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#MuseumMonday

Do you have a museum you'd like featured on #MuseumMonday? Drop a note in the Suggestion Box.

Name Museum of the Rockies

Location Bozeman, Montana

History Founded in 1957, the Museum traces the history of the state of Montana and the Northern Rocky Mountains. The Museum was founded by Dr. Caroline McGill, who also served as the Museum's first curator. In 2005, the Museum became an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, allowing the Museum access to that institution's collections and resources.

Mission Statement “Using the past and present, Museum of the Rockies inspires life-long learning in science, history, culture, and art; advances knowledge through collections, research and discovery; and presents engaging, vibrant exhibits and programming. MOR brings the world to Montana and Montana to the world.” (x)

Website http://www.museumoftherockies.org/

Collection Information The Museum is known for its huge collection of dinosaur fossils and bones. The collection includes over 300,000 objects that cover more than 500,000,000 years of history. The Museum also houses the Schlechten Collection, over 10,000 photographs and negatives that show Bozeman and Yellowstone National Park from 1905 to the late 1970s. This photo archive is accessible online.

Current Exhibits The Museum is currently hosting a traveling exhibit called Chocolate: The Exhibition, which was developed by the Field Museum in Chicago.

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Victory Boogie Woogie -  Piet Mondrian  1942-44

Oil and paper on canvas

Gemeentemuseum in The Hague  

“Victory Boogie Woogie, Piet Mondrian’s last work, left unfinished at his death in 1944, was recently given the once-over by Molab, a crack team of art conservation researchers. To establish how best to preserve the piece, Molab members had to study the picture in exhaustive detail, finding out which parts are painted, which consist of coloured card, and which are most at risk from the ravages of time – no mean feat, as Victory Boogie Woogie is made up of almost 600 different sections….“ 

http://madamepickwickartblog.com/2010/08/mondrianboogie-woogie-battling-into-abstraction/

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LE LOUVRE Franck Bohbot

Le Louvre, Paris, France, 2013 When the Musée du Louvre asked me in 2013 (before leaving paris) to photograph the Museum. It was such an honor.

Afficher davantage

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“If their experience was anything like mine, they probably felt they were walking on air.” The New York Times’ Roberta Smith on the new Whitney. Photograph by Michael Appleton for The New York Times

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Drawing of an exhibition hall with floating levels. Conrad Roland, 1963

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National Mustard Museum Trip

A few weeks ago I featured the National Mustard Museum on #MuseumMonday, and this past weekend I got the chance to drive up to Wisconsin and visit it! It was my first time at the Museum, and I was not disappointed.

Originally I was just going to post some of the pictures I took, but the more I thought about it, I realized that the Mustard Museum deserved a fuller analysis. Today I’ll post some pictures, and tomorrow I’ll post a longer text post about the Mustard Museum as a modern Wunderkammer, or cabinet of curiosities.

The Museum was relatively small, but packed with mustard artifacts. I think the walls were painted “French’s Mustard Yellow”.

Their collection of antique glass jars were probably my favorite.

There was a corner devoted to mustard-themed parodies of famous artworks, including this gentleman.

The entire Museum was organized geographically.

The Museum has a large collection of painted mustard pots, this one being my personal favorite.

Most of the wall space is devoted to American mustards.

I found the famous Supreme Court Mustard Jar! Refer to the original Mustard Museum post for the full story.

This is the world’s only vending machine devoted exclusively to mustard. Obviously I purchased a bottle.

Behold the mustard of my people.

This book was full of mustard-themed advertisements….

….this one being my favorite, for obvious reasons.

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The New Yorker’s Daily Cartoon by Christopher Weyant

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#MuseumMonday

Today’s #MuseumMonday is going to be in a different format than usual. This weekend I took a trip up to New Glarus, Wisconsin and, among other things, took a tour of the Swiss Historical Village there.

