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.jpg) The Art Institute of Chicago seen fromMichigan Avenue | |
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| Established | 1879; in present location since 1893 |
|---|---|
| Location | 111 SouthMichigan Avenue Chicago,Illinois 60603, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 41°52′46″N87°37′26″W / 41.87944°N 87.62389°W /41.87944; -87.62389 |
| Collection size | 300,000 works |
| Visitors | 1,322,195 (2023)[1] |
| Director | James Rondeau |
| Public transit access | CTA Bus routes: (6 and 28 line) 'L' and Subway stations: GreenBrownOrangePinkPurple atAdams/Wabash Red atMonroe/State Blue atMonroe/Dearborn Metra andSouth Shore Line: ME  atVan Buren Street |
| Website | artic.edu |
TheArt Institute of Chicago, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largestart museums in the United States. The museum is based in theArt Institute of Chicago Building inChicago'sGrant Park. Its collection, stewarded by 11 curatorial departments, includes works such asGeorges Seurat'sA Sunday on La Grande Jatte,Pablo Picasso'sThe Old Guitarist,Edward Hopper'sNighthawks, andGrant Wood'sAmerican Gothic. Its permanent collection of nearly 300,000 works of art is augmented by more than 30 special exhibitions mounted yearly that illuminate aspects of the collection and present curatorial and scientific research.
As a research institution, the Art Institute also has a conservation and conservation science department, five conservation laboratories, andRyerson and Burnham Libraries, one of the nation's largest art history and architecture libraries.
The museum's building was constructed for the 1893World's Columbian Exposition and, due to the growth of the collection, several additions have occurred since. The Modern Wing, designed byRenzo Piano, is the most recent expansion, and when it opened in 2009 it increased the museum's footprint to nearly one million square feet. This made it the second largest art museum in the United States, after theMetropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.[2]
TheSchool of the Art Institute of Chicago, a leading art school, is legally part of the Art Institute of Chicago, making it one of the few remaining unified arts institutions in the United States.
In 1866, a group of 35 artists founded theChicago Academy of Design in a studio on Dearborn Street, with the intent to run a free school with its own art gallery. The organization was modeled after European art academies, such as theRoyal Academy, with Academicians and Associate Academicians. The academy's charter was granted in March 1867.
Classes started in 1868, meeting every day at a cost of $10 per month. The academy's success enabled it to build a new home for the school, a five-story stone building on 66 West Adams Street, which opened on November 22, 1870.
When theGreat Chicago Fire destroyed the building in 1871, the academy was thrown into debt. Attempts to continue despite the loss by using rented facilities failed. By 1878, the academy was $10,000 in debt. Members tried to rescue the ailing institution by making deals with local businessmen, before some finally abandoned it in 1879 to found a new organization, named theChicago Academy of Fine Arts. When the Chicago Academy of Design went bankrupt the same year, the new Chicago Academy of Fine Arts bought its assets at auction.
In 1882, the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts changed its name to the current Art Institute of Chicago and elected as its first president the banker and philanthropistCharles L. Hutchinson, who "is arguably the single most important individual to have shaped the direction and fortunes of the Art Institute of Chicago".[4]: 5 Hutchinson was a director of many prominent Chicago organizations, including theUniversity of Chicago,[5] and would transform the Art Institute into a world-class museum during his presidency, which he held until his death in 1924.[6] Also in 1882, the organization purchased a lot on the southwest corner ofMichigan Avenue and Van Buren Street for $45,000. The existing commercial building on that property was used for the organization's headquarters, and a new addition was constructed behind it to provide gallery space and to house the school's facilities.[4]: 19 By January 1885 the trustees recognized the need to provide additional space for the organization's growing collection, and to this end purchased the vacant lot directly south on Michigan Avenue. The commercial building was demolished,[7] and the noted architectJohn Wellborn Root was hired by Hutchinson to design a building that would create an "impressive presence" on Michigan Avenue,[4]: 22–23 and these facilities opened to great fanfare in 1887.[4]: 24
With the announcement of theWorld's Columbian Exposition to be held in 1892–93, the Art Institute pressed for a building on the lakefront to be constructed for the fair, but to be used by the institute afterwards. The city agreed, and the building was completed in time for the second year of the fair. Construction costs were met by selling the Michigan/Van Buren property. On October 31, 1893, the institute moved into the new building. For the opening reception on December 8, 1893,Theodore Thomas and theChicago Symphony Orchestra performed.
