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Wintry Wonders

6 artworks from 6 artists across 6 galleries
The tour is ordered to begin from the Michigan Avenue entrance. If you are starting in the Modern Wing, simply do your tour in reverse order.

Embrace winter's cooler vibes with this tour exploring the various ways artists have responded to snow, ice, and freezing temps.

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  • Sarape with Compound Banded Design

    Navajo (Diné)

    Some Navajo blankets carry what fifth-generation Navajo weavers Barbara Teller Pete and Lynda Teller Ornelas call a “memory”—a tendency to fold along creases formed by previous wear. When this sarape is displayed according to its memory, as if draped around a person’s shoulders, its striped and checkered lines form a new pattern.

    "Unlike ponchos, sarapes are long rectangular garments meant to be wrapped around the body like a shawl for protection against cold and wind. One would make a perfect piece of outwear for a Chicago winter!"

  • Stack of Wheat (Snow Effect, Overcast Day)

    Claude Monet

    Through 1890 and 1891, Monet created a series of paintings depicting the stacks of wheat that stood outside his farmhouse in Giverny. He painted at several easels simultaneously in the field and then refined pictorial harmonies in the studio. In most of the winter views, like this one, the stacks seem wrapped by bands of hill and field, as if bedded down for the season.

    "One can almost feel the chill in the air in Monet's winter scenes of stacks of wheat. From the sky to the surrounding hills to the snow-covered field, this canvas is dominated by cooler colors."

  • Double Dip Model 2022-23

    James P. Johnson ONN-ISS-KWAH

    James Johnson, an artist and lifelong snowboarder, carved the wooden panel for this snowboard design with an image of Raven. Johnson shared that in Tlingit belief Raven began light-colored, but as the bird carried the sun in his beak across the sky, he flew across the smoke hole of a clan house, and the soot turned him black. This board depicts this transformation.

    "Commercial products like this snowboard allow Johnson to bring Tlingit art and culture to a global audience. A portion of its sales were donated to help build the new Sealaska Heritage Arts Campus in the artist’s hometown of Juneau, Alaska."

  • Fireplace Surround

    George Washington Maher

    Prairie School architect Maher developed a system of design that he called the “motif rhythm theory,” in which he created a signature motif based on local natural forms and used it in various decorative details to harmonize the interior and exterior of a house. Maher frequently collaborated with Louis J. Millet on his commissions, including the Patrick J. King House (1901), from which this fireplace surround came.

    "The warm wood and vibrantly colored natural motif make this fireplace surround a visually warm and inviting object—even without the fire it would have encased. This thistle motif, rendered here in delicate glass mosaics, was one of Maher’s most prominent."

  • The Coffee House

    Alson Skinner Clark

    In this work, Alson Skinner Clark painted Chicago on a winter day, with ice floating down the river and the city’s skyscrapers looming through smoke and fog. The State Street Bridge, with its characteristic ironwork, draws the viewer’s eye into the picture. Clark’s scene is in the tradition of the urban realism of the French Impressionists. He sought to suggest the ephemeral nature of fog and smoke and the atmosphere’s effect upon the city.

    "Born in Chicago and a student at the School of the Art Institute, Clark knew a thing or two about winter weather, as this chilly seen attests. His early landscapes often featured industrial structures like this bridge over the Chicago River."

  • Love of Winter

    George Wesley Bellows

    “There has been none of my favorite snow," George Bellows wrote to a friend in January 1914. "I must always paint the snow at least once a year.” Soon after, a blizzard hit New York City, inspiring this painting. The bright colors and broad brushstrokes convey the pleasure and movement of the skaters and onlookers who are out enjoying a New York City winter.

    "This energetic group of winter weather enthusiasts comprise a range of ages and social classes, reflecting the diverse populations who enjoyed the public parks and the leisure activities offered in early 20th-century New York City year-round."


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