The Art Institue of Chicago is currently holding a Seurat exhibition on The Making of La Grande Jatte. The husband sent me this link yesterday, noting that CBS' Sunday Morning program did a wonderful piece on it.
If you've never been to the Art Institute to see this painting in person, know that it's a huge
canvas. On the metric scale, it's 207.5 cm x 308 cm. In English
measurements that's 6'8" x 10'1", which makes the level of detail
involved all the more impressive. Pointillism is not the easiest of
painting styles---and it surely wouldn't have been easy for that
massive of a canvas. I've always thought that the size of the canvas
was one of the reasons why this painting was so admired and lauded: no
one other that Seurat would have had the guts to attempt such a thing.
But it's also beautiful and was groundbreaking in its day. It pushed
Impressionism further and Seurat is often credited as the first
Postimpressionist.
So, muy mucho culture and art history references aside, we come to the
pop culture aspects. (You knew it was coming, right? If you didn't,
know that I'm most disappointed with you. Sigh.) Most people my age
recognize this painting as the one that Cameron got lost in while Ferris and Sloane played tonsil hockey. If you'd like to have your own Cameron moment, go here, scroll down to the Enlargement of La Grande Jatte
function and futz around. You'll have fun. And if you can't make it to
Chicago, it's almost as good as pushing your face into the canvas.