CITYSCAPE CHICAGO
Palette and Chisel Gallery 1012 N. Dearborn, Chicago September 2-26, 2022 ************************************ CELEBRATION I *** CITYSCAPE CHICAGO El Greco, View of Toledo, 1599-1600 (detail) Remember the “Chicago and Vicinity” shows the Art Institute used to put up every year? Just like their annual “American Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture” they were discontinued in the 1980’s. As art critic Robert Hughes then noted, that was the decade when the judgments of art critics and connoisseurs were replaced by the monetary value assigned by a booming art market. Money talked - bullshit walked. As quantifiable and objective as market value may be, however, it marginalizes many kinds of art which continue to be practiced, taught, and collected. Museums have ignored contemporary religious or sacred art for at least a hundred years. Since mid-century, they have also been ignoring just about every other kind of celebratory expression - unless it celebrates a pref