From the early 1900s to the 1960s the school offered with the Logan Family (members of the board) theLogan Medal of the Arts, an award which became one of the most distinguished awards presented to artists in the U.S. Between 1959 and 1970, the institute was a key site in the battle to gain art and documentary photography a place in galleries, under curatorHugh Edwards and his assistants.
As director of the museum starting in the early 1980s,James N. Wood conducted a major expansion of its collection and oversaw a major renovation and expansion project for its facilities. As "one of the most respected museum leaders in the country", as described byThe New York Times, Wood created major exhibitions of works byPaul Gauguin,Claude Monet, andVincent van Gogh that set records for attendance at the museum. He retired from the museum in 2004.[8]
The institute began construction of "The Modern Wing", an addition situated on the southwest corner of Columbus and Monroe in the early 21st century.[9] The project, designed byPritzker Prize–winning architectRenzo Piano, was completed and officially opened to the public on May 16, 2009. The 264,000-square-foot (24,500 m2) building addition made the Art Institute the second-largest art museum in the United States. The building houses the museum's world-renowned collections of 20th and 21st century art, specifically modern European painting and sculpture, contemporary art, architecture and design, and photography. In its inaugural survey in 2014, travel review website and forum,Tripadvisor, reviewed millions of travelers' surveys and named the Art Institute the world's best museum.[10]
The museum received perhaps the largest gift of art in its history in 2015.[11] CollectorsStefan Edlis and Gael Neeson donated a "collection [that] is among the world's greatest groups of postwar Pop art ever assembled".[12] The donation includes works byAndy Warhol,Jasper Johns,Cy Twombly,Jeff Koons,Charles Ray,Richard Prince,Cindy Sherman,Roy Lichtenstein andGerhard Richter. The museum agreed to keep the donated work on display for at least 50 years.[12] In June 2018, the museum received a $50 million donation, the largest single announced unrestricted monetary donation in its history.[13]
In September 2024, the Art Institute of Chicago announced a $75 million donation from collectorsAaron I. Fleischman andLin Lougheed, marking the largest naming gift in the museum's history. This contribution is designated for the development of The Aaron I. Fleischman and Lin Lougheed Building, intended to showcase the museum's extensive collection of late 19th-century, modern, and contemporary art.[14]
In February 2025, the Art Institute of Chicago received a significant donation from collectors Jeffrey and Carol Horvitz, comprising nearly 2,000 drawings, 200 paintings, and 50 sculptures by renowned French artists such asJacques-Louis David andFrançois Boucher. This collection, amassed over four decades, spans the 16th to 19th centuries, with a focus on Neoclassicism. The Horvitzes have also pledged financial support for the collection's ongoing conservation and research, which the museum anticipates will constitute one of the largest financial gifts in its history.[15][16][17]
The collection of the Art Institute of Chicago encompasses more than 5,000 years of human expression from cultures around the world and contains more than 300,000 works of art in 11 curatorial departments, ranging from early Japanese prints to the art of theByzantine Empire to contemporary American art. It is principally known for one of the United States' finest collection of paintings produced in Western culture.[18][19]
The Art Institute's African Art and Indian Art of the Americas collections are on display across two galleries in the south end of the Michigan Avenue building. The African collection includes more than 400 works that span the continent, highlighting ceramics, garments, masks, and jewelry.[20]
The Amerindian collection includes Native North American art andMesoamerican andAndean works. From pottery to textiles, the collection brings together a wide array of objects that seek to illustrate the thematic and aesthetic focuses of art spanning the Americas.[21]
The Art Institute's American Art collection contains some of the best-known works in the American canon, includingEdward Hopper'sNighthawks,Grant Wood'sAmerican Gothic, andMary Cassatt'sThe Child's Bath. The collection ranges from colonial silver to modern and contemporary paintings.
