Art Institute of Chicago
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| Established | 1879; in present location since 1893 |
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| Location | 111 South Michigan Avenue Chicago, USA |
| Visitor figures | 1,441,000 (2006) |
| Director | Eloise W. Martin |
| Website | www.artic.edu/aic |
The Art Institute of Chicago is a fine art museum located in the Loop community area in Chicago, Illinois. The Museum is overseen by President James Cuno. The Museum is known especially for its extensive collection of Impressionist and American art. It is located on the western edge of Grant Park, at 111 South Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois in the Chicago Landmark Historic Michigan Boulevard District, in a building designed by the Boston firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge (1892).
The Art Institute of Chicago Building was originally constructed for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition as the World's Congress Auxiliary Building, with the intent that the Art Institute occupy the space after the fair closed.
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[edit] The Museum’s Collection
Today, the museum is most famous for its collections of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, and American paintings. Included in the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collection are more than 30 paintings by Claude Monet, including six of his Haystacks and a number of Water Lilies. Important works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, such as Lunch at the Restaurant Fournaise (The Rowers’ Lunch) and Two Sisters (On the Terrace), as well as Paul Cézanne’s The Bathers, Basket of Apples, and Madame Cézanne in a Yellow Chair, are in the collection. At The Moulin Rouge, by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec is another highlight, as is Georges Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte and Gustave Caillebotte’s Paris Street, Rainy Day. Non-French paintings completing the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collection include Vincent Van Gogh’s Bedroom in Arles and Self-portrait, 1887. Among the most important works of the American collection are Grant Wood’s American Gothic and Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks.
However, the museum has much more than paintings. Fine sculptures from all over the world can be seen. In the basement are the Thorne Rooms. There are exact miniatures demonstrating American and European architectural and furniture styles. Also in the basement are galleries displaying its world-class photography collection. On the main floor is the George F. Harding collection of arms and armor reflecting armaments and armor throughout the Medieval period and Renaissance. A fine collection of Pre-Columbian Meso-American ceramic figures is another outstanding display. A special feature of the museum is a “touchable” statue for the blind, and for children. It is an expressive facial portrait of young St. Joan d’Arc.
The Art Institute's famous western entrance on Michigan Avenue is guarded by two bronze lion statues created by Edward L. Kemeys. When a Chicago sports team makes the playoffs, the lions are frequently dressed in that team’s uniform. Just inside the eastern doors is a reconstruction of the trading room of the old Chicago Stock Exchange. Designed by Louis Sullivan in 1894, the Exchange was torn down in 1972. Salvaged portions of the original room were brought to the Art Institute and reconstructed. Leaving the Art Institute through the east doors at the end of the driveway is the Stock Exchange entrance.
[edit] Modern Art Wing
The Museum is in the midst of a major expansion to create a new wing to house its modern art collection. The structure, designed by Renzo Piano, will also include a bridge that will connect the top floor of the new wing with the popular Chicago Millenium Park to the north. The Art Institute hopes that the new addition will draw added attention to its 20th Century collections, which include such important paintings as Pablo Picasso’s The Old Guitarist, Henri Matisse’s Bathers by a River, and René Magritte’s Time Transfixed. The curators of the museum believe that its modern collection is the third best in the world, after that of the Museum of Modern Art and the Centre Georges Pompidou; the modern collection, they concede, has been overshadowed in the past by the Art Institute’s extraordinary 19th century collection. The addition will also include a courtyard designed by Gustafson Guthrie Nichol.
 St. Joan, a tactile statue for the blind and children  |
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[edit] The Terra Collection
Since April 2005, approximately fifty paintings originally from the Terra Museum’s (now the Terra Foundation) collection have been on loan to the Department of American Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC). The collections of the Terra and the Art Institute are located in a new suite of galleries, and together provide one of the nation’s most comprehensive presentations of American art. The foundation’s collection of American works on paper are housed in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the Art Institute.
[edit] Notable Alumni
Many prominent painters of the 20th Century studied during their formative years at the Institute, including Arthur Hill Gilbert, an American Impressionist.
[edit] Trivia
- The Art Institute may be unique among the world's great art museums for being the only museum to straddle open-air railroad tracks. The east and west buildings of the museum are separated by the tracks of the Metra South Shore Line. While a windowless gallery connects the two buildings, a glass atrium on the south side of the west building allows museumgoers to look down at the passing commuter trains.
- The famous Hindu monk Swami Vivekananda addressed the Parliament of the World’s Religions here in 1893. On September 11, 1995, the Art Institute put up a bronze plaque to commemorate Swami Vivekananda’s historic address. The plaque reads:
| “ | On this site between September 11 and 27, 1893, Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), the first Hindu monk from India to teach Vedanta in America, addressed the World’s Parliament of Religions, held in conjunction with the World’s Columbian Exposition. His unprecedented success opened the way for the dialogue between eastern and western religions. | ” |
On November 11, 1995, the stretch of Michigan Avenue that passes in front of the Art Institute was formally conferred the honorary name “Swami Vivekananda Way.”
[edit] External links
- The Art Institute of Chicago
- The Art Institute of Chicago : collections
- The Terra Foundation For American Art
- A Visitor's Experience: The Art Institute of Chicago (myArmoury.com article)
[edit] See also
School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Logan Medal of the arts
Looptopia
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