Millennium Park in Chicago

 [Click on an image to see a larger version of the photograph]

Yesterday we had a day to spend in the Chicago Loop, and we went to the Millennium Park. I was impressed by the Lurie Garden, which is a surprisingly tranquil place in the middle of the hustle and bustle of downtown Chicago. Even though Taste of Chicago was going on, we found red-winged blackbirds singing in the garden and saw lots of butterflies. The garden consists of five acres of greenery tucked among the skyscrapers (that's Sears Tower in the background):

Here's one of the many coneflowers that was blooming:

This view of the garden shows how colorful and prairie-like it is:

The other thing that really caught my eye in Millennium Park is the outdoor sculpture called the Cloud Gate. Reflections of the sky, the buildings and the people in the park are subtly bent and twisted by the sculpture's mirrored surface. The Cloud Gate was so photogenic I took lots of pictures. Here are just a few:

In London at the Victoria and Albert

[Click on an image to see a larger version of the photograph]

Last week in London we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum to see the Cult of Beauty exhibit (which was very nicely done). The V&A is a museum of decorative arts, and it has wide-ranging displays of Chinese, Islamic, Japanese and Korean art, as well as work by British artists and craftspeople.

We had tea in one of the "refreshment rooms" in the Cafe. One of these was designed by William Morris, and here are a few details from that room:

Together, the Morris, Gamble and Poynter Rooms formed the first museum restaurant in the world.

We also spent a lot of time in the Cast Courts, which are filled with copies of European artworks made from plaster casts. I love the juxtaposition of sculpture from many different times and places:

One of the galleries was closed for renovations:

Greg took these droll pictures of the sculptures in the inaccessible gallery:

Prague is in the Details

 [click on the image to see a larger version of the photograph]

The title of this post might remind you of a quote credited to Mies van der Rohe, "God is in the details," or the variant, "The devil is in the details." Whichever you prefer, these ideas imply that details deserve our careful attention.

Because I've been to Prague many times, I don't really notice the major tourist attractions and well-known sights the way I did when I first began to spend time here in the 1990s. But unusual and often unnoticed details of the city -- whether decorative or architectural or simply aspects of urban life -- still draw my eye and give me pleasure and inspiration.

I haven't taken as many photos here this year as I often do, but I wanted to post a few pictures to show Prague in all its graceful and inspiring details. Throughout the city there is an amazing variety of sculptures, such as this worn but still beautiful statue at the Rudolfinum:

And, if you pause and look upward from time to time as you walk through the streets, you will see beautiful decorative touches on the buildings, such as this art nouveau piece:

Sometimes the details are more interesting than beautiful:

Sometimes they're a little odd, like this sculpture from the building that houses the Cafe Adria:

Or St. Sebastian in a niche:

And sometimes, if I'm lucky, I find old statues that have escaped the unrelenting tide of renovation and rehabbing that has changed the face of this city:

But wherever I go, I pay careful attention because Prague is in the details, and it's an even more rewarding place when you are aware of them.

The National Museum in Prague

 [Click on an image for a larger version of the photo]

The National Museum in Prague is located at the upper end of Wenceslas Square, and the building itself is in the neo-renaissance style.  Because it will be closed on July 7, 2011 for a period of major renovation and won't open to the public again until June 2015, we decided to go in and take some pictures of the way it is now. To me the current museum building is a very atmospheric place. Who knows exactly what it will be like in four years when they've finished renovations?

Like many natural history museums, Prague's National Museum has collections of rocks and minerals, fossils, preserved specimens of birds and animals, and additional special exhibits. But to me the building is the most impressive exibit of all. At its heart is the main staircase:

And every time you look up you see many graceful columns and arches:

The building contains a "pantheon" of busts of important Czech politicians and writers, but there are statues everywhere, such as this one of Jiří z Poděbrad:: 

I have a real interest in rocks and minerals, and in fossils, so I enjoy looking at the displays in the museum. It is, however, the details that make the museum a special place.

There are many decorative touches like this medallion:

This sculpted face:

This fanciful lion:

And the collections of stones and bones  seem to complement the sumptuously decorated rooms.

This picture shows how statues and exhibits coexist in the museum.

And Greg took this picture which, I think, gives a true idea of the atmosphere of the place:

I only hope that when the museum reopens in 2015, it will still be as intriguing as it is now.

