Tag Archives: Chicago

Virtual Visits: The Art Institute of Chicago

1930 Illinois Central travel poster. Circa 1930 Illinois Central travel poster. Image from amazon.com.

 

The Art Institute of Chicago is one of the largest and renowned art museums in the United States. Among its collection are some of the most famous paintings in the world. And no trip there is complete without seeing, George Seurat’s A Sunday of La Grande Jatte (1884-1886),

 

A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, by George Seurat, from the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, by George Seurat (1884-1886). In the Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Image from Wikipedia.

 

American Gothic, the 1930 painting by Grant Wood,

 

Grant Wood's 1930 painting, American Gothic, now part of the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. American Gothic (1930), by Grant Wood. Image from Wikipedia.

 

and a personal favorite, the 1942 painting Nighthawks, by Edward Hopper.

 

The 1942 painting Nighthawks, by Edward Hopper. Nighthawks, Edward Hopper’s 1942 painting. Image from Wikipedia.

Former members of the Chicago Academy of Design founded The Chicago Academy of Fine Arts in 1879. That same year they acquired the assets of the Academy of Design at a bankruptcy auction. Changing their name to The Art Institute of Chicago in 1882 they also moved to a building on Michigan Avenue. Needing more space the institute built a new impressive building on the lot directly to the south in 1887. But with the coming of the Columbian Exposition in 1893, the art institute decided on a new home in Grant Park along Michigan Avenue. Constructed for the fair the Art Institute moved to their new and permanent home on October 31, 1893.

 

The 1893 building for the Art Institute of Chicago. The Art Institute of Chicago. Built for the 1893 World’s Fair in Grant Park. Image from Tripadvisor.

Now that we’ve seen some highlights, let’s start our virtual visit. I have to say that the Art Institute has one of the most user friendly websites of any museum. Here is the homepage where your “visit” begins at artic.edu.

 

Homepage for the Art Institute of Chicago. The Art Institute of Chicago homepage.

Once here, click the magnifying glass in the upper right. That will take you to this window.

 

The search page. The search page.

 

In the light gray box, I used Art Deco as my keyword search term. And here were my results.

 

The results of the Art Deco keyword search. The results of the Art Deco keyword search.

 

From here, scroll down to the middle of the page to see the collection items.

 

Art Deco Collection items. The start of the Art Institute’s Art Deco collection items.

 

As you can see, this search brought up a total of nearly 35,000 items. If this is too daunting a number (and not all of these are Deco items, this is bringing up any item with the words Art and Deco). There are ways to ratchet this search down. Click on “See all 34846 artworks”.

 

Using the filters to ratchet down the number of items in the search. Using filters to refine the search.

 

That will bring you to this window. On the left side of the screen there are filters to help refine the search. I keep “SORT” on relevance and move “DATE” to begin at 1900. Then click “OK”.

 

Results after refining the search using the built in filters. Results after refining the search using the built in filters.

 

This brought the search down to a reasonable 13,188 items. Now you can spend the next few hours enjoying some amazing Art Deco items and art works. Here are some of the items that caught Chris and my eyes.

 

Chris’s Picks

 

Protodeco Danish vase by Effie Hegermann-Lindencrone. Covered Vase (1916) by Effie Hegermann-Lindencrone.

 

KEM Weber arm chair (1928/1929) for the Grand Rapids Chair Company. KEM Weber arm chair (1928/1929) for the Grand Rapids Chair Company.

 

Deer and Hinds vase, 1924. 1924 Deer and Hinds vase by Boch Frères Keramis, designed by Charles Catteau.

 

Limoges vase, circa 1930. Limoges vase by Bernardaud & Co., circa 1930.

 

1925 Les Fontaines plate by Johnson Brothers. 1925 Les Fontaines plate by Johnson Brothers.

 

Anthony’s Picks

 

Carpet, made in France, circa 1925. Carpet, made in France, circa 1925.

 

Diana the Huntress, wall panel. André Marty wall panel of Diana the Huntress, 1925.

 

Skycraper Cabinet designed by Paul Frankl, 1927. Skycraper Cabinet designed by Paul Frankl, 1927.

 

Table Lamp by Walter von Nessen, 1930. 1930 Table Lamp by Walter von Nessen.

 

Casino Ware Tureen, 1932-1934. Casino Ware Tureen, Royal Doulton, 1932-1934.

 

And collection  item we both picked

 

Russel Wright spun aluminum and cork cocktail set, 1930. Cocktail Set Model 326 designed by Russel Wright in 1930.

 

These are only a very few of the many Art Deco items in the Art Institute of Chicago’s collection. Chicago is a city that Chris and I have only visited briefly once. It is full of Art Deco treasures, so I know we will be Driving for Deco there once the pandemic is no longer with us.

 

Anthony & Chris (The Freakin’, Tiquen’ Guys)

 

 

 

First Weekend Finds of 2018

Over a recent weekend, Chris and I drove out to Chicago to attend the wedding of friends. When asked by people whether we would be flying, I replied “No driving, you can’t get antiques on a plane.” So setting out on a Thursday evening we headed west. Reaching Cleveland by midnight, we called it quits. By early Friday afternoon we had reached Elkhart, Indiana and decided to try our luck. Our first stop was the 820 Antiques at 820 N. Ward Street, Elkhart.

