Art Institute Offers Welcome Alternative to Dinner and a Movie for Valentine's Day

Special Tour, Exhibition, Menu a Boon to Romantically Challenged Chicagoans

February 2, 2006

MEDIA CONTACT:                 
Erin Hogan
(312) 443-3664

Valentine’s Day conjures up visions of roses, champagne, and romantic dinners. More often than not, though, roses are replaced by stressful run-throughs of Walgreen’s on the way home; romantic dinners become progressively less so when every single restaurant you call at the last minute is already fully booked. This year the Art Institute of Chicago proposes a creative, illuminating alternative: take a long lunch hour and spend it with your sweetheart at one of the world’s finest museums. You can tour the galleries with a special “Loves Me, Loves Me Not” program, designed by the Department of Museum Education just for Valentine’s Day. You can see the brand-new exhibition Girodet: Romantic Rebel and witness a virtuoso painter of military subjects transform himself into an artist of exotic and erotic subjects—dark, melancholic, and deeply moving. And you can have lunch at the Garden Restaurant, reveling in a sensuous menu prepared exclusively for Valentine’s Day. For an inspiring and original celebration, try the Art Institute.

The “Loves Me, Loves Me Not” tour highlights six works in the collection that treat the topics of courtship, marriage, and coupling. Coming from around the world and from societies with very different ideas about romance, the objects that make up the “Loves Me, Loves Me Not” tour offer both an opportunity to mull over the sometimes problematic concept of romantic love and a marvelous introduction to the collection. The self-guided tour, which can be downloaded from the Web site and is also available at the information desk, includes old favorites and new surprises; visitors can travel via the tour from 15th-century India to Italy in the 17th century to Paris in the years before World War I, learning as they go the various customs and conventions that have surrounded romantic love throughout history and geography.

Those interested in immersing themselves in brooding romanticism need look no further than the special exhibition Girodet: Romantic Rebel. Trained by Jacques-Louis David, the master of 18th-century Neoclassicism, Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson (1767-1824) was a rebellious pupil who abandoned the strict linearity and military subject matter of his mentor to create paintings full of passion and erotic energy. The exhibition Girodet features a broad range of the painter’s work, including drawings, beginning with his student production and continuing through his realization as a “romantic rebel.” His spectacular portraits, mythological scenes, and painted fantasies are a compelling counterpoint to today’s more cynical views of emotional intensity.

To top off your afternoon, make a reservation at the Garden Restaurant to enjoy a special three-course menu created by Executive Chef Patrick Crane, which will be available from January 31 to February 14. Begin with heart-shaped lobster raviolis with basil cream, followed by a petite filet over cabernet whipped potatoes and passion fruit demi-glace, and finish with a romantic raspberry Bavarian with a merlot truffle--and just one spoon. This afternoon of delight is $31 per person, or $45 paired with wine (tax and gratuity additional).

This year, give that special person a truly creative gift--one that draws on centuries of thoughts about romantic love, one that engages the senses and the imagination. Walgreen’s will still be there next year.