History on Display
History on Display: The Gettysburg Cyclorama
Cycloramas were the I-Max of the nineteenth century. Viewers stood in the center of a specially constructed auditorium, surrounded by a huge cylindrical oil painting of an exciting historic event or dramatic scene. Sometimes the exhibit included music or a narration of the events. With or without a soundtrack, when you went to see a…
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Bites of Art and History: 82nd & Fifth
I get hundreds of e-mails everyday: business letters, personal notes, notices of FB updates, newsletters, “opportunities”. Some I read immediately. Some go straight to the trash. Many I let slide until a someday that never quite comes. But every Wednesday since the first of the year I’ve jumped on the e-mail titled 82nd and Fifth.…
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History on Display: Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity
Last week, my writing pal Amy Sue Nathan and I headed off to the Art Institute of Chicago to see the hot new exhibit, Impressionism, Fashion and Modernity. * It wasn’t quite what I expected. I was looking for what the museum describes as “a la mode as the harbinger of la modernité“. I wanted…
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