The Remarkable Aay Preston-Myint

This was the most eye-catching piece in the DePaul Art Museum last weekend -- and that includes three exhibits on two floors.  It's symphonic.  It's overwhelming.

Not even the early Modernists (Kandinsky, Matisse, Picasso, et al)  could generate more visual excitement.  A hundred years ago,  Preston-Myint would have been painting sets for the Ballet Russe.

It's included in an exhibit for artists "who address the ongoing HIV/AIDS pandemic in North America through the lens of childhood, education, popular culture and race".  To quote gallery signage, this artist was  "inspired by his own relationship to the history and present-day manifestations of AIDS activism and its relationship to nightlife."

I sense a connection to nightlife --- but not the disease.

It's got the excitement of this large painting in the Modern Wing at the Art Institute:

Francis Picabia, "Edtaonisl", 1913

According to gallery signage, the artist was inspired by watching a dance troupe rehearse aboard a transatlantic voyage.