The museum purchasedNighthawks in 1942 for $3,000;[22][23][24] its acquisition "launched" the painting into "immense popular recognition".[25] Considered an "icon of American culture",[22][26]Nighthawks is perhaps Hopper's most famous painting, and one of the most recognizable images inAmerican art.[27][28][29] Also well known,American Gothic has been in the museum's collection since 1930 and was only loaned outside of North America for the first time in 2016.[30] Wood's painting depicts what has been called "the most famous couple in the world", a dour, rural-American, father and daughter. It was entered into a contest at the Art Institute in 1930, and although not a favorite of some, it won a medal and was acquired by the museum.[31][32]
The Art Institute's ancient collection spans nearly 4,000 years of art and history, showcasing Greek, Etruscan, Roman, and Egyptian sculpture, mosaics, pottery, jewelry, glass, and bronze and a robust and well-maintained collection of ancient coins. There are around 5,000 works in the collection, offering a comprehensive survey of the ancient and medieval Mediterranean world, beginning with the third millennium B.C. and extending to theByzantine Empire.[33] The collection also holds the mummy and mummy case of Paankhenamun.[34]
The Department of Architecture and Design holds more than 140,000 works, from models to drawings from the 1870s to the present day. The collection coverslandscape architecture,structural engineering, andindustrial design, including the works ofFrank Lloyd Wright,Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, andLe Corbusier.[35]
The Art Institute's Asian collection spans nearly 5,000 years, including significant works and objects from China, Korea, Japan, India, Southeast Asia, and the Near and Middle East. There are 35,000 objects in the collection, showcasing bronzes, ceramics, jades, textiles, screens, woodcuts, and sculptures.[36] One gallery in particular attempts to mimic the quiet and meditative way in whichJapanese screens are traditionally viewed.
The Art Institute's collection of European decorative arts includes some 25,000 objects of furniture, ceramics, metalwork, glass, enamel, and ivory from 1100 AD to the present day. The department contains the 1,544 objects in theArthur Rubloff Paperweight Collection and the 68Thorne Miniature Rooms–a collection of miniaturized interiors of a 1:12 scale showcasing American, European, and Asian architectural and furniture styles from theMiddle Ages to the 1930s (when the rooms were constructed).[37] Both the paperweights and the Thorne Rooms are located on the ground floor of the museum.
The museum is most famous for its collections ofImpressionist andPost-Impressionist paintings, widely regarded as one of the finest collections outside of France.[38] Highlights include more than 30 paintings byClaude Monet, including six of hisHaystacks and a number ofWater Lilies. Also in the collection are important works byPierre-Auguste Renoir such asTwo Sisters (On the Terrace), andGustave Caillebotte'sParis Street; Rainy Day. Post-Impressionist works includePaul Cézanne'sThe Basket of Apples, andMadame Cézanne in a Yellow Chair.At the Moulin Rouge byHenri de Toulouse-Lautrec is another highlight. Thepointillist masterpiece, which also inspireda musical and was featured inFerris Bueller's Day Off,Georges Seurat'sSunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte—1884, is prominently displayed. Additionally,Henri Matisse'sBathers by a River, is an important example of his work. Highlights of non-French paintings of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collection includeVincent van Gogh'sBedroom in Arles andSelf-portrait, 1887.
