First Folio

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The Illinois stop for the First Folio! tour is not the Newberry Library, as one might have guessed, or any of Chicago’s wonderful museums or the state’s colleges or universities. No, “The Book That Gave Us Shakespeare” can be seen at the Lake County Discovery Museum through February 28. Opened to Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy, the Folio reposes in a display case, which is, in turn, behind a display pane. The effect is a bit like birdwatching through the picture window with binoculars: twice-removed. And while good reasons for the ultra dim lighting must exist, I have grown old: It was beyond difficult to see the Folio. I have, however, decided to focus on the fact that I stood in (approximately) the same room with the bible of the secular religion that is bardolatry, and that, dear readers, was wildly cool.

Field trip

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For twenty years, I have mostly avoided visiting the museum campus during spring and winter breaks and summer camp days, but scheduling constraints dictated that the winter holiday was the most convenient time for an all-day visit. Oh, the noise, noise, NOISE! Still, the Field Museum is such an amazing place that I nearly put the pressing crowds out of mind, particularly when wandering exhibits like the Gidwitz Hall of Birds and the Cyrus Tang Hall of China. The following images were captured in “The Greeks: Agamemnon to Alexander the Great” and the Cyrus Tang Hall of China.

Milwaukee Art Museum

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The images in this post were captured with my iPad. The above are details from

■ Yinka Shonibare’s “The Age of Enlightenment — Immanuel Kant” (2008)
■ Philippe de Champaigne’s “Moses Presenting the Tablets of the Law” (ca. 1648)
■ Roy Lichtenstein’s “Crying Girl” (1964)
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■ Paul Klee’s “Hot-Blooded Girl” (1938)
■ Anselm Kiefer’s “Midgard” (1982-85)

Yesterday we visited the Milwaukee Art Museum for the first time since its “grand reopening” following the expansion and redesign. My “discovery” this time was the mental juxtaposition of two St. Francis portraits separated by three centuries: Franciso de Zurbarán’s “Saint Francis of Assisi in His Tomb” (1630/34) and Préfète Duffaut’s “Sen Franswa” (1955).

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Surreal

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I captured these images as I wandered through the Museum of Contemporary Art exhibit “Surrealism: The Conjured Life” yesterday.

Detail from

■ Tom Czarnopys’ “Untitled” (1984)
■ Joseph Seigenthaler’s “The Couple” (1993)
■ June Leaf’s “But Alas, He was an artist”
■ Jimmie Durham’s “In a Cabin in the Woods” (2010)
■ Jean Dubuffet’s “La Verrue sous le nez (Wart Under the Nose)” (1951)
■ Lee Bontecou’s “Untitled” (1990-2000)

At the Art Institute

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IMG_5239Of particular interest at the Art Institute of Chicago last week:

Charles Ray: Sculpture, 1997–2014 (images above)
Jean-Luc Mylayne: Mutual Regard (no images in this post)
Jackson Pollock’s Greyed Rainbow, 1953 (image detail above)
■ The Honoré-Victorin Daumier “heads” (one pictured above)
Conservation Live: Francis Picabia’s “Edtaonisl”
Indian Art of the Americas (images above)

The secret lives of objects

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My family visited the Chicago History Museum yesterday, where we enjoyed “The Secret Lives of Objects” before experiencing one of the best museum tours. EVER. If you’re in the city, visit this treasure of a museum, and ask if Elizabeth will be leading any tours that day. She is a gifted docent.