THE TM 911 Franklin Street Weekly Newspaper Michigan City, IN 46360 Volume 20, Number 27 Thursday, July 15, 2004 Grand Afternoons in the Park by Barbara Stodola This summer, trib- ute is being paid to modern leisure in two important happenings along Chicago’s down- town lakefront. On July 16, the official opening will take place for the long-antici- pated Millennium The Art Institute of Chicago has owned Seurat’s Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884, since 1926, and this summer Park, with its daz- has mounted a major exhibit exploring the forces that contributed to the making of this masterpiece. zling Frank Gehry sculpture, and the question “Is it finished yet?” will be answered. In the meantime, just south of the park, the Art Institute of Chicago has unveiled its summer show, a probing study of the steps gingerly taken by Georges-Pierre Seurat as he assem- bled his masterpiece, A Sunday On La Grande Jatte, 1884. Seurat Continued on Page 2 The Jay Pritzker Pavilion has fixed seating for 4,000 and a great lawn area to seat another 7,000. THE Page 2 July 15, 2004 THE 911 Franklin Street • Michigan City, IN 46360 219/879-0088 • FAX 219/879-8070 In Case Of Emergency, Dial e-mail: News/Articles - [email protected] email: Classifieds - [email protected] http://www.bbpnet.com/ PRINTED WITH Published and Printed by TM Trademark of American Soybean Association THE BEACHER BUSINESS PRINTERS Delivered weekly, free of charge to Birch Tree Farms, Duneland Beach, Grand Beach, Hidden 911 Shores, Long Beach, Michiana Shores, Michiana MI and Shoreland Hills. The Beacher is also Subscription Rates delivered to public places in Michigan City, New Buffalo, LaPorte and Sheridan Beach. 1 year $28 6 months $16 3 months $10 1 month $5 Seurat Continued from Page 1 The “extraordinary juxtaposition” of these two events occurring, 120 years apart, was pointed out at a press preview by John Bryan, chair- man of the Board of Trustees of both Millennium Park and the Art Institute. Millennium Park, he observed, brings to Chicago “a new type of urban landscape -- a rooftop park, which is above a 4,000-car parking garage.” The Seurat exhibit, in Bryan’s words, reaffirms “the centrality of our collection in everything we do” -- which is another way of saying the Art Institute has rearranged its Monets, Renoirs and other crowd-pleas- ing Impressionist paintings into a new show, culminating in Seurat’s monumental pointillist achievement. John Bryan, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Art Institute of Chicago and Millenium Park, addressed the press at the luncheon preview and told them, “Without you, we run the risk of talking only to ourselves.” The new show does justice to Seurat, an immense- ly talented and ambitious artist who died of diphtheria This is one of the many small studies done by Georges Seurat in at the age of 31. Much of his brief career was spent preparation for his largest painting, Sunday on La Grande Jatte. doing drawings and small paintings of people in the grand Parisian park, and the exhibit shows 40 of these pieces, borrowed from museums all over the world. La Grande Jatte was completed when he was just 25. The painting immediately caused a sensation, in part because its huge size (82 by 121 inches) marked a radical departure from the intimate, small-scale paint- ings of his Impressionist cohorts. Woman and Child at the Well, 1882, is another Pissarro painting of a picturesque country scene. A lone soldier stands on the banks of the River Seine, on a quiet morning in the 19th century Parisian park. THE July 15, 2004 Page 3 The subject matter of Seurat’s painting was great- ly influenced by the pleasant outdoor scenes Monet Open ‘til 7 p.m. and Renoir were doing, but La Grande Jatte captured Evenings a mood all its own. Although 48 people were depict- ed, they seem to have no interaction with each other. The figures are posed in profile or straight frontal posi- tions, motionless, engaged in no activity more stren- uous than holding their umbrellas. This absence of www.littlehousefashions.comElegant Apparel for the narrative draws greater attention to the meticulous [email protected] Conscious Woman Women’s Apparel method of applying paint, the thousands upon thou- sands of dots and dashes which alternately coalesce and divide, depending on how close you stand to the painting. Tent Sale The optical effects produced by Seurat’s technique were tied to the new scientific discoveries regarding 60% Off last sale price the perception of color and light, and were followed Spring & Summer Merchandise up by other artists in the trend toward abstract up to 50% off painting. Today, he is seen as a major force in the mod- ernist revolution. Seurat’s La Grande Jatte, as