In the mid-1930s, the Art Institute received a gift of over one hundred works of art fromAnnie Swan Coburn ("Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection"). The "Coburn Renoirs" became the core of the Art Institute'sImpressionist painting collection.[39]
The collection also includes the Medieval and Renaissance Art, Arms, and Armor holdings, including the George F. Harding Collection of arms and armor,[40] and three centuries ofOld Masters works.[41]
The museum's collection of modern and contemporary art was significantly augmented when collectorsStefan Edlis and Gael Neeson gifted 40 plus master works to the department in 2015.[42]Pablo Picasso'sOld Guitarist,Henri Matisse'sBathers by a River,Constantin Brâncuși'sGolden Bird, andRené Magritte'sTime Transfixed are highlights of the modern galleries, located on the third floor of the Modern Wing.[43] The contemporary installation, located on the second floor, contains works byAndy Warhol,Cindy Sherman,Cy Twombly,Jackson Pollock,Jasper Johns, and other significant modern and contemporary artists.
The Art Institute did not officially establish a photography collection until 1949, whenGeorgia O'Keeffe donated a significant portion of theAlfred Stieglitz collection to the museum.[44] Since then, the museum's collection has grown to approximately 20,000 works spanning the history of the artform from its inception in 1839 to the present.
The print and drawings collection began with a donation by Elizabeth S. Stickney of 460 works in 1887, and was organized into its own department of the museum in 1911.[45] Their holdings have subsequently grown to 11,500 drawings and 60,000 prints, ranging from 15th-century works to contemporary. The collection contains a strong group of the works ofAlbrecht Dürer,Rembrandt van Rijn,Francisco Goya, andJames McNeill Whistler. Because works on paper are sensitive to light and degrade quickly, the works are on display infrequently in order to keep them in good condition for as long as possible.
The Department of Textiles has more than 13,000 textiles and 66,000 sample swatches in total, covering an array of cultures from 300 BC to the present. From Englishneedlework to Japanese garments to American quilts, the collection presents a diverse group of objects, including contemporary works andfiber art.[46]
Other notable works are in the collection but the following examples are ones in the public domain and for which pictures are available. In 2018, as it redesigned its website, the Art Institute released images of 52,438 of its public domain works, under theCreative Commons Zero (CC0) licence.[47]
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The current building complex at 111 South Michigan Avenue is the third address for the Art Institute. Situated inGrant Park, it was designed in theBeaux-Arts style byShepley, Rutan and Coolidge ofBoston[48] to host national and international meetings held in conjunction with the 1893World's Columbian Exposition, as the World's Congress Auxiliary Building, with the intent that the Art Institute occupy the space after the close of the fair.
The Art Institute's entrance onMichigan Avenue is guarded bytwo bronze lion statues created byEdward Kemeys. The lions were unveiled on May 10, 1894, each weighing more than two tons. The sculptor gave them unofficial names: the south lion "stands in an attitude of defiance", and the north lion is "on the prowl". When a Chicago sports team plays in the championships of their respective league (i.e. the Super Bowl or Stanley Cup Finals, not the entire playoffs), the lions are frequently dressed in that team's uniform. Evergreen wreaths are placed around their necks during the Christmas season.
The east entrance of the museum is marked by the stone arch entrance to the oldChicago Stock Exchange. Designed byLouis Sullivan in 1894, the Exchange was demolished in 1972, but salvaged portions of the original trading room were brought to the Art Institute and reconstructed.
The Art Institute building has the unusual property of straddling open-air railroad tracks. Two stories of gallery space connect the east and west buildings while theMetra Electric andSouth Shore lines operate below. The lower level of gallery space was formerly the windowless Gunsaulus hall, but is now home to the Alsdorf Galleries showcasing Indian, Southeast Asian and Himalayan Art. During renovation, windows facing north toward Millennium Park were added. The gallery space was designed byRenzo Piano in conjunction with his design of the Modern Wing and features the same window screening used there to protect the art from direct sunlight. The upper level formerly held the modern European galleries, but was renovated in 2008 and now features the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist galleries.
