Thomas Hoving, former Director to the Metropolitan Musem of Art, dead at 78

Wow. I did not realize Thomas Hoving died a few weeks ago, but he is a very interesting man in the art world. Read his New York Times Obituary here.

An eccentric man, art collector, and man responsible for transforming and revitalizing the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, was not just a mover and shaker with the politcal art elites, he also loved sharing his excitement about good art with the populace. I will miss his enthusiasm. Among things you may remember him for, if you ever saw the movie, Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock?, he was one of the experts who viewed the disputed Pollock painting found at a garage sale for $5, and stated his expert opinion that it was a fake. From time to time, he also did online video reviews of artworks and shows for ARTNet.com called, My Eye with Thomas Hoving. Enjoy this video of him below, as we say Good bye, and thanks for spreading the word:

Rest In Masterpiece.

Let's take a trip to Chicago, and see Caravaggio!

Hi all. I hope that you are having a great Winter break! I just realized that a fantastic Caravaggio painting is on loan from The National Gallery of London to the Art Institute of Chicago. Caravaggio is an Italian artist, and the most important painting artist of the Baroque Art period, the period that follows the Renaissance. He picked up where Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael left off with chiaroscuro lighting, and made it bigger, and more dramatic.

A very interesting artist, and one of the greatest painters who ever lived. So few of Michelangelo Caravaggio's paintings exist in America. Unless you are planning a trip to Italy any time soon, go see it in January in our backyard of Chicago!!! If you are going to Italy...then bring me back a David Statuette! Just kidding, but go see this painting.

If Caravaggio is not incentive enough, you also get to see the new Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago. It will blow you away. I will try to arrange a field trip in late January. More information below.

~Miles~

October 10, 2009–January 24, 2010 Gallery 211

This is an extremely rare opportunity to view firsthand one of the most highly regarded paintings by one of the most influential Western artists of all time. There are very few paintings by Caravaggio in American museums, and none that can rival this painting in its immediate impact. The Supper at Emmaus, painted in 1601 for a Roman nobleman, comes from the outset of a new, mature

phase of the master’s career in which he treated great religious subjects with uncompromising realism, while at the same time employing his trademark contrasts of light and dark to great dramatic effect. In this revelatory image, two of Christ’s disciples have just recognized that the stranger at their table is none other than Christ himself, reappearing to them after his death and Resurrection.

The Supper at Emmaus will serve as the centerpiece for a focus installation in Gallery 211 of the Art Institute’s collection of “Caravaggesque” paintings. Caravaggio’s insistence on heightened realism and the sculptural qualities of his figures, often brightly lit against a dark background, are evident in works such as Bartolomeo Manfredi’s Cupid Chastised and Cecco del Caravaggio’s The Resurrection. A gallery brochure will also lead visitors to other galleries where the diffusion of Caravaggio’s style throughout Europe will be immediately apparent in works such as Rembrandt’s Old Man with a Gold Chain and Rubens’s The Capture of Samson.