Art Institute of Chicago

Introduction

The Art Institute of Chicago was founded in 1879 as the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts, renamed in 1882, and still operates as both a museum and a school. Its present home at 111 South Michigan Avenue was designed by the Boston firm Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge in the Beaux-Arts style for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and opened on December 8, 1893. The two bronze lions at the Michigan Avenue entrance were sculpted by Edward Kemeys and unveiled in 1894, each weighing over two tons, and are among Chicago's best-known city symbols; they wear team jerseys during championship seasons. The collection of nearly 300,000 works spans 5,000 years of human expression and is especially celebrated for Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, including 33 paintings by Monet - the largest collection outside Paris, with six Haystacks and several Water Lilies - plus 13 drawings. Core works are Seurat's pointillist A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, Caillebotte's Paris Street; Rainy Day, Matisse's Batters by a River, Van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles, Picasso's The Old Guitarist, and the American icons Hopper's Nighthawks and Wood's American Gothic. Renzo Piano's Modern Wing opened on May 16, 2009 with galleries for 20th- and 21st-century art, modern European painting and sculpture, photography, architecture and design. Enter from the Michigan Avenue doors or the Modern Wing entrance at 159 E Monroe St; 10-11 a.m. daily is members-only, public admission starts at 11:00, the museum is closed Tuesdays and stays open until 8 p.m. on Thursdays. Admission is priced by residence, and Illinois residents visit free during selected Thursday evenings and winter weekdays.

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