viewed 120 years Great Fit after its completion, cannot help but provoke comparison & Great between the ways that Sunday afternoons were observed back then, on the banks of the River Seine, Fabric! and today, on the shores of Lake Michigan. One dif- This easy, ference immediately apparent is the level of activity, versatile pant Chicago’s hustle and bustle contrasting markedly set is such a with the serenity of a 19th century Parisian park. great value. Beautiful Seurat Continued on Page 4 embroidered cut work detailing on the jacket and shell add to its charm. Iridescent buttons make this an elegant ensemble, while the drawstring pants with side seam pockets, make it com- fortable. Numerous figures are posed in the park in one of Seurat’s preparatory 55% Silk/45% studies. The seated matron at right was later replaced by a Rayon standing couple with umbrella. Lining (Jacket Only) 100% Polyester Dry clean or hand wash Meet Us For Lunch And A Style Show THURSDAY, JULY 15 - TIPPECANOE PLACE, SOUTH BEND WEDNESDAY, JULY 21 - HANNAH’S, NEW BUFFALO Custom Monogramming Available 409 Alexander Street LaPorte, IN 326-8602 On Hwy 35 - 5 Blocks South of Lincolnway Seurat did many studies of monkeys prior to placing one in the fore- Turn Right on Alexander ground of his painting. This crayon drawing is in the collection of the Monday - Friday 9:30 to 7 Saturday 9:30 to 5 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. THE Page 4 July 15, 2004 Seurat Continued from Page 3 The new Millennium Park strongly asserts Chicago’s commitment to providing entertainment for the mul- titudes. The newly-designed Jay Pritzker Music Pavilion, between Michigan Boulevard and Columbus Drive, has fixed seating for 4,000 and a Great Lawn area to seat another 7,000. It replaces the Petrillo Music Shell, and is planned to accommodate rock and jazz festivals as well as the traditional symphony. This out- door space is defined by an elegantly arched trellis, which carries the sound equipment without obstruct- ing the view of the stage. The Harris Music and Dance Theatre stands at the north end of the development, on Randolph Street, where it was “shoe-horned into the space,” in the words of Ed Uhlir, city architect and project design director. The Ed Uhlir, city architect and project design director of Millennium Park, landscape plan for a portion of the park has been done stands on a balcony overlooking the Chicago park, following by Kathryn Gustafson, who also designed the Diana his presentation at the Cliffdwellers Club. Princess of Wales Memorial in London. A major gift from the Pritzker family jump-start- ed the project, a multi-million-dollar grant to be awarded “if we could get somebody like Frank Gehry, and at first we were not sure he was interested,” Uhlir explained. One problem to be overcome was the restriction against building permanent structures on the lake side, and another problem was winning the rights to extend the parking garage over the rail- road tracks. Frank Gehry, the acclaimed California-based archi- tect, became intrigued by the prospect of designing a pedestrian bridge, which was something he had not done before. The bridge crosses Columbus Drive and ends up at the music pavilion, which is topped by Gehry’s soaring sculpture of stainless steel panels resem- bling huge petals of flowers. The underground parking lot has been enlarged, and now it also includes a 400-space heated indoor bicy- cle parking facility, complete with lockers, showers, Frank Gehry’s monumental sculpture, with petal-like forms of curving bike repair, and all the amenities encouraging peo- stainless steel, soars above Chicago’s new Millennium Park. ple to ride bikes to work. “Cloud Gate,” a 30-foot-high stainless steel sculpture by Anish Kapoor, stands at the south end of Millennium The Prirzker Music Pavilion, consisting of the Gehry sculpture and a latticework enclosure, Park, on Madison Avenue. also has a stainless steel ribbon extending into a pedestrian bridge over Columbus Drive. (Photo of sculpture rendering by David Morgan) THE July 15, 2004 Page 5 At the south end of the park, on Madison, anoth- er stunning sculpture has been installed -- a 33-foot- high seamless, stainless steel piece in an elliptical shape, with a highly polished, reflective surface. It was designed by British artist Anish Kapoor, and weighs over 100 tons. Also, in memory of Grant Park’s Beaux Arts origins, the Wrigley Square Peristyle was placed at the corner of Randolph and Michigan, replicating the curving row of Greek columns which stood near that spot in 1917. A three-day celebration, free to the public, will officially inaugurate the new city park. It opens on Friday, July 16, with music and dance events culmi- nating in a 7:30 p.m.