The Swiss Historical Village traces the development of the town of New Glarus, which was founded by Swiss immigrants from the canton of Glarus in Switzerland in 1845. The Village features 14 buildings, including three originals, a church, a schoolhouse and a one room cabin. The beginnings of the Museum date back to the 1930s, when the New Glarus Historical Society was founded.

You can just walk around the Village, but my friends and I took a tour, which was great. Steve, our guide, was very knowledgeable. Enjoy some pictures I took at the Village!

Most of the buildings were constructed in the 1970s, and each one has a different purpose, like this one for Bauerngeraete, or farm implements.

Once a year the Village still makes a wheel of Swiss cheese in this giant kettle.

This is a view of the original one room cabin from the 1850’s.

A chronology of lunch pails in the one room schoolhouse.

The Village is a nice place to walk around on a sunny day. Lots of benches and flowerbeds.

This is the Village’s de facto mascot, Fridolin the Saint Bernard.

I took many pictures of Fridolin. Probably too many.

How can you resist this face?

The landscapers had just been through mowing the lawn. It smelled amazing!

The Kramerei (which roughly translates to stuff-ery, as in, a place where stuff resides) was one of my favorite buildings.

Every local museum I have ever visited has stuff made out of human hair. The Swiss Historical Village did not disappoint.

“Please sit and rest”.

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This is so cool!!!

Get an up-close look at this exquisitely detailed painting by Jan van Eyck with our new in-gallery interactive feature. “Saint Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata,” c. 1395–1441, by Jan van Eyck

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Cleaning an artwork is one of the most sensitive conservation tasks, due to the challenges of determining exactly what to remove, and then exactly how to remove it without affecting the original art surface. This is often complicated by unstable original materials, previous restorations, previous storage environments, or other effects of age.

Last week I had the rare opportunity to perform a cleaning that was quite straightforward, on Philip Pearlstein’s Self Portrait/Portrait of George Klauber. This unique gem is from Pearlstein’s last year as a student; the style is more surreal and playful than his later work, and he also created the unusual frame. In this case, other than being incredibly grimy, the painting and frame were in great condition. The grime that had built up over the decades was a combination of a greasy yellow film (possibly nicotine from cigarette smoke) and dry soot-like material, and tests determined that a modified aqueous solution was successful in removing it. Afterwards, the original bright colors were revealed in their intended relationships, helping restore the painting’s liveliness. In the image above, you can see the transition in progress: the left side has been cleaned, the right side is still shadowed by the coat of grime, and my swab on his shirt points out the stunning line of contrast. The treatment was done in preparation for loan to the Andy Warhol Museum, and it was very satisfying to be able to send this charming painting out its cleaner state.

Posted by Jessica Ford

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Medusa + Coolio

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Lucas Museum and free admission...

There is a new development in the Lucas Museum saga. 

On Friday, Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner signed a bill into law that would allow both the Lucas Museum and the Obama Presidential Library to be built on public parkland, despite the objection from advocacy group Friends of the Parks. The bill basically invalidates the main complaint the Friends of the Parks made in the lawsuit they filed against the city of Chicago this past November. Though the lawsuit attempting the bar the construction of the Museum will still go ahead, legal experts say that the new law could hurt the Friends’ position. 

Here’s hoping the new law paves the way for the construction of the Lucas Museum - especially since George Lucas recently said he would pay for the entire bill, close to $1 billion.

Click here to read Friday’s Chicago Tribune article.

In other Chicago museum community news, a bill was recently introduced in Springfield that, if enacted, would cut the number of required free museum days from 52 days a year to 26. Many of the city’s museums were originally given their Park District land leases in exchange for guarantees of free museum days for Illinois residents.

Chicago’s City Council and a number of aldermen have sprung into action to oppose the bill. Alderman Edward Burke (14th) and Joseph Moore (49th) have introduced a nonbinding resolution that calls on state legislators and Governor Rauner to squash the bill. 

We’ll have to wait and see what happens. A similar bill was passed in the House and then vetoed by then Governor Pat Quinn in 2013. Additionally, the current bill has been sent to the House Rules Committee, where bills often disappear without even reaching a vote.

