The Art Institute of Chicago

04/23/2024

"The River," painted during World War II, attests to a country at war: the men have been transported abroad, and women now exclusively inhabit the city.

The Egyptian-born American artist Louis Guglielmi depicted figures overlooking an expanse of shimmering water that contrasts with the industrial landscape. Factories, smokestacks, and storage tanks line the horizon, while concrete walls and sidewalks dominate the foreground.

The seven women and a child wear plain clothing typical of the working class on a day of leisure. Guglielmi focused on the struggles of everyday people, frequently championing the laboring classes in his art.

See this painting on view in Gallery 262.

04/22/2024

Happy ! 🌍

Artist Franz Marc asked, "Is there a more mysterious idea than to imagine how nature is reflected in the eyes of animals?"

Among the German Expressionists—artists who used strong color and exaggerated form to express emotional content—Marc was unique in his empathic interest in the life of animals.

The title of this painting—"The Bewitched Mill"—refers to the "magical" harmony Marc sensed between humans and all life on the planet. Learn more in an article exploring Franz Marc's life and work: https://bit.ly/3Ldky5S

04/20/2024

Contemporary textile artists from across the globe have advanced the ancient and seemingly magical practice of turning thread into cloth.

Join us for a closer look at some of the world’s most beautiful and innovative examples of weaving—now on view in the exhibition "Threaded Visions."

The Art Institute is home to textiles made in a variety of techniques and materials from all over the globe, including knotted carpets, openwork lace structures, and printed fabrics in almost any design imaginable.

04/19/2024

NOW OPEN—"Christina Ramberg: A Retrospective"

Explore the boundary-blurring work of Chicago artist Christina Ramberg in this exhibition of about 100 objects from across her continually evolving career.

LEARN MORE—https://bit.ly/3Tvr4rS

04/18/2024

NOW OPEN—"A Sign of Things to Come: Prints by Japanese Women Artists after 1950"

Before 1950, women rarely played a part in the production of Japanese prints, which were largely commercial products.

After World War II, women artists approached printmaking as a form of artistic expression, part of the new sōsaku hanga (creative print) movement.

LEARN MORE—https://bit.ly/4alyNiS

04/17/2024

In 1929, 19-year-old Ida Rogers answered an advertisement for a model, placed by Chicago artist Ivan Albright. The resulting portrait—"Into the World There Came a Soul Called Ida"—serves as a powerful, if macabre, reminder of the fleeting nature of time.

To depict obsessively precise details, Albright would use a tiny paintbrush with only three hairs. His painstaking creative process required Ida to sit for three hours a day over the course of two years, slowly metamorphosing her on canvas into an aging woman. Like many of the artist's works, the painting underscores Albright's lifelong fascination with the precariousness of life and death and the inevitability of decay.

See "Into the World There Came a Soul Called Ida" by Ivan Alright on view in Gallery 262.

04/16/2024

This drum celebrates the prominence of women as family founders, spiritual mediators, and guardians. Representing a woman of rank balancing a load on her head, this object ultimately signifies that women are literally seen as the carriers of Senufo society.

Explore the significance of this remarkable drum from Côte d’Ivoire in the latest episode of Art Institute Essentials.

04/15/2024

These lush and luminous paintings capture the rise of the Romantic landscape. With golden shafts of light and peaceful figures in rustic environments, these works represented an idealized view of life in the countryside and among the ruins of ancient times.

During the 1830s, the landscape painting became the most modern mode of artistic expression in Europe. The act of traveling, especially to Italy, deeply transformed the genre, as connoisseurs and artists were passionately interested in studying the monuments of antiquity.

See these paintings on view in Gallery 221.

04/13/2024

A great many birds have feathered a nest in artwork through the ages. Five staff members share their favorite sightings from the Art Institute's collection.

Birds are mysterious creatures, made all the more so by their constant presence.

04/12/2024

The visionary artists featured in "Radical Clay: Contemporary Women Artists from Japan" seek to redefine what is possible in the art of ceramics.

See their mesmerizing and wildly experimental work on view at the Art Institute: https://bit.ly/3sZ1n9H

04/11/2024

New works on view join old favorites in Gallery 161, offering fresh perspectives and layered stories of the Americas in the making.

Just as artistic traditions are continually made and remade, so too are our efforts to present them. Explore dynamic and wide-ranging art forms made in the Americas, where artists have been at work since time immemorial.

EXPLORE—https://bit.ly/4cbS8EV

04/09/2024

"Boy" cuts a disturbing figure, but it's hard to put your finger on the reasons why. To be sure, there is something sinister about a six-foot toddler; there's a kind of a mutant quality to him. You wouldn't want to run into him in a dark alley.

