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The Art Institute of Chicago Interested in becoming a member? (312) 499-4111 The Art Institute of Chicago shares its singular collections with our city and the world.

We collect, care for, and interpret works of art across time, cultures, geographies, and identities, centering the vision of artists and makers.

A witch riding a goat and brandishing a broomstick charges out from the left edge of this scene to chase away dozens of ...
10/13/2026

A witch riding a goat and brandishing a broomstick charges out from the left edge of this scene to chase away dozens of devils.

Such ghoulish subjects had long been appreciated in Northern Europe for the way they combined a sense of wild, supernatural threat with scientific observation of the natural world—seen here in the detailed moth wings of the howling figure on the right and the deft rendering of the frog’s splayed body.

See "A Witches’ Sabbath," on view in Gallery 213. https://bit.ly/48HJqiz

Image:

Cornelis Saftleven. "A Witches’ Sabbath," 1640–1660. George F. Porter Collection.

An enrolled citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma, Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds unites his commitm...
10/12/2026

An enrolled citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma, Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds unites his commitment to Indigenous histories and land rights with legacies of Conceptual Art, landscape painting, and art in public space.

He started his pastel drawings of words and short sentences in the mid-1980s, describing them as “wall lyrics,” iterative and rhythmic expressions of personal experiences. Evoking a trip the artist made from Oklahoma to the San Francisco Bay Area, his work "Boost West" speaks to both the spiritual transformation that can occur during travel and the importance of voyages in Cheyenne culture. As such, "Boost West" is as much an abstraction of the artist’s experiences as a physical manifestation of memory.

See "Boost West" on view in Gallery 297. https://bit.ly/3Trm8Iz



Image:

Edgar Heap of Birds. "Boost West," 1990. Ada Turnbull Hertle and Samuel W. and Blanche M. Koffler endowment funds. © 1990 Edgar Heap of Birds

From Poughkeepsie to Paris—and around the world from there—Lee Miller charted a singular career capturing images that we...
10/10/2026

From Poughkeepsie to Paris—and around the world from there—Lee Miller charted a singular career capturing images that were in turns beautiful, uncanny, and deeply disturbing.

In the museum's latest article, "Lee Miller, In Front of and Behind the Camera," we dive into the artist and her intrepid spirit as she took on, and excelled at, fashion modeling, street and studio photography, Surrealist compositions, and wartime journalism.

The article accompanies "Lee Miller: Fearless," the first extensive survey of her photography in the United States in nearly 20 years, on view now through December 7.

Learn more: https://bit.ly/4gTJhuI

Image:

George Hoyningen-Huene. "Lee Miller in Leisure Wear," 1930. © George Hoyningen-Huene Estate Archives.

This watercolor painting by Winslow Homer depicts a boy among a field of pumpkins.Although the sky in "For to Be a Farme...
10/09/2026

This watercolor painting by Winslow Homer depicts a boy among a field of pumpkins.

Although the sky in "For to Be a Farmer’s Boy" has faded, X-ray evidence suggests that the artist originally painted the sky with dilute washes of chrome yellow, pink madder, and vermilion to create a glowing orange sunset. Therefore, the watercolor originally showed a young boy pausing in his work of harvesting pumpkins to gaze toward the setting sun.

Image:

Winslow Homer. "For to Be a Farmer’s Boy," 1887. Gift of Mrs. George T. Langhorne in memory of Edward Carson Waller.

10/08/2026

A man of many talents, Marcel Duchamp was not only a radically inventive artist but also a chess master. Meticulously designed by Duchamp, this “Pocket Chess Set” was meant to be made as a multiple, but due to the time required to make each set, only about 25 were ever made.

Learn more about Duchamp's artistic practice and love of chess with Troy Klyber, Senior Associate General Counsel.

Work shown:

Marcel Duchamp. "Pocket Chess Set," 1944. Through prior gift of Mrs. Gilbert W. Chapman. © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris / Succession Marcel Duchamp.

"I think every picture should tell a story." —Archibald Motley. A palpable energy and sense of movement enliven "Nightl...
10/07/2026

"I think every picture should tell a story." —Archibald Motley.

A palpable energy and sense of movement enliven "Nightlife," Motley’s portrayal of a crowded cabaret in the South Side Chicago neighborhood of Bronzeville.

With stylized figures, an array of diagonal lines, and heightened colors keyed to shades of violet, the artist captured the excited feeling of a night out on the town. Motley created a network of gestures and glances among the people, drawing attention to the various social interactions that animate the scene.

