SPENDING A DAY OF SUMMER VACATION AT THE CHICAGO ART INSTITUTE

               Last week my husband and I traveled through Illinois and Wisconsin to see family and friends. On our last day we went to the Chicago Art Institute. If you have never been to the Chicago Art Institute you must see it. Some of the highlights for me that day was seeing the following works. In the Asian Art Section is a wonderful video projected artist's book, "Mimio-Odyssey" by the Japanese artist Tomoko Konioke. You can read more about this work and Tomoko Konioke at www.spencerart.comku.edu/collection/recent/Konoike.shtml We looked at some French old masters and we cooled ourselves off by seeing a wonderful small nude by Cezanne and a sculpture of a bather by Degas.There are a number of Georgia O'Keefe paintings there and we were particularly wowed by "Red Hills With Flowers." I was pleased to see there were a number of women artists in their collection and ones that you might not otherwise see including Suzanne Duchamp's, "Broken and Restored Multiplication," Helen Torre's "Extemporaneous," and Maria Elena Vieira da Silva's "Composition." Outside the Chicago Art Institute in Millennium Park is a huge terrific sculpture by the British sculptor Anish Kapoor called "Cloud Gate" nicknamed "The Bean." Also close by, in the Chicago Cultural Center (a former public library) is a wonderful Louis Comfort Tiffany Dome.