At first blush, the figure appears cheery, almost comical in its kitschy quality. But something is clearly wrong. Despite its height, the boy maintains the softness of youth in his rounded cheeks and limbs. And the finger gesture is sort of accusatory, completely contradicted by the almost dumb smile on his face.

Artist Charles Ray worked as a janitor in a department store while in college. He came to understand the unease a mannequin can inspire—an inanimate object easily mistaken for a live body. With "Boy" (1992), he created a particularly disquieting figure.

See this figure on view in Gallery 296.

04/08/2024

A solar eclipse arrives in Chicago this afternoon—an extremely rare event to witness. ⋆˖⁺ ◯ ⁺˖⋆

Painted in 1958, "The Banquet" almost perfectly encapsulates the eerie otherworldly experience of an eclipse. The strong red glow of the setting sun is framed by the darkening landscape, a naturalistic effect that further dramatizes the "charge of strangeness," to quote the artist.

Famous for his mysterious and unforgettable images, the Surrealist René Magritte sought to "make the most everyday objects shriek aloud."

See "The Banquet" among 8 works by René Magritte on view at the Art Institute.

04/05/2024

Spring cleaning serves as a reminder that it's never too late for a fresh start. Out with the old and in with the new!

This delightful cartoon accompanied the editorial page of the Chicago Sun-Times in 1958, drawn by the Pulitzer Prize–winning artist Jacob Burck.

The spring of 1958 marked a time of renewal at the museum. The Art Institute's historic exterior received a deep clean. And new structures were added to the main building, marking a new era of expansion.

04/04/2024

Dreaming of sunshine on these rainy days. ☀️ Stop by and enjoy our gardens when the weather clears —free and now open to the public during museum hours. 🌿 🌸 🐝

04/03/2024

Who wants to get tipsy? These ancient vessels shaped like animal heads could not be set down without spilling their wine, encouraging people who held them to drink more.

Potters created innovative designs that were intended to trick the user. These vessels reveal a lighter side of ancient Greek entertaining, which could sometimes be downright silly.

See these objects on view in Gallery 151.

04/02/2024

In this painting, Maruja Mallo depicted the popular street-festival game Pim Pam Pum, in which participants toss balls at mannequin-like puppets on horseback. She modeled the magician wearing bright blue robes on Spanish poet and playwright Ramón del Valle-Inclán.

Here Mallo blended depictions of spectacle with social critique. The painting was inspired by open-air celebrations, or 'verbenas,' in Madrid. As she explained, these "cosmic festivals" began to shift in the 1920s from religious holidays to secular public celebrations.

See this new addition to the museum's permanent collection on view in Gallery 396.

04/01/2024

APRIL 13—Performance: Nora Turato—"pool 6"

Artist Nora Turato explores the anxiety that permeates wellness and self-improvement—themes that have widely circulated online and seeped into daily life—in a new monologue, "pool 6."

REGISTER—https://bit.ly/3IJIHim

This event takes place in Fullerton Hall—free with registration.

04/01/2024

Over 60 rarely exhibited works in "Picasso: Drawing from Life" reveal the wide variety of styles the artist explored throughout his career.

This Highlights feature—"Picasso's Circles of Influence"—features works from artists that inspired him alongside some of the many works by Picasso in the Art Institute's permanent collection: https://bit.ly/49Sa0TS

03/31/2024

Easter is a celebration of growth, rebirth, and renewal. 🪿💐🥚Jessie Arms Botke's "Geese and Hollyhocks" is a painting filled with flowers and vegetation, creating a painting with striking decorative effects. Embedded in the flora, four geese stretch across the foreground, the overlapping, undulating shapes of their long necks and bodies introducing a sense of movement.

See this painting on view in Gallery 171.

03/30/2024

Jean Louis Forain burst upon the Parisian artistic scene in 1879 when he joined the fourth Impressionist exhibition—an undertaking sponsored by Edgar Degas.

Degas recruited a number of artists, among them Forain, seeking to counter the suburban aesthetic of Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir with an urban one. His stubbornness in defending their work so angered Renoir and Monet that they temporarily abandoned the Impressionist group and entered their work in the official Paris Salon instead.

It might be difficult for us today to understand the wrath of those two great artists when one is confronted with the delicate, small-scale works of Forain. Produced after his 1879 debut, "Tight-Rope Walker" depicts a performer utterly unaware of her surroundings as she balances precariously above the crowd, ignored by all but a few in the audience who stroll beneath her.

See this work by Jean Louis Forain on view in Gallery 226.

