of Science and Industry, and all the lesser lights: the radiant National Museum of Mexican Art in Pilsen, the museum formerly know as the Oriental Institute. And on and on.
When I was in Washington, D.C., as much as we enjoyed unpacking my son and daughter-in-law and tending, though never jiggling or kissing their new baby, my wife and I would occasionally slip away for a few hours to give the new parents some alone time. Believe it or not, as helpful we certainly were, they never once grabbed us by the lapels and implored, "No no, please stay!"
First stop was the National Portrait Gallery, an underappreciated wonderland. The good news is the lobotomy that the current administration seems intent on inflicting upon our cultural institutions has not yet manifested itself here. One of the first portraits I saw was of Opal Lee, "the grandmother of Juneteenth," hanging in the entrance hall. I imagine it'll be crated in some warehouse in suburban Maryland next time we visit, replaced by a black velvet painting of Kid Rock. The exhibit of Civil War portraits was so fascinating, my wife and I almost never made it further.
But I was interested in checking out the "America's Presidents" gallery.
"I want to see if they're all Trump," I said.
The other 44 predecessors are still there, starting with Gilbert Stuart's full length George Washington portrait. The past can both comfort and distress, but I've been definitely groping toward the former. I paused a long time before Chester Arthur, not one of history's favorites: He took over after James Garfield was shot by a disappointed office seeker.
"Though Arthur had long favored this 'spoils' system, he endorsed the Pendleton Civil Service Act (1883)," the placard noted, "which created competitive examination for some federal positions and offered protections from partisan discrimination."
The president giveth, the president taketh away.
Arthur also signed the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, "the first significant law restricting immigration."
There would be more to come, a welcome reminder that few jaw-dropping lapses of today are worse than what once passed as ordinary. We're running backward, true, but at least to a place we know how to escape. We've done it before.
Another day, I popped over to the Hirshhorn Museum, and am glad I did.
In 2021, the Hirshhorn gave Glen Ellyn native-done-good Laurie Anderson a room, which she painted with slogans and figures, white on black. I spent awhile reading the pithy (and oblique) Andersonian aphorisms.
"Books are the way the dead talk to the living" and "If you think technology will solve your problems, then you don't understand technology — AND you don't understand your problems." I smiled seeing one — "I dreamed I had to take a test in a Dairy Queen on another planet" — a longer version of a phrase she had on a piece of magnetic tape on a violin bow, played in concert to great effect.
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"We know how to escape. We have done it before."
ReplyDeleteYes. And the dream will never die.
Question,
ReplyDeleteThere's two different kinds of people which one are you?
When you go to a place That's open to the public say a restaurant or a museum for instance and there's almost nobody else there do you say to yourself I'm so lucky I'm so smart nobody else came here out of the 7 billion people on earth I'm the only one here lucky me or do you realize that no one else gives a s*** and that's why you're in there alone because it's of no interest to anyone else?
You are a very fine writer most of the time you write about things that a fair number of people care about why on earth would you want to write about things that hardly anybody cares about over and over again?
Are you writing for you or are you writing for us?
I know that's more than one question but I figured you got to write about something
That's a valid question. The short answer is: I'm writing for me, absolutely, 100 percent. The fact that other people who aren't myself want to read it is a continuing marvel. As far as the nobody gives a shit aspect, I would reply with a question: 1) "Who appointed you their spokesman?" and then make an observation: "And yet you're here." But this seems a topic worthy of expansion, so I'll write tomorrow's blog post about it. Thanks for asking.
DeleteSpeak for yourself. Mr. Steinberg writes brilliantly about art, culture, knowledge, democracy - especially democracy - every goddamn day. The greatest experiment in democracy in human history is under siege by a narcissistic monster - keep writing what inspires you Neil.
DeleteVery kind of you Dennis. What Bill doesn't know — no crime there — is I'm the guy who wrote a book about the decline of the men's hat industry. To which my older son, channeling Bill, asked me, to my face, have I ever considered writing books about stuff that people are interested in? And I replied that other people aren't writing my books, I am, so it would make sense for me to pick topics that I want to know more about, and then try to convince them it's worth their while to pay attention. That's what writing is. Do you think people WANTED Robert Caro to write a massive four-volume biography of Lyndon Johnson? The first thing I tell young writers — or would, if any asked, which they don't — is they have to assume that nobody knows or cares anything about what they're writing about, and then make them care.
DeleteUsually when I hear someone say “nobody gives a shit about thus and such” it generally means THEY don’t give a shit about the matter at hand. Who in the world has inside knowledge about what other people care about?
DeleteMy assumption, nobody gives a shit is based on as I mention below , I sometimes go to great effort to get somewhere say a remote hot spring in the high desert and am the only one there is me.
DeleteMaybe it's indifference or lack of awareness. I guess nobody gives a shit is crass . Maybe they have found solitude elsewhere or are not seeking it or ,well who knows.
