Discover the fascinating history of Chicago through 24 dramatic, fact-filled, humorous true stories about the events and colorful characters that make up Chicago’s history. From Potawatomi Indians, to the reviled Al Capone to the esteemed Oprah Winfrey and President Barack Obama, author and tour guide Adam Selzer outlines the history of the city, from the Great Fire of 1871, famous ... Read More »
John Baxter’s new book, The Golden Moments of Paris, got exciting reviews.Here’s the review by June Sawyers of the Chicago Trubune. Paris, especially the Paris between the two world wars, continues to resonate with many people around the globe. The city has had many golden ages but probably none as famous as the 1920s: the Paris of the Lost ... Read More »
A controversial genius and one of the most famous American artists in the past century, Andy Warhol’s name is synonymous with modern art and ingenuity. Born in 1928 in Pittsburgh to Slovakian immigrants, Andy Warhol would rise to become the leading figure in the artistic movement Pop Art. His artistic career began while a student of commercial art at the ... Read More »
Frustrated with the art they called “imitation, mathematical, and illusionistic art,” a group of international artists in the early 1960s screamed for a transformation of the world through “living art, anti art, and non-art reality.” These artists, with their full-stage performances, experimental poetry and mail art, took the name Fluxus. The group included such artists as Fluxus founder George Maciunas, ... Read More »
A private club opened in 1898, the National Arts Club was founded by Charles De Kay, a literary and art critic, with the intent “to stimulate, foster and promote public interest in the arts and educate the American people in the fine arts,” a mission which the club still endorses. Looking for a permanent residence for creative individuals to gather, ... Read More »
In 1858, when Emperor Napoleon III decided to visit the old opera house of Paris, an assassination plot was uncovered as bombs exploded near the opera house. The devastation of the attempt left the old opera house in desperate need of repair. Yet from the ashes of this tragedy emerged a breathtaking architectural sculpture designed by Charles Garnier. Read More »
Located across from the Opéra de Paris and designed by Charles Garnier, the same architect who built the future setting for the legendary novel and musical, The Phantom of the Opera, the Café de la Paix still stands proudly in the heart of Paris. Opened in 1862, preceding the grand opening of the stunning Opéra Garnier in 1875, the café ... Read More »
Already an established painter, Claude Monet was persuaded by a French statesman in 1914 to dabble in the artistic depiction of water lilies. Convinced to attempt his masterful hand at this next series of landscape paintings, Monet produced his marvelous Water Lilies arranged in a large-scale cycle. His condition for donating these works to the state was that they be ... Read More »
MUSEYON BOOKS Smart City Guides for Travel, History, Art and Film Lovers