An epiphany regarding Pierre
As I'm currently in "this is the last time I'll do this before I move" mode, I visited the Art Institute today. Best squeeze the last bit out of my membership, right? Also, hi, it's one of the most amazing museums I've ever visited, and I love it. I know I'm gonna have the National Gallery & al. in the near future, but it'll take a while before I know their collections like I do the one here.
At any rate, one of the big draws for me was the "Cézanne to Picasso: Ambroise Villard, Patron of the Avant-Garde" exhibit that just opened. It's kind of overwhelming (250 works!), but bits of it are amazing. It was wonderful to see "Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?," of course, but honestly the works I found most striking were Bonnard's. I saw his retrospective at the Tate (it ran at MoMA, after; here is the Times's review), and it was pleasant, but I recall it being just so doggone Impressionist. All that water and light and plantlife. The stuff here was much more graphical and fun, especially the "Quelques aspects de la vie de Paris" lithograph series. It added edge to a painter who'd seemed, well, just a bit boring. Which is to say, the whole thing has completely turned my sense of his work upside down, and how often does that happen?
Side note for Chicagoans: As you probably know, The Savvy Traveller is closing down. Its inventory is all at least 20% off. So, yes, I bought Time Out's London Eating and Drinking. Now to fine folks with whom to eat and drink!