Travel Rogue

August 11, 2005

Lunch at the Art Institute

Joined a colleague for lunch at the Art Institute today. We were originally planning to see the Toulouse Lautrec exhibit, but that was nixed when we saw we'd only have a half hour to enjoy it. So we opted for the impressionist wing instead. Monet, Manet, Renoir and such. It was such a nice break from the office, letting the eyes rest on brush strokes and colors rather than on spreadsheets and contracts. It's so strange how each piece can evoke a different emotion -- indifference, curiousity, pride, compassion...a cultured excuse for mood swings. I'll have to start going once a month. Altaf had some interesting observations. He grew up in Pakistan, and so when he tried to identify or relate to a particular painting, he would look at the year and compare the overall subject matter or individual details to the corresponding time period in Pakistan. So for example, we stood in front of a painting depicting Rome's Santa Maria church set in Parisian streets. I can't remember the title or the artist, but it was social commentary on the French pulling away from Roman Catholicism. Altaf looked at the piece for a few minutes, then noted a cotton stuffed mattress piled in the heaped wagon of a middle-class family. He explained that in Pakistan, there is a huge distinction between upper and lower classes, and that most Pakistanis during the time the painting was done, would be sleeping on mattresses woven out of straw or some other fiber. In front of another domestic kitchen painting, Altaf observed the woman wearing an apron. It was amusing to hear him wonder why the Eastern culinary culture rarely called for an apron.

Posted by carolyn at August 11, 2005 03:14 PM

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