The composition is an exploration of artificial lighting. Motley was inspired, in part, to paint "Nightlife" after having seen Edward Hopper’s "Nighthawks" which had entered the Art Institute’s collection the prior year.

See "Nightlife" (1943) by Archibald Motley on view in Gallery 263.
https://bit.ly/475jETq

Image:
Archibald John Motley, Jr. "Nightlife, 1943. "Restricted gift of Mr. and Mrs. Marshall Field, Jack and Sandra Guthman, Ben W. Heineman, Ruth Horwich, Lewis and Susan Manilow, Beatrice C. Mayer, Charles A. Meyer, John D. Nichols, and Mr. and Mrs. E.B. Smith, Jr.; James W. Alsdorf Memorial Fund; Goodman Endowment. © Valerie Gerrard Browne / Chicago History Museum / Bridgeman Images.

10/06/2026

We're proud to have called Chicago home for the last 147 years, and we hear you love it too! 🦁

Chicago has been voted the Best Big City in the U.S. by Condé Nast Traveler readers for an astounding TEN years in a row!

Celebrate with us by taking our self-guided tour of works linked to the Windy City, or made by artists who call Chicago home. https://bit.ly/4AZ4Tzd

Take a closer look at the earliest European still-life painting in our collection.Still life emerged as an independent g...
10/05/2026

Take a closer look at the earliest European still-life painting in our collection.

Still life emerged as an independent genre in European art in the sixteenth century, when artists began to specialize in such categories as landscape, portraiture, and scenes of everyday life. Some, like Juan Sánchez Cotán, became interested in displaying their skill at depicting inanimate objects, in part as an expression of the order and variety of the natural world.

Sánchez Cotán organized "Still Life with Game Fowl" so that the symmetry of the composition echoes the geometry of the spherical quince, cabbage, and melon and the conical birds. This arrangement is further enlivened by the way the objects form a diagonal from the top-left to bottom-right corners of the niche. In these ways, the artist infused simple objects in a minimal setting with great presence.

See "Still Life with Game Fowl," on view in Gallery 211.

Image:

Juan Sánchez Cotán, "Still Life with Game Fowl," 1600–1603. Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Leigh B. Block.
https://bit.ly/4ATmubO

Mary Cassatt drew influence from Degas, the Spanish Old Masters, Camille Pissarro, friends, more. Explore works by Renai...
10/03/2026

Mary Cassatt drew influence from Degas, the Spanish Old Masters, Camille Pissarro, friends, more.

Explore works by Renaissance and Baroque artists who inspired Cassatt, as well as those by her French contemporaries and friends, on our self-guided tour, "Cassatt's Creative Circle."

And don't miss the exhibition "Mary Cassatt: After Impressionism" now on view. https://bit.ly/46Rku63

Images:

Mary Cassatt. "Susan in a Straw Bonnet," (detail) 1878–1888. Gift of Kate L. Brewster.

Berthe Morisot. "Woman in a Garden,"( detail) 1882–1883. A Millennium Gift of Sara Lee Corporation.

The Chicago Tribune reported that the Art Institute "is having a heck of a time handling the crowds flocking to see his ...
10/02/2026

The Chicago Tribune reported that the Art Institute "is having a heck of a time handling the crowds flocking to see his painting" when Chicago artist Ivan Albright's "Picture of Dorian Gray" made its debut at the museum in 1945.

Albright executed this grisly and intricately detailed work for the Hollywood adaptation of the 1891 novel. In Oscar Wilde’s famous story, a portrait of the young and attractive Dorian Gray decays as the protagonist leads an increasingly wayward life, recording the extent of his moral corruption in paint.

Having established a reputation for capturing the macabre, Albright was the ideal choice to create such a horrific image that both attracts and repulses its viewers. The portrait appeared in vivid Technicolor, within the otherwise black-and-white film, causing a sensation for movie audiences across the country.

See "Picture of Dorian Gray," on view in Gallery 263. https://bit.ly/4y0zSIi

Images:

Visitors repulsed by "Picture of Dorian Gray," installed at the Fifty-Sixth Annual American Exhibition, Art Institute of Chicago, 1945. Photograph by Al Risser, courtesy the Chicago Sun-Times.

Ivan Albright. "Picture of Dorian Gray," 1943–44. Gift of Ivan Albright. © The Art Institute of Chicago.

Ivan Albright posing alongside "Picture of Dorian Gray," about 1944.

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