03/29/2024

"It is difficult to know oneself, but it isn’t easy to paint oneself either." —Vincent van Gogh

The intense colors and energetic brushwork of this self-portrait may hint at the artist's turbulent inner life. Vincent van Gogh suffered from bouts of depression and anxiety and came to painting after struggling to find professional footing as a pastor, teacher, and art dealer.

The brushstrokes seem to radiate a nervous energy swirling restlessly around his head. And yet dominating this dazzling array of dots and dashes are the artist’s deep green eyes and the intensity of their gaze.

See this self-portrait among 8 paintings by Van Gogh now on view at the Art Institute.

03/28/2024

“Woman with Dog” is a surreal, almost absurd figure—hugely exaggerated in scale from the small figurines made of shells one might find in a seaside gift shop.

German artist Katharina Fritsch draws her source material from a childhood fascination with folklore and fairy tales, often transforming familiar shapes into something otherworldly. She purposefully uses bold, sometimes unsettling, colors for their emotional and psychological impact.

See "Woman with Dog" by Katharina Fritsch on view in Gallery 296.

03/27/2024

Le sigh... Oh to be in love! 🥰

This painting depicts a swooning woman lost in a daydream after reading the letters of the ill-fated medieval lovers Heloise and Abelard. The objects on the table beside her—a letter, a sheet of music, and a book of erotic poetry—hint at a life of leisure and a susceptibility to love.

The French painter Auguste Bernard worked in Paris in the early 1780s and studied in Italy for several years. Upon his return to Paris, he found his career frustrated by the French Revolution and the emergent fashion for the more rigid Neoclassical style.

See this romantic painting—"Lady Reading the Letters of Heloise and Abelard"—on view in Gallery 216.

03/26/2024

What objects can you identify in this vibrant painting?

The wedges of color in the painting suggest the contours of a hill, yet their interlocking forms illustrate Marguerite Thompson Zorach's desire to create compositions that were "perfectly flat, no planes, distance, perspective, or anything."

Zorach was one of the first Americans to embrace abstract art, and she displayed her vividly colored canvases at some of the most important early exhibitions of avant-garde art, including the 1913 Armory Show here in Chicago, which introduced many Americans to the work of European Modernists for the first time.

See "Landscape (recto)" (1911/12) by Marguerite Thompson Zorach on view in Gallery 271.

03/25/2024

Final days! "Picasso: Drawing from Life"

Last chance to see more than 60 rarely shown works spanning Picasso's lifelong career, offering an intimate look at the famous artist's distinctive world.

Closing April 8—https://bit.ly/3ZRpPGa

03/23/2024

Two historic carousel horses are back on display in the Ryan Learning Center, much to the delight of visitors. Meet Woody and Old Paint!

They arrived at the Art Institute 60 years ago. Now these wooden horses invite visitors to explore how we care for art objects through a range of hands-on activities.

Learn more in the article "A Third Time Around for Two Carousel Horses": https://bit.ly/4c3nv4s

03/22/2024

One of the world's most famous—and most parodied—works of art can be found right here at the Art Institute.

In "American Gothic," artist Grant Wood directly evoked images of an earlier generation by featuring a farmer and his daughter posed stiffly and dressed as if they were, as the artist put it, “tintypes from my old family album.” They stand outside of their home, built in an 1880s style known as Carpenter Gothic.

The painting became an instant sensation when it was exhibited at the Art Institute in 1930, its ambiguity prompting viewers to speculate about the figures and their story. Many understood the work to be a satirical comment on midwesterners out of step with a modernizing world. Yet Wood intended it to convey a positive image of rural American values, offering a vision of reassurance and resilience at the beginning of the Great Depression.

See "American Gothic" by Grant Wood on view in Gallery 263.

03/21/2024

A selfie from 1730? In this portrait, a young woman dressed in luxurious lace and silk stares directly at the viewer.

This image’s aura of grace and seduction was to characterize the arts of much of the century, marking the artist Rosalba Carriera as one of the inventors of the Rococo style in Italy and France.

No woman artist enjoyed greater success or exerted more influence on the art of her era. And "A Young Lady with a Parrot” exemplifies the technical mastery that brought Carriera international fame.

See this portrait by Rosalba Carriera on view in Gallery 216.

03/20/2024

These figures were produced in the 20th century in modern Tanzania.

Healers throughout eastern Africa create a wide variety of such protective objects as these figures, part of ritual practices that connect human and spiritual worlds. Their forms are as diverse as the cultural groups who use them.

Medicine objects dressed in metal bracelets, beaded jewelry, knotted or braided cloth, and other decorations attract and embody desirable spiritual forces. Historically, materials that came from the east and were traded inland from the Indian Ocean—such as shells, wire, currency, or the beads that decorate these figures—hold special energy and elevated significance.

See these objects on view in Gallery 137.