 

820 Antiques entrance.

Entrance to 820 Antiques at 820 N. Ward Street in Elkhart, Indiana. Photo from Facebook.

820 Antiques is a good size mall, with a friendly staff and a wide variety of items that makes browsing fun. This visit we only bought a souvenir spoon from Chicago’s, 1933 Century of Progress World’s Fair. But should we ever be in Elkhart again we would definitely stop in.

 

 

Here’s a lesson to never let a name trick you. While looking up antique stores in Elkhart, one of the stores that came up in my Google search was The Amish Mall. I have to admit the use of “Amish” was a turn off for me. As we were heading back to the highway and to Chicago, we stopped at a traffic light on W. Bristol Street. Directly across the street from the light was The Amish Mall. Because it was right there, we thought let’s try our luck.

Elkhart Indiana's The Amish Mall.

The Amish Mall at 1216 W. Bristol Street, Elkhart, Indiana. Photo from Facebook.

They do sell Amish furniture and goods and hence the name of the store. But they are multi dealer shop selling almost anything you can imagine.

 

Always keeping an eye out for Deco at the back of the store we found a Royalchrome desk. Online searches for the desk have attributed the design to Kem Weber and Wolfgang Hoffmann. Both men did design for Howell in the 1930’s and 1940’s. But we have not found any proof as yet if either designed this desk. We believe this desk was the design of an anonymous company employee creating in the style of Weber and Hoffmann. So far the only period reference I’ve found is a 1947 advertisement from ebay that shows a desk similar but not exactly the same.

 

1947 Royalchrome Ad.

1947 Royalchrome advertisement showing the chrome tube metal desk. Image from Ebay.

 

Chris really liked the desk and with a price of only $100.00 it was too good a deal to pass up. Chris’ desk is black metal, with chrome tube legs and an ebonized wood top. It’s a striking piece of furniture and its in very good condition. Our biggest concern was, will it fit in the car. It did.

 

 

Like the staff of 820 Antiques the staff at The Amish Mall were friendly and helpful. We would stop back there should we find our selves back in Elkhart. Now it was on to  Chicago and the wedding. Before leaving Chicago on Sunday Chris and I visited two antiques malls on the North Side. Stop one, the Edgewater Antique Mall. On this trip we did not make a purchase, I know we will go back in the future and will buy something.

 

Edgewater Antique Mall in Chicago.

Edgewater Antique Mall, 6314 N. Broadway, Chicago, Illinois. Photo from edgewaterantiquemall.com

The Edgewater Antique Mall is a multi dealer shop. Most of the dealers specialize in Mid-Century Modern, at fair prices. There is also a nice selection of Art Deco objects and a great choice of items from the 1933-1934 Chicago World’s Fair.

 

 

Just a short distance down North Broadway is the Broadway Antique Market, located inside an former 1930’s department store.. This mall offers 75 dealers on two floors, with objects from many eras, but with a large array of Art Deco and Mid-Century items.

 

Broadway Antique Market.

The Broadway Antique Market. 6130 N. Broadway, Chicago, Illinois.

 

Chris and I felt right at home at the Broadway Antique Market. Items we took a pass on, two, three tiered, ebonized wood and chrome tube side tables. These tables (sold by two different dealers) definitely designed by Wolfgang Hoffmann were in great condition, but we had no room in the car and they cost just a bit more than we could spend.

 

Wolfgang Hoffmann side table.

A three tiered side table by Wolfgang Hoffmann for Howell. Painted white, unlike the black painted ones at the Broadway Antique Market. Photo from 1stdibs.com

And a pair of Norman Bel Geddes, enameled steel, club chairs. Unlike the one in the photo below the chairs for sale had a light brown upholstery, with metal painted to look like burl wood. They were very nice and also out of our price range.

 

Bel Geddes lounge chair.

Norman Bel Geddes enameled steel lounge chair, circa 1932. Photo from 1stdibs.com.

 

What I did find, was an item high on my “Art Deco Bucket List”, a Norman Bel Geddes, Soda King syphon bottle. To me this is the ultimate in syphon bottles. It is ultramodern and looks like a bullet. The evolution of the Soda King syphon bottle can be found here in this article we did a couple of years ago. I call the design for this bottle the “Syphon of tomorrow”. It hit the stores in time for the Christmas season of 1938.  I’ve been looking for this syphon for a number or years. Once I saw one for sale at a NYC antique show for $450.00, way too much for me. Luckily the one for sale at the Broadway Antique Market had a price of $125.00. Not cheap but a much more reasonable price than the one at the antique show.

1938 Soda King Syphon

The bottom of the Soda King bottle showing Norman Bel Geddes name attributing the design to the famed industrial designer.

I know the Broadway Antique Market will always be a destination for Chris and me when we are in the Chicago area. And if you are into Art Deco, Mid-Century Modern or just like great antique malls, you should check it out too. Now lets see what other Deco finds we’ll come across in 2018.

 

Anthony & Chris (The Freakin’, ‘Tiquen Guys)