Struggle and the arts have long been too close for comfort. Peer all the way to the distant past, and stories of artists searching for the right mix of time and place to have their art valued and appreciated run like wildfire throughout history.
One of those artists is having his show simmering on hold at the Art Institute while we cool our heels at home. You wouldn’t think one the foremost names in western art was considered something of an also ran at his death 500 years ago. But the name El Greco, although respected in his adopted home city of Toledo, Spain at his death, didn’t hold the global renown and lustre it does today.
Like so many artists passionate in their beliefs of what constitutes the artistic ideal, El Greco’s convictions only grew stronger as his skills developed and the more he studied artists he admired. Although he could do so exquisitely, for him it wasn’t enough to paint things realistically. An acclaimed portraitist, his paintings of people not only captured perfectly what they looked like, they also gave the viewer an accurate sense of the sitter’s character. El Greco wanted to go beyond such natural realism and achieve perfection by amplifying reality through heightening the elegance and refinement of his work.
First, he went to Italy to find fame and fortune with no real success. Then he traveled to Spain. Although his genius began to flower in Madrid and he created one of his most renowned masterpieces, he found himself shut out of the system of patronage because of a dispute over the cost of a painting. It was when he finally emigrated to Toledo that his career took root and he began to flourish.
The show at the Art Institute, El Greco: Ambition and Defiance, features 57 of his creations, including his acclaimed landscape, View of Toledo. To be truthful, you only get a vague appreciation of the resplendence and grandeur of El Greco’s artistic legacy from the museum’s two-minute teaser of a tour online https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dzcx-ST2ZFU. Although originally scheduled to leave in June, the exhibit has been extended into the Fall. Hopefully that’ll be enough time for the world to right itself and give Chicago a chance to view the splendor and spirit of El Greco’s art first hand.
El Greco: Ambition and Defiance
The Art Institute of Chicago
111 S. Michigan Ave.
