Monday, August 2, 2010 A
"Middle of the Night Drawing"
3:29am
Monday, August 2, 2010 A
"Middle of the Night Drawing"
3:29am
| Middle of the night wakefulness! After nibbling on a nut and fruit mix and sampling one of my new books, I'll take an intuitive brain 'doodle': |
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I'm feeling satisfied. Full of tasty tilapia fish and rice, I'm glad the Middle Eastern Restaurant was my choice. They featured 'Euro News' on a big screen and had photo montages of historic places like the Parthenon, Abu Simbel and the Giza Sphinx. I'm so glad I decided to return to the Art Institute today. I would have missed a lot of good art had I not done so. I enjoyed the exquisitely detailed Thorne miniature rooms. Then I visited the prints and drawings galleries, which featured H.C.Westermann's "See America First" lithographs. He has an ascerbic quality to his images. Next, I enjoyed Chinese and Korean art. There are some delightful pieces in these galleries, including an 'entertainer' designed to entertain the departed person in the afterlife. It wasn't only the Egyptians who carefully prepared the resting grounds of their ancestors. |
 Buff earthenware with pigment Height: 27 cm (10 in.) Gift of Stanley Herzman in memory of Gladys Wolfson Herzman, 1997.369 |
 human activity. This stout figure wears a foreign style of dress - soft cap, cowl-neck tunic, and boots - and may depict a Central Asian entertainer in the act of balancing an object on his forehead..." (from info card) |
| Some bird finials looked completely modern: |
 Pair of Pole Tops with Double Bird-Shaped Bell, Northern China or Inner Mongolia, 6th/4th century BCE. |
 Lucy Maud Buckingham Collection, 1937.329-330 |
| And I found a teapot with a bird's head utterly charming: |
 Korean, Goryeo dynasty (918-1213), 12th century Stoneware with celadon glaze and underglaze incised decoration 21.4 x 17.7 x 13.2 cm Bequest of Russell Tyson, 1964.1213 |
| Then I went onto to Indian, Southeast Asian and Himalayan art. I noted a determined entity holding the 'vajra' scepter, which means 'thunderbolt': |
 Tibetan, Brass with coral and turquoise 52 x 39.1 x 32.1 cm (20 1/2 x 15 3/8 x 12 5/8 in.) Gift of Mrs. Joseph Valentine, 1958.169 |
 "Vajrasattva,.., vajra master""[expl. of outer, inner and innermost levels of practice, Light of Wisdom, Vol. 2, page 70 & 163]" (from Tibetan Dictionary) |
© Joan Ann Lansberry