Louis Is ‘Da Man

My work day started this morning at a client site near the Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA). After that, I needed to head home to work in the afternoon, except that I decided to fit in a quick visit to the MIA. When I am on vacation, I spend a significant amount of time looking at art and going to museums, but I don’t do either of these things very often when I am home.

In a friend’s blog post about her most recent art-making experience, she mentioned a number of sources of inspiration, some of which came from items at the MIA or from former exhibits at the MIA. It got me thinking that I need to do a better job enjoying the art and museums in my hometown. Plus, I really should be more familiar with the works in the MIA. When I go to Chicago, I have friends that I have to visit at the Art Institute, so I really should also have friends at the MIA.

I spent time in 2 galleries and randomly wandered on my way out. While I spent most of my time with drawings and paintings in the two galleries, the best part of the visit was the architecture. There is an area where there are pieces from the Prairie / Mission / Arts and Crafts era. When I wandered into it, I was completely surprised to see my favorite architecture element. I am lucky that I have friends who don’t back away slowly when I mention that I have a favorite architectural element. In fact, one of my friends has a favorite clock. It’s at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. It’s one of the Harrison clocks. I believe it’s H2. It’s good to have friends like this.

Anyway, I had completely forgotten that the MIA has an elevator grille from the Chicago Stock Exchange building which was torn down many years ago. This was, or course, designed by Louis Sullivan. This brings my current count up to seeing 4 of these grilles. There’s one at the Art Institute in Chicago, which I go to visit whenever I can. I saw a second one at a special exhibit in Chicago years ago and you could even touch that one! There's one at the Victoria and Albert Museum. It really surprised me when I came across it the first time. Now I know there’s one at the MIA I can visit whenever I want.

Here it is, in all of it’s glory.

I know I sound a little wackier than usual in this post, but I adore building ornamentation designed by Louis Sullivan. In fact, I have more or less decided (subject to the veto power of my partner) that I would like to name the next household pet, Sullivan.  If we get a pair, my thoughts are either Adler and Sullivan named for the architectural firm or Hubbard and Sullivan.  Hubbard would be after Elbert Hubbard.