In September 2024, the museum announced a gift of $75 million for a new gallery building or wing named for benefactors Aaron I. Fleischman and Lin Lougheed. The gallery is intended to increase space for 19th century, modern, and contemporary art. The design and placement of the new gallery or gallery building are yet to be decided.[49]
Located on the ground floor of the museum is theRyerson & Burnham Libraries. The Libraries' collections cover all periods of art, but is most known for its extensive collection of 18th to 20th century architecture. It serves the museum staff, college and university students, and is also open to the general public. The Friends of the Libraries, a support group for the Libraries, offers events and special tours for its members.
On May 16, 2009, the Art Institute opened the Modern Wing, the largest expansion in the museum's history.[50] The 264,000-square-foot (24,500 m2) addition, designed byRenzo Piano, makes the Art Institute the second-largest museum in the US.[2] Thearchitect of record in the City of Chicago for this building was Interactive Design.[51] The Modern Wing is home to the museum's collection of early 20th-century European art, includingPablo Picasso'sThe Old Guitarist,Henri Matisse'sBathers by a River, andRené Magritte'sTime Transfixed. The Lindy and Edwin Bergman Collection of Surrealist art includes the largest public display ofJoseph Cornell's works (37 boxes and collages).[52] The Wing also housescontemporary art from after 1960; new photography, video media, architecture and design galleries including original renderings byFrank Lloyd Wright,Ludwig Mies van der Rohe andBruce Goff; temporary exhibition space; shops and classrooms; and a cafe. In addition, theNichols Bridgeway connects a sculpture garden on the roof of the new wing with the adjacentMillennium Park to the north and a courtyard designed by Gustafson Guthrie Nichol.
In 2009, the Modern Wing won at the Chicago Innovation Awards.[53]
During 2009, attendance was around 2 million—up 33 percent from 2008—in addition to a total of approximately 100,000 museum memberships. Despite a 25 percent boost in museum admission fees, the Modern Wing was a major catalyst for a rise in visitor traffic.[54] In 2022, the museum welcomed 1.04 million visitors, an increase of 20 percent from 2021, but still well below 2018 attendance (before theCOVID-19 pandemic). It was ranked tenth among themost-visited museums in the United States, and was the sixth most-visited U.S. art museum.[1]
As of 2011, the Art Institute continues to rebuild its $783 million endowment since therecession.[55] In June 2008, its endowment was $827 million. As of 2012, the museum is rated A1 byMoody's, its fifth-highest grade, in part reflecting the museum's pension and retirement liabilities;Standard & Poor's rates the museum A+, fifth-best. In October 2012, the Art Institute sold about $100 million of taxable and tax-exempt bonds partly to shore-up unfunded pension obligations.[56]
The $294 million extension in 2009 was the culmination of a $385 million fundraising campaign—roughly $300 million for design and construction and $85 million for the endowment. Around $370 million were raised primarily from private patrons in Chicago.[57] In 2011, the Art Institute received a $10 million gift from the Jaharis Family Foundation to renovate and expand galleries devoted to Greek, Roman and Byzantine art, and to support acquisitions and special exhibitions of that art.[58] In 2016 the Art Institute received a $35 million gift from Dorothy Braude Edinburg, a longtime supporter.[59]
In 1990, the Art Institute of Chicago sold 11 works at auction, including paintings byClaude Monet,Pablo Picasso,Amedeo Modigliani,Maurice Utrillo andEdgar Degas, to raise the $12 million purchase price of a bronze sculpture,Golden Bird, byConstantin Brâncuși. At the time, the sculpture was owned by theArts Club of Chicago, which was selling it to buy a new gallery for its other works.[60] In 2005, the museum sold two paintings byMarc Chagall andPierre-Auguste Renoir atSotheby's.[61] In 2011, it auctioned two Picassos (Sur l'impériale traversant la Seine (1901) andVerre et pipe (1919)),Henri Matisse'sFemme au fauteuil (1919), andGeorges Braque'sNature morte à la guitare (rideaux rouge) (1938) atChristie's in London.[62][63]
In 2002, the Art Institute of Chicago filed suit alleging fraud by a small Dallas firm called Integral Investment Management, along with related parties. The museum, which put $43 million of its endowment into funds run by the defendants, claimed that it faced losses of up to 90% on the investments after they soured.[64]
In 2010, the year after the opening of its massive Modern Wing, the Art Institute of Chicago sued the engineering firmOve Arup for $10 million over what it said were flaws in theconcrete floors and air-circulation systems. The suit wassettled out of court.[65][66]
