Special Edition: Two AIC! "The Old Building"

As I walked into the Art Institute of Chicago for most likely the 9Th time in my life, I was overwhelmed by the presents of most likely the most remarkable collections of art in the Midwest.z I walked up the stairs to the second level into the European art before the 1900s in the "old section" of the museum. The themes of most if not all of the pieces follows traditional portrait of wealthy individuals, religious scenes,and of course the occasional bowl of fruit. From there I moved on the the part of the museum that focus on the Impressionist movement. It is in this "section: that I saw painting of people in "natural"settings. For example, Gustave Caillebotte's Paris Street, Rainy Day, you can see how the movement of Impressionism was incredible different from the previous "classical art" of the early 1800s, in that with this painting more so you can see and somewhat experience the "rainy day" that are artist is wanting to get across. Caillebotte is vividly showing an actual weather pattern and that is very different to what came before impressionism. To add another characteristic of the impressionist artist is that they actually used the paint as paint. Moving on from the Impressionist movement, I went to the Contemporary section of the museum. This is one of my favorite sections of the museum being that I consider myself to be a very abstract painter, I feel at home here, as I get lost in the painting of Jackson Pollock. From the Contemporary section of the museum we moved to the modern wing of the Art Institute. Everything about this new section of the museum is so cool. The whole "modernesk" fits completely and is such a drastic change from the "old building". So at this point in the tour, the themes running though the paintings are ones that almost force you to reevaluate what you see happening, or in other words, look past the actual painting and try to pick the artist brain.

van Gogh bedroom at Arles
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Craft: This is an oil on canvas painting
Concept: An unknown source told me that (i.e., a random guy standing by me in the museum) this was actually the third version of his painting that he had painted for his mother who was in an asylum at the time.
Composition: The colors really contrast with each other well. The point of view of this painting is somewhat of a third person. Knowing that he had possibly painted this for this mother, it can be speculated that this was his mothers room and it is him that is starting into the emptiness of it, the emptiness of his mother not only being around him psychically but maybe even mentally.