Gene Suuppi walked into the Art Institute about 7:35 PM a week ago last Tuesday. First he visited arms and armor from the George F. Harding Collection.
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At 7:46 PM, with 14 minutes to go, he was the very last of nearly 450,000 people from all over the world to view “Monet in the 90s: The Series Paintings,” the second best attended show in the lifetime of the Art Institute. (More people attended the Vatican collections exhibit in 1983.)
No one asked Suuppi for a ticket to the show, sold out weeks in advance, and he didn’t know he needed one. He just walked in, and no one asked any questions.
He was surprised to learn that Monet, too, was interested in the environment. “I saw some of the rivers in the paintings and I thought of some industrial rivers I know from home,” said Suuppi. “But I guess he was painting before the Industrial Revolution.”