In 2021, the Art Institute ended its unpaid volunteer docents program to move to a paid model. TheChicago Tribune editorial page criticized the Institute's letter announcing the change and the move to a new model, arguing that "[o]nce you cut through the blather, the letter basically said the museum had looked critically at its corps of docents, a group dominated by mostly (but not entirely) white, retired women with some time to spare, and found them wanting as a demographic."[67] The Chair of the Institute's Board of Trustees, Robert M. Levy, responded in aTribune op-ed supporting the change, and described theTribune's editorial as having "numerous inaccuracies and mischaracterizations", noted that the docent program had already been largely on pause for the past 15 months due to theCOVID pandemic, and argued that the decision was not about anyone's identity, it was in keeping with changing modern museum practices around the world.[68]
Following a volunteerism surge in the late 1940s, the program had been created in 1961 to revitalize and expand "programming for children."[69] Among other matters, since 2014 the program had been trying to attract a more diverse socioeconomic perspective set of art-tour guides, given the unpaid time commitment needed.[70]
In 1996, heirs to Jewish art collectors Louise andFriedrich Gutmann, who died in Nazi concentration camps, sued museum trusteeDaniel Searle for the return of the Edgar Degas painting,Landscape with Smokestacks, which had been on loan to the Art Institute of Chicago.[71][72] After years of litigation a settlement was concluded which involved the acquisition of the painting by the Art Institute.[73][74] A collection of approximately 500 objects fromNepal, India and elsewhere in Asia that was donated to the Art Institute by trusteeMarilynn Alsdorf in 1989; certain objects from this collection have been contested.[75][76][77]
In 2000, the Art Institute reached a settlement agreement with the heirs ofFederico Gentili Di Giuseppe concerning a restitution claim for a 17th century sculpture byFrancesco Mochi.[78] In 2001, the heirs of Holocaust victimMax Silberberg reached a settlement agreement concerning Gustav Courbet'sThe Rock in Hautepierre.[79] The Art Institute had acquired the Courbet from the dealer Paul Rosenberg in 1967.[80] In 2023, theManhattan District Attorney's Office moved to seizeEgon Schiele paintings from several museums on the grounds that they had been looted by the Nazis fromFritz Grünbaum, who was killed in theHolocaust. The paintings included,Russian War Prisoner, a watercolor in the Art Institute.[81][82] The Art Institute continues to hold the work, as it is contesting the seizure in court. According to its investigation, it acquired the watercolor drawing in 1966 from an American art dealer through a proper provenance from Grünbaum's legal heir, and it also argues that the claim is time-barred because Grünbaum's heirs were aware.[83][84] In February 2024, the Manhattan District Attorney filed a motion accusing the Art Institute of "ignoring evidence of an elaborate fraud undertaken to conceal that the artwork had been looted". According toThe New York Times, the court filing provided detailed evidence that provenance documents provided by the Swiss art dealerEberhard W. Kornfeld contained forged signatures or were altered long after he came into possession of the paintings and sold them to other art dealers in the mid-1950s; however, the Art Institute disputed this claim. Court hearings on the matter took place in 2024.[85]
The Art Institute of Chicago is one of a small number of museums in the United States with a dedicated Provenance Research Department. Formally established in 2020, the department conducts provenance research across the entire collection, as well as for acquisitions and loans.[86]
In June 2024, the Art Institute of Chicago returned a 12th-century sandstone pilaster to Thailand. The artifact, depicting the Hindu deityKrishna lifting Mount Govardhana, was originally acquired by the museum in 1967 and believed to be fromAngkor, Cambodia. However, provenance research determined that it originated from thePhanom Rung temple in northeastern Thailand. This discovery led to discussions with Thai authorities and the subsequent repatriation of the piece.[87][88]
On March 3, 2025, the Art Institute of Chicago announced that it had returned a 12th-century Nepali sculpture,Buddha Sheltered by the Serpent King Muchalinda, to the government of Nepal after provenance research confirmed it had been stolen from Guita Bahi in theKathmandu Valley. The sculpture, carved from schist, had been on display at the museum since 1997.[89]
InFerris Bueller's Day Off (1986), the Art Institute of Chicago scene is a quiet, contemplative moment in an otherwise fast-paced film. Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick), his girlfriend Sloane (Mia Sara), and his best friend Cameron (Alan Ruck) visit the museum during their day of adventure in Chicago.
