Chicago History & Culture

Frank Lloyd Wright Film by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick - Art History Livestream
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Frank Lloyd Wright - American Homes - Art History Livestream
Hosted by Robert Kelleman

We invite you to a special two-part art history program on the life and career of famed American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

Part 1, on Friday, October 2, will be a screening of the PBS film “Frank Lloyd Wright” by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick.

Part 2, on Saturday, October 3, will be an art history lecture on some of Frank Lloyd Wright’s most noteworthy American home designs including Falling Water (Pennsylvania), Robie House (Chicago), Pope-Leighey House (Virginia), Taliesin (Wisconsin), Taliesin West (Scottsdale).

During and after both programs you’ll have the opportunity to discuss the topics with your fellow art lovers via Zoom.

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Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements of the twentieth century, influencing architects worldwide through his works and mentoring hundreds of apprentices. Wright believed in designing in harmony with humanity and the environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture. This philosophy was exemplified in Fallingwater (1935), which has been called "the best all-time work of American architecture".
Wright was a pioneer of what came to be called the Prairie School movement of architecture and also developed the concept of the Usonian home, his vision for urban planning in the United States. Wright also designed original and innovative offices, churches, schools, skyscrapers, hotels, museums, and other commercial projects. Wright-designed interior elements (including leaded glass windows, floors, furniture and even tableware) were integrated into these structures. He wrote several books and numerous articles and was a popular lecturer in the United States and in Europe. Wright was recognized in 1991 by the American Institute of Architects as "the greatest American architect of all time". In 2019, a selection of his work became a listed World Heritage Site under the name The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright.
Raised in rural Wisconsin, Wright studied civil engineering at the University of Wisconsin and later apprenticed in Chicago, first briefly with Joseph Lyman Silsbee, and then with Louis Sullivan at Adler & Sullivan. Wright opened his own successful Chicago practice in 1893 and established a studio in his Oak Park, Illinois home in 1898.

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YouTube Recordings of Our Previous American Artist Programs …

Impressionism at the Detroit Institute of Arts - Thursday Night Art History Series - Hosted by Robert Kelleman

You’re invited to join us for a livestream art history tour of the Detroit Institute of Arts (the DIA), one of the top art museums in the United States. This particular program will focus on French Impressionism, with the DIA having one of the world's best collections with works by Monet, Van Gogh, Degas, Renoir, Cassatt, Rodin, and more. Your host, Robert, spent the first two years of his career working at the Detroit Institute of Arts and is extremely familiar with the museum and its collection.

The 1871 Great Chicago Fire - History Livestream - Hosted by Robert Kelleman

You’re invite to join us for an online/virtual lecture and film screening of The Great Chicago Fire of 1871.
This will be a two-part program.
Part one will be a history lecture and part two will be a film screening of The Great Chicago Fire: A Chicago Stories Special from PBS affiliate WTTW.

During and after the program you’re welcome to join in an online discussion with your fellow history lovers via Zoom.

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The Great Chicago Fire: A Chicago Stories Special
On October 10, 1871, Chicago awoke to an unrecognizable landscape: where 48 hours earlier there had been a vibrant city, now there was nothing but rubble stretched for miles on end. The Great Chicago Fire: A Chicago Stories Special brings to life this seismic event as never before, using vivid animations, elaborate re-creations, and interviews with historians and the descendants of eyewitnesses.

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The Great Chicago Fire burned in Chicago, Illinois, United States, during October 8–10, 1871. The fire killed approximately 300 people, destroyed 17,000 structures across roughly 3.3 square miles (9 km2), and left more than 100,000 residents homeless. The fire began in a neighborhood southwest of the city center. A long period of hot, dry, windy conditions, and the wooden construction prevalent in the city, led to the conflagration spreading quickly. The fire leapt the south branch of the Chicago River and destroyed much of central Chicago and then crossed the main stem of the river, consuming the Near North Side.
Help flowed to the city after the fire. The city government improved building codes to stop the rapid spread of future fires and rebuilt rapidly to those higher standards. A donation from the United Kingdom spurred the establishment of the Chicago Public Library.

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Pollock Screening: Ed Harris As Jackson Pollock - Art History Livestream - Hosted by Robert Kelleman

Let's honor and remember one of America's greatest modern artists, Jackson Pollock, on the 70th anniversary of his death (August 11, 1956).
We'll be screening the 2000 film "Pollock", which features an all-star cast including Ed Harris in the title role.

The first portion of our program, approximately 15-20 minutes, will be a brief overview of the film, including its historical context, plot summary, things to look for, accuracy, etc.
The second portion of our program will be a full screening of the film.

During and after the screening we invite you to participate in a discussion of the film with your fellow art lovers via Zoom.

Paul Jackson Pollock (January 28, 1912 – August 11, 1956) was an American painter. A major figure in the abstract expressionist movement, he was widely noticed for his "drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a horizontal surface, enabling him to view and paint his canvases from all angles. It was called all-over painting and action painting, because Pollock covered the entire canvas and used the force of his whole body to paint, often in a frenetic dancing style. This extreme form of abstraction divided critics: some praised the immediacy of the creation, while others derided the random effects.
A reclusive and volatile personality, Pollock struggled with alcoholism for most of his life. In 1945, he married artist Lee Krasner, who became an important influence on his career and on his legacy. Pollock died in August 1956 at age 44 in an alcohol-related single-car collision when he was driving. Four months after his death, Pollock was given a memorial retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City. A larger, more comprehensive exhibition of his work was held there in 1967. In 1998 and 1999, Pollock's work was honored with large-scale retrospective exhibitions at MoMA and the Tate Gallery in London.

Pollock is a 2000 American independent biographical drama film centered on the life of American painter Jackson Pollock, his struggles with alcoholism, as well as his troubled marriage to his wife Lee Krasner. The film stars Ed Harris, Marcia Gay Harden, Jennifer Connelly, Val Kilmer, Robert Knott, Bud Cort, Molly Regan, and Sada Thompson, and was directed by Harris.
Marcia Gay Harden won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for portraying Lee Krasner. Ed Harris received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his portrayal of Pollock. The film was a long-term personal project for Harris based on his reading of the 1989 biography Jackson Pollock: An American Saga, written by Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith.