The Art Institute of Chicago

I can never do justice in covering the Art Institute of Chicago..
It's huge with a magnificent collection! There are paintings, sculptures, decorative arts, architectural fragments, photographs, special exhibits.. And then, there is the architecture of the building itself!
Where to begin? What to include?
Well, it was not so difficult to decide that I would focus on paintings, sculptures and architecture.. But even if I take a single element, say paintings, the coverage can potentially be multifaceted. Each painting has a story, each painter has a story, each painter is influenced by the then existing School of Art and in turn influences it! All I can do is just present some aspects of the Institute's huge depth and breadth of collections..

So, here's an attempt at covering the Art Institute of Chicago.. divided into many posts..



New Asian Art Galleries..
On Dec 13, 2008, the Art Institute opened two new Asian Art galleries..
- Alsdorf Galleries of Indian, Southeast Asian, Himalayan and Islamic Art. Previously it was the Gunsaulus Hall..
- Galleries of Indian and Islamic Art, situated North of McKinlock Court.
The new space design is by Renzo Piano and contains about 435 works, many dating back to 8th and 10th century and some even older..
# For more Galleries of Asian Art.. click here..



Galleries of European Art: Impressionism..
The Art Institute of Chicago has one of the largest collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionst art outside of Paris. It includes works of Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Gustave Caillebotte.. and more..
# For more on European Art: Impressionism.. click here..



Galleries of European Art: Post-Impressionism..
Post-Impressionsts began rejecting the realism of Impressionsts, and develped highly personal art form.. Painters like Paul Cézanne, Georges Seurat, Paul Gauguin, Vincent Van Gogh and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, worked alone and developed very distinctive styles.
# For more on Post-Impressionism.. click here..



Galleries of American Art [Rice Building - Lower Level]
The galleries has a fair share of American paintings, arts-&-crafts and sculptures, but I was mostly interested in sculptures. It has works by American sculptors like Lorado Taft, Edward Kemeys, Hermon Atkins McNeil, Daniel Chester French and Frederic Remington..
# For more on Galleries of American Art.. click here..



Galleries of American Art - II [Rice Building: Upper Level]
This has all time favourite painting, "Nighthawks" by Edward Hopper.. Also are works of famous American painters like Grant Wood, Archibald John Motley Jr, Stuart Davis, Georgia O'Keefee, Mary Cassatt and John Singer Sargent among others..
# For more on.. Galleries of American Art-II.. click here..



Galleries of Contemporary Art..
Modern Wing of the Art Institute houses the Contemporary Art collection. The Art Institute of Chicago has one of the most comprehensive collection of contemporary art in any general museum in the world, with about 1,000 works. It encompasses almost every significant art movement from 1950 to the present and includes painting, sculpture, installation art, and new-media work..
# For more on Contemporary Art.. click here..



The Modern Wing..
The Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago opened on May 16, 2009.. Designed by
architect Renzo Piano, it adds 264,000 square feet to the Art Institute, increasing the size of the museum by a third. The Modern Wing has some very interesting features described as zero-gravity, flying-carpet, green-elements..
# For more on Modern Wing.. click here..



[Original] Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room..
It built by one of the city's most important early architects Louis Sullivan, with his partner, Dankmar Adler, in 1893–94. When the Stock Exchange was demolished in 1972, sections of Sullivan's elaborate stenciled decorations, molded plaster capitals, and art glass were preserved from the Trading Room, the magnificent centerpiece of this 13-story structure. Using these fragments, the Art Institute was able to reconstruct the Trading Room in its new wing in 1976–77...
# For more on Stock Exchange Trading Room.. click here..

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