{"id":56145,"date":"2025-08-03T20:45:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-03T20:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/56145\/"},"modified":"2025-08-03T20:45:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-03T20:45:08","slug":"at-the-art-institute-paradise-lost-is-a-sprawling-artwork-defying-description-you-just-have-to-see-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/56145\/","title":{"rendered":"At the Art Institute, ‘Paradise Lost’ is a sprawling artwork defying description. You just have to see it."},"content":{"rendered":"

For a smart guy, I can be pretty thick.<\/p>\n

Let me explain.<\/p>\n

For decades, I\u2019ve been admiring Gustave Caillebotte\u2019s \u201cParis Street; Rainy Day\u201d<\/a> at the Art Institute. It\u2019s hard not to.<\/p>\n

A huge painting of pedestrians hurrying along Haussmann Boulevard, it\u2019s got the realism I like, softened by the stirrings of Impressionism, circa 1877. You can stand far away and absorb the whole scene, or swoop in to notice the woman\u2019s delicate black veil.<\/p>\n

Yet never, in all the years I gazed at it, did I ever pause to think, \u201cHeyyyy … this guy\u2019s pretty good. I wonder what ELSE he\u2019s painted?\u201d Not once.<\/p>\n

That lapse was made painfully clear seeing the Caillebotte show \u2014 a sprawling, comprehensive exhibit, shifting Caillebotte from one-trick-pony to significant, complete artist, introducing a world that you \u2014 OK, me \u2014 never imaged.<\/p>\n

I won\u2019t review the whole show \u2014 my colleague Kyle MacMillan did that marvelously<\/a>. Just go.<\/p>\n

Be sure to study the placards. Otherwise, you\u2019ll miss what\u2019s going on. Look at the picture above, \u201cInterior, Woman Reading.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s striking is the woman is the dominant figure, in the foreground, studying a newspaper, then a typically masculine activity. While the man is sprawled on the sofa, holding a novel, considered at the time a feminine vice. Caillebotte is playing with us, toying with our expectations.<\/p>\n

The more things change …<\/p>\n

The Caillebotte exhibit, \u201cPainting His World,\u201d <\/a>is reason aplenty to visit the Art Institute. But there\u2019s an additional surprise that hasn\u2019t gotten the publicity it deserves.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m tempted to leave it at that. Stop reading now, go as a blank slate and then return after you\u2019ve encountered it …<\/p>\n

You\u2019re back? Already?<\/p>\n

On your way to the Caillebotte show, you usually pass through the Asian gallery. And there, along 100 feet of the south wall, is Raqib Shaw\u2019s \u201cParadise Lost.\u201d<\/a> You stopped in your tracks and gaped. Don\u2019t feel bad. Everybody does.<\/p>\n

How to describe it for those who cheated and kept reading? The life\u2019s journey of the Calcutta-born, Kashmir-raised, London-based artist. Conveyed in a wild allegorical explosion that defies description. The museum tries: \u201cAn epic and tumultuous journey that represents the very nature and breadth of human existence …\u201d<\/p>\n

Raging seas, collapsing palaces, a horse wrestling a zebra, leopards, bears, placid baboons in a cherry tree \u2014 well, placid except the one strangling a fawn. Bejeweled, painted in automobile enamel using syringes and porcupine quills.<\/p>\n

Dozens of visitors crowd around, stepping back, drawing in close. I\u2019m deliberately not publishing photos.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to see it,\u201d said Madhuvanti Ghose, associate curator of arts of Asia at the Art Institute. \u201cBecause no amount of photography actually captures the kind of details that your eye picks up.\u201d<\/p>\n

I wondered how the Art Institute found Shaw, which is like asking how Chicago dug up that Picasso fellow when commissioning a sculpture for Daley Plaza.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has such renown,\u201d began Ghose. \u201cWhen he first made it in the West, he was a shooting star. Everyone heard about him. It\u2019s rare for a young artist from India to make it with his first show and be so provocative. He has a lot of American patrons who absolutely adore his work. He was definitely on our director\u2019s radar, my radar. Anyone who was into art knew about Raqib Shaw. We have trustees who are big fans of his.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shaw has been painting \u201cParadise Lost\u201d since 2009 and plans to continue for the rest of his life \u2014 another 30 feet or so.<\/p>\n

I said the painting struck me as both contemporary yet classically Hindu \u2014 the crowned beast king howling at the moon is wearing Doc Martens \u2014 and for a second I thought I\u2019d slid into the ditch, sensitivity-wise.<\/p>\n

\u201cActually, you are one of the few people who is even able to visually see any Indian influences,\u201d she said. \u201cMost people see the Western references, because so much of Raqib\u2019s work has been a nod to the European masters. He really has taken not just painting but medieval renaissance painting as his source of inspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n

I was about to apologize when she continued.<\/p>\n

\u201d… but you are totally right in that his technique, his visual vocabulary, that was shaped by his experiences growing up in Indian and Kashmir. The ambiance of Kashmir … You see it in the detailing. You see it in the adornment. Also a tension in the work. The different chapters in the work are like a symphony.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or an epic poem. I\u2019ve seen it once, plan to go back, and already hate the fact Chicago has to let this masterpiece go in January. The Art Institute should just keep it, send Shaw a blank check and tell him: Sorry, but it\u2019s ours now. Please forward new sections as they\u2019re finished.<\/p>\n

Alas, the art world doesn\u2019t work that way.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0693.jpeg\"<\/p>\n

Visitors to the Art Institute examine Raqib Shaw\u2019s 100-foot long \u201cParadise Lost,\u201d an epic allegory the Calcutta-born artist has been working on for 16 years and plans to continue for the rest of his life. It is on display until Jan. 5.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For a smart guy, I can be pretty thick. Let me explain. For decades, I\u2019ve been admiring Gustave…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":["post-56145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}