Arts & Entertainment
A New Matisse Exhibit and Two Acclaimed Films: 4 Arts Picks for Your Weekend
Eszter Tompa in “Kontinental ’25” (1-2 Special)
Every Thursday, WTTW News newsletter producer Josh Terry highlights his picks for the week’s must-see cultural events.
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It’s understandable if the up-and-down rainy weather this week has you feeling blue. While it’s been officially spring since March 20, it’s sometimes felt like we’ve had several “false springs” keeping us from fully putting away the winter coats. Record-setting warmth on Monday brought several showers and a cold front to the area. It’s not ideal, but as Chicagoans, we’ve seen worse and it hasn’t stopped us from getting out of the house. This week, make your own spring by checking this selection of local arts offerings.
Art: “Matisse’s Jazz: Rhythms in Color” – Art Institute of Chicago
Say you had plans to go to a baseball game, but it got rained out. The perfect alternative is a day trip to one of the city’s many indoor museums. Earlier in March, a new exhibit at the Art Institute opened, highlighting Henri Matisse’s late-career pivot to cut paper. In the 1940s, the iconic artist had “become bedridden and unable to paint following an excruciating abdominal surgery, and cut paper allowed him to continue to create in his relatively sedentary state.” The Art Institute has had these works since 1948, but “Matisse’s Jazz: Rhythms in Color” marks the first time this series will be presented in full. Tickets for the exhibit, which runs until June 1, can be found here.
Play: “The Official Biography” — The Den Theatre
Kurt McGinnis Brown’s play “The Official Biography” follows a young Black journalist who is set to interview an aging White novelist. While the writer has set out to write a scathing takedown, their conversation takes an unexpected turn and reveals deeper truths about the interviewer and subject. Tickets can be found here.
Comedy: Lil Rey Howery — The Comedy Bar
Comedian Lil Rey Howery, a Chicago native, has been the highlight of many film and television comedies, from “Bad Trip” and “The Carmichael Show” to the horror movie “Get Out.” This weekend, he makes a return trip to his hometown for a run of shows at The Comedy Bar on the Magnificent Mile. Shows run from Thursday through Sunday and you can buy tickets here.
Film: “Kontinental ‘25” and “Two Prosecutors” — Gene Siskel Film Center
Like its fellow arthouse theaters, the Gene Siskel Film Center is a perfect destination for acclaimed and off-the-beaten-path cinema from around the world. Try it out this weekend for two exclusive premieres of two different movies: Romanian auteur Radu Jude’s “Kontinental ‘25” and Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa’s “Two Prosecutors.” The former is an absurdist black comedy about a woman’s conscience after she tries to evict a squatter, while the latter highlights the suffocating bureaucracy of totalitarian Soviet rule in the 1930s. For tickets to “Kontinental ‘25”, click here. For “Two Prosecutors,” click here.
WTTW News arts coverage is supported by the JCS Arts, Health & Education Fund of the DuPage Foundation.
