Remember the Museums

Left: Woman with Dog (Katharina Fritsch)
Right: Artist's Studio "Foot Medication" (Roy Lichtenstein)

It's easy to forget your local museums when you're planning your weekends. A museum is something for a school field trip or a stop on vacation. You get a little reminder when you drive by or when they announce a new exhibit. 

Earlier this year, the Art Institute of Chicago was having an exhibit with all three of the Vincent van Gogh bedroom paintings. That finally drew me out. The exhibit was full of background information, related artwork, portraits, objects, and interactive displays. After a quick pass through some of the collection and a snack, I grabbed a membership to force a return.

Yesterday I made my second trip out. I visited some of the works I saw on the first visit and saw some of the works I hadn't gotten to. I checked out the special exhibits. 

I spent hours peering through glass and reading posters about artifacts at the Vanishing Beauty: Asian Jewelry and Ritual Objects exhibit. I moved through the dense crowd at America after the Fall: Painting in the 1930s able to stop at The Fleet's In (Paul Cadmus) and Saturday Night (Archibald Motley). I studied the restoration work Portrait of Antinous, in Two Parts.

I finally got to stop at the rooftop bistro for some fresh food, drinks, and dessert. Some museums have amazing food and this was no exception. I drank a crisp and refreshing Côtes de Provence rosé. I ate some whitefish spread with celery, grapes, and olives and a veggie flatbread with seasonal veggies (eggplant, summer squash, onion, basil, arugula, red peppers). Dessert was lemon-thyme pound cake with thyme semifreddo and strawberries, along with meyer lemon limoncello (for me) and Mirto (a myrtle berry Italian liqueur for Mr. K).