If anything, I think Chicago needs more free museum days. Tomorrow, I’ll be enjoying the nice weather at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum in Lincoln Park, which has free admission (aka “suggested donation days”) every Thursday.

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#selfie #Matisse @artinstitutechi #museumselfie by baarrium https://instagram.com/p/00WO-fQiAJ/

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Straight from the Lightsaber Academy Manual.

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“I kind of just steal the compositions, but I obliterate everything else. The details are gone. Nothing is stable. Everything is moving and dripping and messy.” —Diana Al-Hadid

Watch artist Diana Al-Hadid borrow from Old Master and Italian Renaissance paintings to create a singularly hybrid artwork—transforming brushstrokes on a wall into architectural sculpture—in a new film from the ART21 New York Close Up series.

WATCH: Diana Al-Hadid Plays the Classics

IMAGES (ROWS 1, 5): Diana Al-Hadid. Installation view of Ground and Figures at OHWOW Gallery, Los Angeles, 2015.

IMAGES (ROWS 2–4, 6): Artist Diana Al-Hadid in her studio, Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY, 2015.

ALL IMAGES: Production stills from the ART21 New York Close Up film, Diana Al-Hadid Plays the Classics. Artwork courtesy of the artist and OHWOW Gallery, Los Angeles. Photos © ART21, Inc. 2015.

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#MuseumMonday

Do you have a museum you'd like featured on #MuseumMonday? Drop a note in the Suggestion Box.

Name Experience Music Project Museum (EMP Museum)

Location Seattle, Washington

History The EMP Museum was founded in 2000 by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, as a museum of popular culture. It's exhibits cover everything from the art of fantasy, horror cinema, and video games to science fiction literature and costumes from screen and stage. The Museum features interactive areas like the Sound Lab and On Stage, where visitors can preform music in front of a virtual audience. It was formerly known as the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame (EMP|SFM).

Director Patty Isacson Sabee

Mission Statement “EMP is a leading-edge nonprofit museum, dedicated to the ideas and risk-taking that fuel contemporary popular culture. With its roots in rock 'n' roll, EMP serves as a gateway museum, reaching multigenerational audiences through our collections, exhibitions, and educational programs, using interactive technologies to engage and empower our visitors. At EMP, artists, audiences and ideas converge, bringing understanding, interpretation, and scholarship to the popular culture of our time.” http://www.empmuseum.org/about-emp.aspx

Website http://www.empmuseum.org/

Collection Information The Museum houses the world's largest collection of artifacts, hand-written lyrics, personal instruments, and photographs produced by Seattle musicians like Nirvana and Jimi Hendrix.

Current Exhibits The Museum currently has several special exhibits, covering topics such as Star Wars, science fiction, Nirvana, Indie video games, the Seattle Seahawks, and fantasy films. A full list can be viewed here. http://www.empmuseum.org/at-the-museum.aspx

Additional Information The Museum's building was designed by Frank O. Gehry, who also designed the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, the MARTa Herford Museum in Germany, and the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis. Though a fan of classical music, Gehry was interested in exploring the rock 'n roll experience, and purchased several electric guitars, which he sliced into pieces and used as the building blocks for early models of the museum. The architecture of the building is meant to convey the energy and fluidity of music. The materials used constantly respond to different light conditions, reminding viewers that music and culture are always changing and evolving.

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This tie is embroidered with the ultimate symbol of Chicago’s North Michigan Avenue: the city’s historic Water Tower. Polyester tie with silk embroidery by Crested Clubs Blanford. Man’s suit by Lawrence M. Pucci, 1974. Gift of Miss Sandra Marsh.

Visit Chicago Styled to see this garment, and join us for the FashioNext Finale on Thursday, April 30.

Want to purchase a copy of this image? E-mail rightsrepro@chicagohistory.org and give them this number: ICHi-69548

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