This painting, “The Rock,” is by Peter Blume. It’s on display at the Art Institute of Chicago, where I saw it for free a couple weeks ago, thanks to my friend’s membership (thanks, Jessica!). It’s in the contemporary American painting section. The Art Institute says of the work, “Although Blume’s imagery resists easy interpretation, the work suggests a parable of destruction and reconstruction.” I don’t much like having art explained to me, but that one sentence leaves plenty of room for thought. This painting left me totally awestruck–for all its surrealism, it felt absolutely realistic to me. So the homework question for you is: Where is your church in this painting?
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gathering the stones 
The Rock was one of my favorite paintings growing up! I remember drawing the guy in the foreground with the chisel in my sketchbook one time I was in the Institute… back in the 80s. I almost never read the explanations next to the paintings, and charge my students to not read them as well… at least not before spending some quality time just looking at and thinking about what they see and discover.
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