{"id":3195,"date":"2019-05-30T12:10:46","date_gmt":"2019-05-30T17:10:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/home.snc.edu\/susanallen\/?p=3195"},"modified":"2019-05-30T12:10:46","modified_gmt":"2019-05-30T17:10:46","slug":"better-than-a-thousand-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sncmagazine.knight.domains\/uncategorized\/better-than-a-thousand-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Better Than a Thousand Days"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Thanks to Maureen Callahan \u201997<\/strong> for this guest post written following an alumni group visit to the Art institute of Chicago with the Rev. Jim Neilson \u201988<\/strong>. Callahan writes, \u201cI left the museum that afternoon reminded that even if one has observed something several times, sometimes taking a closer look with a connoisseur brings a whole new perspective. The Japanese proverb states: \u2018Better than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher.\u2019 How true it is!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYou should come away from a work of art with more questions than answers,\u201d a group of SNC alumni were recently told. This lucky group, myself included, had the opportunity to perfect our understanding of Picasso and gain a greater appreciation of Renoir in the context of a tour of the Art Institute of Chicago. Under the direction of Father James Neilson (known to us all as Father Seamus), we were offered an insider\u2019s point of view of the priceless collection.<\/p>\n

The sunny late-April afternoon began with a reception complete with stunning views of Michigan Avenue and Millennium Park through the floor-to-ceiling windows of Caf\u00e9 Terzo Piano, located on the top floor of the art institute. After catching up over champagne and charcuterie<\/em>, our group of Green Knights, spanning nearly 50 class years, descended to the museum where we began a fascinating journey through a dozen or so masterpieces\u00a0in varying media.<\/p>\n

\u201cNighthawks,\u201d by Edward Hopper, invites us into a small downtown caf\u00e9 located in a city\u2019s central business district after hours. The dark background forces speculation about the three diners and one server present in the giant plate-glass windows of this late-night establishment. Three of the subjects are standing and one is seated under fluorescent lighting, a sharp contrast to the dark cityscape surrounding them. Who are these nighthawks? The coffee cups in front of them seem more of an afterthought than the purpose of the visit. Do they somehow know each in another way than the apparent server\/customer rapport? Their formal dress contests my first speculation of second-shift workers at their nightly rendezvous. Is something clandestine? And most fundamentally, how did they enter a restaurant with no visible door?<\/p>\n

As we moved on to Grant Wood\u2019s \u201cAmerican Gothic,\u201d Father Seamus challenged us to speculate on one of the most famous images of 20th-century Americana and a commonly parodied Art Institute of Chicago icon. Wood\u2019s depiction of a surly Midwestern couple (whom we learned are actually his sister and their dentist) rising to the occasion in front of a farmhouse just outside of Ames, Iowa, begs the question: What is the occasion? Where are they going in dress clothes paired with farm garb? Who might mind the farm in their absence?<\/p>\n

The concept of pointillism, a technique of painting small strokes that tricks the eye when blending them, creating shape and luminance, was new to several of us less-artistically-versed members of the group. Georges-Pierre Seurat\u2019s 1884 painting \u201cA Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte\u201d is a larger-than-life depiction of a mixture of people from varying social classes relaxing in a park on the banks of the Seine River. A native Chicagoan, I have casually observed this iconic masterpiece, brought into pop-culture via John Hughes\u2019 cult classic, \u201cFerris Bueller\u2019s Day Off,\u201d dozens of times. However, it was the first time anyone had pointed out to me some cloak-and-dagger activities of the seemingly innocent park-goers depicted in the busy weekend scene.\u00a0I\u2019m\u00a0a former SNC crew coxswain, so I was further surprised that I had never noticed the rowing team practicing in the background.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t come away with some thought-provoking questions, you might have missed the point,\u201d Father Seamus reminded us as we observed El Greco\u2019s \u201cChrist Taking Leave of His Mother.\u201d What frame of mind must Mary have been in, knowing what was about to befall her son at his Crucifixion? Would she, as his mother, be able to handle it? Would there be anything she could do to somehow ease his upcoming suffering?<\/p>\n

As a mother myself, I am constantly looking for interesting ways to introduce my three children to the world. In my experience, there is never a shortage of questions\u00a0\u2013 the answers to which aren\u2019t always apparent. Thanks to days like this, I will have many ideas of what to point out to them as I introduce them to art. I will be able to help them begin to appreciate Monet\u2019s early work as a young artist, creating his signature colorful paintings filled with light \u2013 a style that later morphed to shorter brushstrokes due to poor health later in life. His lack of fluidity of motion resulted in darker work, reflecting the dimming light of his own life. He\u00a0would paint his wife on her deathbed.<\/p>\n

I left the museum that afternoon reminded that even if one has observed something several times, sometimes taking a closer look with a connoisseur brings a whole new perspective. The Japanese proverb states: \u201cBetter than a thousand days of diligent study is one day with a great teacher.\u201d How true it is! Even better than one day with a great teacher, however, is one afternoon with a superior professor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thanks to Maureen Callahan \u201997 for this guest post written following an alumni group visit to the Art institute of Chicago with the Rev. Jim Neilson \u201988. Callahan writes, \u201cI left the museum that afternoon reminded that even if one…<\/p>\n

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