In April, I took a short business trip to Chicago for a few days.

Since my last two trips to Chicago in the past 10 years or so, I have been a fan of Chicago (except for its winter…). Stunning lake and canal views, impressively clean streets (by the standard of US large cities), very bike and pedestrian friendly. Contrary to what’s being portrayed in movies and TV shows, I actually felt really safe when walking through the streets of Chicago for the most part. Vibrant culture, and people are much more at ease and relaxed compared to other major US cities like NYC or LA.

This time, spare time was too limited for me to wander much further away from where my conference was held, so I mostly focused on attractions nearby. Here is an itinerary I would recommend for a 1-2 day trip in the Loop area:

Art Institute of Chicago. I was absolutely BLOWN AWAY by the collection here, especially the volume and quality of Impressionists, Post-Impressionists, Neo-Impressionists, The Dutch masters, and Modernism. By far I think this is the largest collection I've ever visited for impressionism/post-impressionism/neo-impressionism across the entire US.
Adler Planetarium. A nice educational planetarium in a sublime location with amazing surrounding views.
And of course, no trip to Chicago is complete without a short walk along the bank of Lake Michigan.

A short walk on/above the city streets

On my way to the museums, I stumbled upon an overpass bridge with a very unique shooting angle of Chicago cityscape together with part of its history.

Art Institute of Chicago

During Covid, I picked up a new hobby to learn about western art history, and primarily on post-renaissance paintings, so I decided to spend most of my spare time this trip at the Art Institute.

The collection here is just insanely impressive, and probably the largest I’ve seen so far across the entire US. Huge volume of masterpieces from a long list of big name impressionists/post-impressionists/neo-impressionists, as well as masterpieces from Dutch old masters, realism, modernism and symbolism. A full album can be found here. Below are a selection of my favorites.

Flemish and Dutch renaissance.

The first 3 were from Rubens. While notably different from the Italian counterparts during the late 16th and early 17th, the subjects were still quite religion focused, with much more human-like touch though.

The rest of the paintings here (from Jan Steen, Rembrandt, et al), projects an even stronger Dutch identity. “Netherlandish Renaissance” is a perfect example of how arts cannot be appreciated outside its historical context (social structure, economical composition, ideology, religion, or even weather). Overwhelmingly protestant population, booming middle class largely thanks to its maritime trades, flatter social hierarchies, led to Dutch arts being mostly sponsored by the rich-than-ever middle class (merchants, tradesmen, guilds, etc), instead of churches or royalties. This key difference significantly influenced the subjects and style of Dutch painters that time, to focus largely on day-to-day common people’s life in cities or countryside, still lives and portraits of middle classes, in a much less divine and sometimes even comical style.

Millet (#1-4) and Breton (#5). A dash of Realism.

Moving onto Impressionism. Gauguin, and his well known obsession with Tahiti tribes

Cezanne: Still lives, Bathers, Wife, and his retreat to Auvers

Monet: a series of wheat stack. How Monet managed to capture the subtlety between various combinations of different lighting conditions (sunset, overcast) and different seasons.

Monet: a few architecture paintings in London, Venice, and near Giverny. Again, masterful depiction of light, shadow, reflection and fog.

One of Monet’s most famous paintings: “Arrival of the Normandy Train, Gare Saint-Lazare”. The multiple layers of different shades of white and blue for the steam (picture on the right) was pretty facinating.

Monet: The famous series of Waterlilies and Irises at his home pond in Giverny.

Monet’s retreat to French oceanside and countryside.

A series of very typical Renoir’s portraits, “Two sisters”, “By the water”, etc. Vibrant color, delicate brushstrokes.

Van Gogh. The latter 4 of the 6 paintings here are very typical Van Gogh style, including the iconic piece of his Yellow House Bedroom in Arles. However, the first two are distinctively different in style, reflecting his career before his major breakthrough in 1888, with a bit of nod to realism of Millet imo.

Degas. Other than painting of his usual dancers subjects and the famous “Cafe Singer”, the sculptures here was also a quite interesting complementary component to speaks to his artistic style and achievements.

“A Sunday on La Grande Jatte”. One of the most most iconic masterpiece of Neo-Impressionism.

First time seeing this in real life, I was completely in shock by the massive scale of this painting (see the second picture). Considering Seurat’s pointillism style, it is beyond my imagination to fathom the initial artistic vision and the amount of effort that went into it. Thanks to the extremely small footprint of each brushstroke, the color was so vivid and so naturally transition from one color to another across the canvas. Standing in front of it, on one hand, the whole scene resonates with day to day life so much that you can almost expect the people turning towards you and stepping out of the frame, on the other hand, the expression-less faces takes you a step back with a layer of alienating and futuristic vibe.

More neo-impressionists. Signac, Pissarro, Cross

Gustave Caillebotte’s masterpiece: “Paris Street; Rainy Day”. This painting’s size took me by surprise as well. Similarly with Seurat’s “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte”, it had not occur to me that these paintings were life-sized.

In some way, this painting bears quite some similarity with “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte”. To me, in both paintings, the people depicted projected the same kind of “close physically yet distant emotionally” vibe.

Now, modernism. One of the most iconic: “Nighthawks” from Hopper.

I have to admit, while the impressionism collections were impressive, this painting, was THE largest reason why I stepped into Art Institute. With drastic contrast of color and carefully planned composition, Hopper painted a mood that is enigmatic yet relatable at the same time. It’s really

“American Gothic” from Grant Wood. I guess this painting has been so popularized by modern-day TV shows and movies, that it doesn’t really need more description here… I will have to admit though it is really hard not to take it as a mockery despite what the artist originally meant, even when viewing it in person.

A few more symbolism and modernism (I guess), from Munch, Pollock, et al.

During my visit, there was also a special exhibition for Dali. For me personally, while I appreciate the endless imagination, and how well he was able to communicate such wild surrealism with creative transformation of daily objects, his paintings had always felt too abstract for me to be emotionally connected with. The exhibition was definitely well organized and intriguing though.

A series of paintings right before WWII and during Spanish Civil war.

A series of paintings with two or more visual interpretations. Look for them yourself :)

A walk by Lake Michigan

Before heading over to Adler Planetarium, I was quite hooked by the lake bank outside it, and took an hour of walk just to enjoy the spectacular view.

Adler Planetarium

Because I spent quite a lot of time photographing the lake bank, I arrived at Adler Planetarium late during the day. Had it been any other day of the week, I would have missed the chance to enter. However, it happened to be an Wednesday and they host an “Adler at Night” event every Wednesday from 4pm to 10pm. I guess I was lucky. For Illinois state residents, this even is also completely free.

For some reason, the tickets needed to be purchased online even though I was already at the planetarium. There was no ticket window. I am not sure whether that’s the case every day or just for Wednesday night.

A full album with descriptions can be found here. For the highlights in my opinion (some parts of the planetarium was closed though during the night so I didn’t get a chance to try them)

The planetarium has a few dome theaters. The shows there were a very immersive experience and definitely worth checking out. The show times were fairly limited throughout the night though, make sure you plan your tour accordingly to show up at the right theater at the right time.
A dedicated section towards Moon Landing, including artifacts from Apollo 13 and a Gemini 12 spacecraft.
A section with detailed visualization of our Universe timeline, well organized and explained.
A section with all kinds of astronomy equipment from many cultures from over the world throughout history.
They also have a section for our solar system, where you can touch real meteorite pieces, which I found it exciting.