Set toThe Dream Academy's instrumental cover ofPlease Please Please Let Me Get What I Want, the sequence showcases some of the museum's most famous artworks. The trio walks hand in hand through the museum's grand halls before pausing to admire iconic pieces. Ferris and Sloane share a tender moment in front ofMarc Chagall'sAmerica Windows, while Cameron becomes mesmerized byGeorges Seurat'sA Sunday on La Grande Jette. As the camera zooms in on the small painted dots, Cameron's gaze intensifies, reflecting his growing existential crisis.
The scene, devoid of dialogue, serves as a moment of reflection. Ferris and Sloane embrace, reinforcing their carefree love, while Cameron, often plagued by self-doubt, appears lost in thought. His fixation on the Seurat painting subtly foreshadows his later emotional breakdown.
DirectorJohn Hughes, a Chicago native, has said this sequence was a love letter to the museum, emphasizing art's ability to move and transform individuals. The scene stands out in the film for its quiet beauty, offering a moment of introspection amid the comedic chaos of Ferris's day off.[90]
Hughes' commentary on the sequence was used as a reference point by journalistHadley Freeman in a discussion of the Republican presidential primary candidates in 2011.[91]
The 1970Parker Brothers board gameMasterpiece features paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago's collection. The game, designed for players to bid on and trade famous artworks while attempting to avoid forgeries, includes reproductions of several iconic works housed in the museum. Notable paintings featured in the game include Georges Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Vincent van Gogh'sThe Bedroom, and Grant Wood's American Gothic.
The game was one of the first major board games to introduce fine art to a mainstream audience in an interactive format. By using real paintings from the Art Institute's collection, Masterpiece played a role in exposing a broader public to well-known artworks. The game remains a nostalgic classic and has been reissued multiple times with different artwork selections, but the original 1970 edition is closely associated with the Art Institute of Chicago's holdings.[92]
Celebrated masterpieces:Nighthawks;American Gothic;A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.
Must-see masterpieces: Georges Seurat'sA Sunday on the Island of La Grande Jatte,Nighthawks, and Vincent Van Gogh'sBedroom in Arles.
Volunteerism surged in the United States in the postwar period […] In this context, the Art Institute's Woman's Board was established in 1952 […] The Woman's Board also helped to create the museum's Docent Program in 1961 with the Junior League of Chicago as a means of revitalizing and expanding programming for children
The heirs of Holocaust victims Friedrich and Louise Gutmann, Nick and Simon Goodman and Lili Gutmann, filed a claim against the art dealer Daniel Searle. Searle was the owner of the painting "Landscape with Smokestacks" by Edgar Degas and was a Trustee of the Art Institute of Chicago, where the painting was on loan. The painting was allegedly looted by the Nazis during the Second World War. After four years of litigation, the parties agreed to share the ownership of the painting. The Gutmann heirs' interest in the ownership was bought by the Art Institute of Chicago.
Crain's Chicago Business and ProPublica have identified at least nine objects once owned by James and Marilynn Alsdorf that have been sent back to their countries of origin since the late 1980s. Nepali activists — and government officials, in one case — are pressing for the return of more Alsdorf objects donated to the Art Institute of Chicago, saying they have evidence the pieces may have been looted and sold on the art market.
