Sweet Home, Chicago

Last week, I visited family and friends in the greater Chicago area. Already, I am imagining that I can hear those who live in the actual city of Chicago groaning. People who live in Chicago proper sometimes have attitude about those who live in the suburbs. OK, so I was raised in the suburbs. What's the big deal? Anyway, while there, I ventured into Chicago, itself, in order to visit the Art Institute. I have several favorites there, such as Beata Beatrix by Rossetti, and The Old Guitarist by Picasso. But my favorite gallery within the Art Institute has always been the Paperweight Gallery. You can imagine my disappointment, then, when I entered the gallery only to find that many of the paperweights were not on display. Later, I learned that the Art Institute was considering getting rid of them.


[Insert melodramatic scream of "Nooooooooooooo!" while on knees and shaking fists at sky.]


The collection of paperweights at the Art Institute is one of the best in the world. When I lived in the Midwest, I was fortunate to be near two of the best paperweight collections -- the collection at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum in Neenah, Wisconsin. I can't explain what I find so beautiful about glass paperweights, except to say that I've always liked very small things. Within the beautiful millefiori antique paperweights are very small "canes" and there are often letters or dates to be found on them. I could spend hours looking at collections of antique paperweights because there is so much to see within these little worlds. This is what attracted me to Hello Kitty and Little Twin Stars when I was 10 years old. Everything was so tiny! Of course, now the Sanrio company makes normally-sized things with Hello Kitty on them, too many things, in fact. And, it's very hard to find anything with Little Twin Stars. But, I digress.


Oddly, I do not enjoy the Thorne Miniature Rooms Gallery, which is quite near the Paperweight Gallery. I find the miniature rooms to be stifling. I really don't enjoy entire rooms of antique decor, whether miniature or full sized. I like individual pieces of antique furnishings, but not entire rooms. So, a gallery of 68 miniature rooms of antique decor overwhelms me. 


The depleted paperweight display was not my only disappointment on my visit to Chicago. I also saw one of the most hideous things I've ever seen. On Michigan Avenue, there is a monstrously large, full-color statue of Marilyn Monroe, Forever Marilyn by Seward Johnson. It's been there for almost a year and it's the ugliest piece of public art in the world. OK, that might be an overstatement, but come on! I'm a big fan of public art and I also love pop culture, but this statue is just an eyesore. 


Throughout Chicago, you can find public art by Picasso, Oldenburg, Chagall, Miro, Dubuffet, and Calder, among many others. The architecture in Chicago is also breathtaking, with buildings designed by Henry Hobson Richardson, Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Mies van der Rohe, among many others. In this setting, the statue of Marilyn Monroe is just an insult. I'm just grateful that it isn't going to be a permanent installation. It's supposed to leave sometime soon.