{"id":1448,"date":"2015-04-09T10:24:31","date_gmt":"2015-04-09T16:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cuchicago.edu\/spectator\/?p=1448"},"modified":"2015-04-09T10:24:31","modified_gmt":"2015-04-09T16:24:31","slug":"ireland-at-the-art-institute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/?p=1448","title":{"rendered":"Ireland at the Art Institute"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Erin Murphy<\/p>\n

From March 17th to June 7th, the Art Institute of Chicago<\/a> has a new exhibition. The Ireland exhibit<\/a>, now on display, features over 300 objects accumulated\u00a0from museums all over North America. Ever since the agricultural depression in the British Isles in the 1880s, many extraordinary objects from Ireland have come to the United States and Canada.<\/p>\n

The exhibition\u00a0is sponsored by the Kerry Corporation, which is based in Ireland. Packed full of Irish furniture and glassware, the exhibit also has on display\u00a0societal paintings. Irish book bindings, ceramics, glass, furniture, metalwork, musical instruments and textiles are also featured in a series of \u201cMade in Ireland\u201d galleries highlighting Dublin, Cork, Belfast and Waterford.<\/p>\n

Like most exhibits at the Art Institute, the Ireland exhibit winds through Regenstein Hall<\/a>. With a series of rooms and hallways, the exhibit goes through time and different counties in Ireland. The exhibit takes visitors through\u00a0chronologically, starting at\u2026THE GIFT SHOP<\/a>, where magnets and puzzles of the art work are available for purchase.<\/p>\n

The biography\u00a0of each artwork and the history behind the artist and the artwork are on display as well for anyone interested in learning more about the pieces. Explanations as to what each artwork’s history is allows\u00a0viewers to understand the history and societal norms in each piece of art.<\/p>\n

One artwork that seems to outshine the others is Demesne<\/a>, which is the landscape surrounding an Irish country house. This term emphasizes an aristocratic connotation, so it highlights the landowner\u2019s authority over his staff.<\/p>\n

Another highlight is the dress room, which shows the common dress among nobility at the time. It showcases both nobility dress and patterns sewn by lower class citizens, all of which were hand sewn.<\/p>\n

The Kelly\u2019s, who have traveled throughout the UK, mainly Scotland and Ireland, observed\u00a0the similarities between the Irish artworks on display and Scottish artworks that they have seen elsewhere. They took particular\u00a0notice of the similarities in design of all the artworks.\u00a0Mrs. Kelly took a specific notice to a tea cup and commented on all\u00a0the uses of the collection.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were very specific with how they served different liquids, like wine and coffee or tea. And how they were kept\u2026like this wine server\u201d.<\/p>\n

History was the main theme amongst the exhibit, with emphasis on society in Ireland at the time.<\/p>\n

Besides the artwork, furniture and silvers, there were also musical instruments on display in the exhibit. The harp, or lyre, is a symbol amongst Irish culture. These were common back then as well as today.<\/p>\n

The exhibit came to a close\u00a0with a display of a series of silhouettes that appeared to be people of different classes and sex. This ended the exhibit on a strong note, showing\u00a0the intricacy of class during this period in history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Erin Murphy From March 17th to June 7th, the Art Institute of Chicago has a new exhibition. The Ireland exhibit, now on display, features over 300 objects accumulated\u00a0from museums all over North America. Ever since the agricultural depression in the British Isles in the 1880s, many extraordinary objects from Ireland have come to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":1459,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spectator.cuchicago.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}