The Museum of Contemporary Art has free admission on Tuesdays (thanks Marshall Fields!) and is open later than any night of the week so I went after work.
In Chicago, the Museum of Contemporary Art is to the Art Institute of Chicago what the Museum of Modern Art is to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. I prefer the Art Institute and The Met. I think it’s the historical aspect of them that I like. It’s so easy for me to go to The Met or the Art Institute and lose myself. Plus, I know they have different goals, but the Met and the Art Institute have everything from ancient artifacts to modern art. As much as I appreciate art, sometimes “modern” or “contemporary” art is just too “out there” for me.. like last night there was a 10 minute video a woman took of herself sucking her own toe. It was interesting to me for about 20 seconds.
Anyway, MCA is worth going to, I just don’t get swept away like I do other places. Oh, and the last photo above was inspired by this Chicago Uncommon photo.
6 responses so far ↓
1 tien // Aug 25, 2004 at 9:25 am
ha, that’s kind of like when i went to ps 1 this weekend.
there were some crazy things. one of these three women in a vertical shack or something and they would bike and get food, then pass down a finger nail, soften it, and make it into a ball. so strange.
2 joe // Aug 25, 2004 at 1:55 pm
Is the second photo a close-up of the third? That’s a nifty effect if it is.
Sometimes contemporary art can be pretty silly,, but I like the questions that get raised as I try to understand what the artist is trying to say.
3 rachelle // Aug 25, 2004 at 2:04 pm
i agree with you joe.. it’s not a bad thing if art sometimes makes you feel uncomfortable or if you feel like you dont “get it” .. just sayin that i prefer art with more historical significance… bc i am a history nerd.
and yes, #2 is a closeup of #3. it’s pretty cool.
4 Mike // Aug 25, 2004 at 2:17 pm
I too prefer the Art Institute over the MCA. I was mildly amused at the MCA, but only went there because the girl I was after at the time was into modern art. I was a little like Alex P. Keaton in Family Ties in that episode where he joined a women’s liberation protest just to mack on a girl. Oh well, it worked at the time.
But since when does “clever” make something art? I devised a clever way to hold up my dry-erase markers in my cube by balancing them in some push-pins in my cube wall. Everyone walks by and says, “Hmm. Good idea. That’s really clever.”
That’s the same thing I heard those people at the MCA with their thick black glasses and fake 1970’s Puma shoes saying in front of a piece of “art” - which was no more than a black streak on a white background.
Does that mean my dry-erase marker display could be art? I think if I walked into the MCA with my dry-erase display wearing my computer nerd clothes, I wouldn’t get anywhere. But with the same crappy dry-erase “art” and wearing all black with my fake 1970’s Puma gym shoes, I think I’d get some takers.
MCA is nice if you like fake people. It is like a little slice of San Francisco, where I live.
5 Kevin // Aug 25, 2004 at 3:45 pm
Rachelle -
Have you ever posted a “tips on how to take good photos?” … I’d like to read it if you did.
6 Robert // Aug 25, 2004 at 5:09 pm
Mike,
Just because you don’t understand modern and contemporary art, doesn’t mean you have to knock the people who do. Why are people, including me, who enjoy contemporary art fake? Is it just because many young people who enjoy the arts sport a hipster fashion aesthetic?
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