The photo of the empty room filled with the delightful musings of Laurie Anderson isn't well publicized like the work of the masters that people line up around the block for
I'm sorry I don't know
Sorry Neil, but calling that Laurie Anderson atrocity art, is a crime against art!
ReplyDeleteYou do know the students of School of the Art Institute held a mock trial for Henri Matisse on the steps of the Art Institute in 1913, found him guilty of crimes against art, and were in the process of burning him in effigy when the police stepped in.
DeleteHitting them out of the park today!
Deletejohn
Matisse could actually paint, all she did was write a bunch of crap all over the walls & floor. But for true crap, drive down McCormick Road in Lincolnwood & Skokie & see the garbage sculpture along there in the Sculpture Park. Each is worse than the next one with the giant turd the worst!
DeleteI love you clark st.
DeleteKeep writing about museums and libraries. I find it fascinating. The key to a great writer is write for yourself.
ReplyDeleteThere might be money to be made selling black velvet paintings of Kid Rock! For the crafty, maybe a whole series of paint-by-numbers-kits of his associates. Make Art Great Again.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the intro to Laurie Anderson.
I wish not to take away from the great article, but I like the socks.
ReplyDeleteOh look! Another tiny-minded clown with a big mouth and the courage to spout off about someone else's work on the internet, where their secret identity is preserved. Its just as courageous as an unsigned SCOTUS shadow docket ruling. "Bill" is truly a thinker for our times.
ReplyDeleteI comment regularly on Neil's work I appreciate that nobody really knows who anybody is here but I'm Bill.
DeleteI can answer my question I'm the type of person that loves it when I'm the only one that's there sometimes I fly a thousand miles and hike 50 to get to a place like that.
I don't care if anybody else but this small-minded clown put the effort in to enjoy something that I enjoy.
That's what I wanted to know from Neil and I hope to find out tomorrow more about that point of view I seem to have irritated some other commenters but he took my question with Grace even though I don't always pose them with the same.
Sorry zaven I have to say I've never seen you post under that name before Nice to kind of meet you
Don't sleep on the International Museum of Surgical Science on Lake Shore Drive. What a gem, hidden as it is in plain sight of the millions who drive by it year after year. I would probably never have visited it except that we were invited to a private party there last weekend. It contains a vast amount of historical artifacts tracing the development of medical practices. Indeed, more than once I found myself alone in the nether regions of the building learning about some obscure invention or whatnot. Never did I wonder why I was wasting time on something nobody else cares about, but rather I thought everyone should know about this place!
ReplyDeleteI hope this doesn't come off harsher than I intend: but were there a lot of drinks at that party? Because I've been to the IMSS a couple times, and it struck me more as a weird oddity than a gem. https://www.everygoddamnday.com/2019/09/flashback-2000-miracles-of-not-so.html
DeleteIt's unfortunate that you, and I think others, have that impression. Yes, there are some weird oddities on display, but I was drawn to the truly fascinating exhibits describing early medical practices and advances. For example, something as simple as the stethoscope has a remarkable history. (Also, I don't drink.)
DeleteOh, it has cool stuff — the video of the 1950s trepanning is worth the price of admission. But there was a low-rent, gallstones-in-a-bottle aspect not found at other museums, such as Philadelphia's Mutter, which has issues of its own. And sorry about the drinks crack — a failed attempt at levity that I of all people should have avoided. https://www.everygoddamnday.com/2018/03/good-to-be-alive-medical-museums-in.html
DeleteNobody has mentioned the museum at the Spertus Institute on Michigan Avenue, near Balbo. It used to be called the Spertus Museum of Judaica, but there have been several name changes over the years. A wonderful collection of Jewish artifacts, culture, and art.
ReplyDeleteWent there just once, in 1989. My wife and my parents and I seemed to be the only visitors in the whole place, which was huge..but deserted.. I was the only one who dared to venture into the rear, where Holocaust exhibits were located. Completely alone, in a hellscape of misery and death, I did not linger long.
The rest of the world was enjoying a beautiful Sunday in early summer, and the Blues Festival was happening across the street, in Grant Park. In a metro area of so many teeming millions, of whom a third of a million are Jewish, it floored me that nobody at all was there. Maybe in the wintertime, it's different.
Was very relieved to finally leave the building, and to experience music and joy and life and sunlight, after all that darkness and pain and mass murder on an unimaginable scale. I'm thinking that the rear of the museum didn't get a whole lot of traffic.
I did check the Spertus web site, but they are so many things, and, like you, it's been so long since I've been there, that I wasn't sure it is still a museum. Another visit seems in order.
DeleteGrizz: your discussion of Spertus reminded me of a book I read a couple years ago and thought that Spertus had published, but it seems I was wrong. Some interesting stories, mostly of laughing until you cry. For example, it seems the poet Heine who converted to get work was set upon by his wife bemoaning his fate. He told her that God would forgive him -- that's ihis job. "The Pity of It All: A History of the Jews in Germany, 1743-1933."
Deletejohn