Apogee of my Journalistic Career

Here it is,
the apogee of my career
as one of the many
Art Critics
featured in the
Newcity weekly.

A full page devoted
to my worthless opinions.

Including my response to the biggest art event
that Chicago has seen in a hundred years,
the opening of the Modern Wing of the Art Institute.

Along with some words
about one of my favorite museum exhibits,
the collection of Japanese screens
that finally got hauled up from the basement.

And finally,
a panegyric
for one of Chicago's old school painters,
Walter Burt Adams.




Local art criticism has been dropped
by both the Tribune and the Reader,
so I'm not sure that
it's a subject that is commercially worth
the paper it's printed on.

(and I've yet to be paid for a single word)

But we'll see what happens.

It sure has been fun.

Zen Landscape

Kaihō Yūshō (1533-1615) whose Samurai clan was annihilated during the civil wars, survived as a Buddhist monk, to become a professional painter at the tender age of 60 and win the patronage of the Emperor and highest warlords. (this screen, and several others, comes from the St. Louis Art Museum which is collaborating on the screen exhibition now at the Art Institute)

I would like to sit in on the floor
in front of these screens
for days




but, of course,
my legs
would get very sore.




So it's very kind
of the A.I.C.
to allow
cameras into this special exhibition.

(and once the exhibit comes down in September,
the chances of my ever seeing these pieces again
are about zilch)