Playbill.com:
Think of it as an Impressionist flash mob. Visitors to the Art Institute of Chicago got a musical surprise on Sept. 16 when at the top of the museum's Grand Staircase leading to the Impressionist Galleries, a full-sized replica of Georges Seurat's "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte—1884" was installed but devoid of most of the foreground characters.
7 comments:
This is so very cool for a number of reasons. Firstly, this is a brilliant PR stunt on behalf of Chicago Shakes, and whomever came up with it should be given a big raise. What better way to show how your actors are doing something that is tangible and referential to times gone by then to actually alter the iconic piece that would trigger emotion and nostalgia in their audience?
Beyond that, for the actors themselves to be out promoting their show amongst art-lovers is a sure way to broaden the type of audience members they might be expecting this season. We are always worried about the aging population of theatre goers, of the few proud season-ticket holders being the only audience on slow nights. But if drama can find ways to grasp the attention of other fine-arts lovers, then certainly we would be reaching for an honorable goal.
I am SO happy you posted this article. This summer, I helped to paint the set of Sunday in the Park with George at a children's summerstock theatre in New York. After painting the set completely in pointillism, I had a new appreciation for Seurat and for the art of pointillism as a whole.
I love that Sunday in the Park is a theatrical piece of art which is based off of an artist, and the art in which he created. It is absolutely brilliant, as Kael said, for the Chicago Shakespeare Company to promote themselves in this fashion. If I were in Chicago, I know that I would not have missed this event, and I would certainly not miss the show as a result! It is great that the Art Institute collaborated with Chicago Shakes to bring this event to life. It is also really cool to see collaboration taking place amongst various art forms, not just within the theatre community.
Reading this article, I was reminded of one posted on the blog a couple weeks ago about the growing presence of dance performances in museums, which I thought was a very cool thing. Similarly, this combination of theater and the visual arts sounds absolutely awesome, and I think that people putting on events like this is very good news for the arts. Something this original and inventive is bound to provoke thought and interest in audiences, which is after all the goal of theater and and the arts as a whole.
It is very surprising yet amazing to hear that a famous artwork is turning into a musical. Since I was young, I really loved to see Geroges Seurat's "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte-1884". I loved its expression through dots and the impression coming out from the painting. So, when I saw that it is turning into a musical and will be playing in Chicago, my favorite place in US, i thought it was very unique and exceptional. I like how the company narrates Seurat's story of drawing masterpiece in a artful way. I wish I can have chance to see this show if it comes to LA or PT.
Okay so this is awesome!! So cool that they combined live performance with this famous piece of visual art--such a great way to see two different artforms combining to impress the community. Most everyone can recognize Seurat's work and this is such a cool way to breathe new life into his work. In an art history class I took, we had to make tableaus of a famous piece of art, where we turned ourselves into one of the characters from the painting. This singing tableau, however, is a whole different kind of entertainment, and adds a whole other dimension to the work. The characters are actually interacting, as they might have been on that day, which is so interesting to see. And of course the flashmob was a super creative way to promote the show!
Last year I vistied the Art Institute of Chicago, and I saw A Sunday on La Grande Jatte. It is one of my favorit paintings. I'm also a fan of Sondheim musicals. So as you can imagin this artical makes me very happy. I think that not only is this a great way for the Chicago Shakespeare Theater to make a splash. But more then that I feel as though this constitues art of its own. This is a remix of sorts and a well planed one at that. Oftten times we get stuck thinking that we are doing a classical peice of art or a modern peice of art, but this is a great example of art that can be both at once.
I wish I had been there to see this event my self.
This is absolutly amazing, its not only a beautiful original painting but the representation of it is alsp a wonderful idea
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