The "Golden? Sixties" Exhibit and Vitkov Hill in Prague

[Note: to see a larger version of any of these pictures, just click on the image]


When Greg and I were in Prague in 2009, I spent a lot of time walking on Petrin hill, taking photographs of birds and statues, and enjoying the vast park that is the hill itself. This year we're living in a different neighborhood, and we're nearer to Vitkov Hill, the site of the Zizka monument. Jan Zizka was the one-eyed leader of the Hussite army in the the fifteenth century, and the Zizka statue on Vitkov Hill is the largest equestrian statue in the world. Yesterday Prague was thronged with Easter tourists, so we decided to take a quiet walk in our neighborhood and go take some pictures of the Zizka statue. After a ten minute walk to the hill itself, we climbed up through the park, which was full of blooming lilac bushes, and then up a steep flight of steps. Unfortunately, when we got to the top of the hill, we saw that the statue was beneath a scaffolding and under repairs.

Luckily, there's an interesting exhibit on display inside the monument building. Called "Golden? Sixties" the exhibit shows what life was like in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s by focusing on the variety and availability of consumer goods during that time. Objects on display included women's accessories:

toys:

kitchen appliances:

televisions and radios:

and a variety of tins, canisters, and other forms of packaged food:

When we first entered the monument we paid a fee, not just to see the exhibit, but also to take photographs and to be able to go up on the roof of the building. After we saw the exhibit, we had coffee in the very pleasant Cafe Vitkov on the second floor, then took a short elevator ride up to the roof. From this vantage point we took some pictures and looked at other rooftops. Here's the Prague TV tower:

And a church and some buildings in Karlin:

Though Greg and I still go back to Mala Strana each week to climb up Petrin Hill, Vitkov Hill is another great place to take a long walk and get lots of very good exercise.

BEATLEMÁNIE! in Prague

[Note: You can click on any of these photos to see a larger image]

Yesterday, while on a walk in Mala Strana, we noticed that the Czech Museum of Music has an exhibition called BEATLEMÁNIE! After we bought our tickets, I paid the 40-crown fee so that I would be able to take photos.

Before we entered the exhibition, we paused to look around the museum space, which is very atmospheric (see my 2009 post), as the sounds of Beatles' music filled the high-ceilinged entrance hall.

Though BEATLEMÁNIE! does contain Beatles memorabilia, its focus is on the ways that the Beatles influenced the Czech Republic (and vice versa -- did you know that one of George Harrison's first guitars was Czech-made?).

I'm a Beatles fan, but I've seen many pictures of the Fab Four, so I focused on the elements of Czech design I was seeing. (All the while, Beatles songs were playing, and A Hard Days Night was being screened in the middle room.) Here are some Czech record covers from the period:

I especially liked the two tables that accompanied this Beatles collage:

These guitars were made in Czechoslovakia in the 1950s:

Czech musicians in the 60s performed music that was influenced by the Beatles. Karel Gott did the first successful cover version of one of the Beatles' songs:

The point of this beauty-parlor-themed room was that long hair wasn't always socially acceptable in Czechoslovakia (though the same was true in the West):

As you might expect, the Beatles and the hippies inspired hair and clothing styles in Czechoslovakia, too:

The exhibit devotes an entire room to John Lennon, who became a cult figure in Czechoslovakia after his death.

We left the exhibit smiling. Greg took this great picture from the sidewalk outside the museum; that's Hard Days Night playing in the background and a cool yellow submarine sculpture on the left.

A Few Days in London

We're in Prague now, but for a few days before we got here, we were in London. Because London is an expensive city, we stayed in a budget hotel, got Oyster cards so we could get discounts on public transit, and bought much of our food at Sainsbury's. For budget travelers like us, one great thing about London is that admission to all the major museums costs nothing more than a small donation (several pounds is suggested). We were in London for four days, so we visited the Tate Modern, Tate Britain, National Gallery, and British Museum. Otherwise we spent our time walking and riding around the city. If you've visited this blog before, you'll know that I'm especially interested in sculpture (particularly statues -- by which I mean work that is representational, rather than abstract). Here's a photo of one of the four gigantic lions in Trafalgar Square:

This statue of Thomas More is in Chelsea. More coined the word "utopia" and published a book by that name in 1516.

Here are some statues from the British Museum. The museum's collection of works of art from other cultures is now the subject of much debate, especially the so-called Elgin marbles. This image, a horse of Selene, shows one of the best known of those works.

Here are a few other works from the museum, which are Roman, Egyptian, and Assyrian, respectively.