All posts tagged: Art Institute of Chicago

Art Institute of Chicago Gains a Neoclassicist Trove

Art Institute of Chicago Gains a Neoclassicist Trove

Published by skeptic

A wealth of Neoclassicist art has joined the holdings of the Art Institute of Chicago via collectors Jeffrey and Carol Horvitz, who have gifted the museum around 2,250 works of French art made between the 16th and 19th centuries. The gift comes after held two shows devoted to the Horvitzes’ collection, one focused on Neoclassicist paintings, the other on drawings. Both exhibitions were staged last year. Jeffrey, a private investor, appeared solo on the annual ARTnews Top 200 Collectors list between 1994 and 1999. Carol is currently a trustee at the Art Institute of Chicago. The majority of the artworks they gifted to the Art Institute—some 2,000 of them—are drawings. Of the remaining 250, 200 are paintings, while 50 are sculptures. Their collection is being touted by the museum as the largest grouping of French art produced between the 16th and 19th centuries held privately in the US. Alongside the artworks, the Horvitzes have also provided funding for the care of these pieces, though the museum did not specify how much money they would give. …

Gustave Caillebotte Retrospective Offers a Comprehensive Portrait

Gustave Caillebotte Retrospective Offers a Comprehensive Portrait

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For around a century, Gustave Caillebotte was the most discreet of the Impressionists, only coming back into the spotlight in 1994, when the Grand Palais in Paris celebrated the centenary of his death in 1894 through a memorable retrospective. Ever since, the French painter has been the subject of several exhibitions from London to Washington, D.C. to Switzerland. Now, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and the Art Institute of Chicago have joined forces to examine Caillebotte anew, with a sweeping retrospective “Painting Men,” which runs through January in Paris, before heading to LA next spring and then Chicago next summer. Despite the acclaim the artist has received over the past three decades, he still remains a bit of a mystery, a major focus of the exhibition which also coincides with the 130th anniversary of the artist’s passing.  Related Articles “When facing this attractive, modern, yet enigmatic man—we still don’t know who he is—I realized we had good starting point,” Orsay curator Paul Perrin, who organized the exhibition …

Dozens Arrested at Pro-Palestine Encampment at Chicago’s Art Institute

Dozens Arrested at Pro-Palestine Encampment at Chicago’s Art Institute

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Dozens of pro-Palestine protestors were arrested on Saturday at an encampment at the Art Institute of Chicago, one of the nation’s most heavily attended museums. The People’s Art Institute, a group run by students at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, said on Instagram that it was seeking for the museum and the university to “divest from all entities and individuals financially supporting the Zionist occupation of Palestine.” An encampment was set up on Saturday in the Art Institute of Chicago’s North Lawn, where protestors demonstrated in view of famed outdoor sculptures by David Smith and Henry Moore. According to the New York Times, the school asked the protestors to move and proposed an alternate location. They did not do so, according to a museum spokesperson, who said that some protestors “surrounded and shoved a security officer and stole their keys to the museum, blocked emergency exits and barricaded gates.” Related Articles The Chicago Police Department said on social media that it arrived at the encampment on Saturday morning “to maintain the safety …

Court Rules Art Institute of Chicago Is ‘Good Faith Possessor’ of Disputed Egon Schiele Work

Court Rules Art Institute of Chicago Is ‘Good Faith Possessor’ of Disputed Egon Schiele Work

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The Art Institute of Chicago has secured a temporary legal win in an extensive dispute with the heirs of Fritz Grünbaum, an Austrian Jewish art collector who was disenfranchised during World War II. In a decision filed on February 28, Judge John G. Koeltl sided with the museum, enabling it to continue to hold Egon Schiele’s painting Russian War Prisoner (1916) in its collection. The judge dismissed a motion the collector’s relatives had filed, asking the court to reconsider a claim from the fall that halted their attempt to get the painting restituted. Related Articles The Art Institute of Chicago previously litigated the claim in a federal court, where a judge ruled in its favor in November 2023. Grünbaum’s descendants, Timothy Reif, David Fraenkel, and Milos Vavra, have tried to recover the work, a portrait of a seated male soldier, alleging that it was illegally acquired and inventoried by Nazi officials after Grünbaum was forced to relinquish his assets and later imprisoned. According to court documents reviewed by ARTnews, Koeltl denied suggestions that the museum …

Artworks Not to Miss at the Art Institute of Chicago

Artworks Not to Miss at the Art Institute of Chicago

Published by skeptic

Even if you have never set foot in the Windy City, you may still feel as if you’ve ambled through the Art Institute of Chicago. No American art museum, besides the Met in New York, has so embedded itself in the popular imagination, whether through the iconic montage of Ferris Bueller and pals visiting the museum in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off or via the classic Parker Brothers board game Masterpiece, whose 1996 version features works from the Art Institute’s collection. Yes, American Gothic, Nighthawks, and A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte are all must-sees. But there are plenty of other treasures that are just as worthy of your time—if you know where to look. With the help of Art Institute curators, we have gathered 20 of them here. Follow along with the Art Institute’s handy online map here. Narcissa Niblack Thorne, Thorne Miniature Rooms, c. 1937–40 (Gallery 11) Image Credit: Courtesy the Art Institute of Chicago. Upon entering the Art Institute from Michigan Avenue, it’s likely your eyes will immediately be …

Jewish students sue Harvard, accusing it of antisemitism on campus

Jewish students sue Harvard, accusing it of antisemitism on campus

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BOSTON (AP) — Several Jewish students have filed a lawsuit against Harvard University, accusing it of becoming “a bastion of rampant anti-Jewish hatred and harassment.” The lawsuit filed Wednesday mirrors others filed since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, including against The Art Institute of Chicago, New York University and the University of Pennsylvania. In the Harvard lawsuit, the plaintiffs include members of the Students Against Antisemitism, Inc. They accuse Harvard of violating Jewish students’ civil rights and allege that the university tolerated Jewish students being harassed, assaulted and intimidated — behavior that has intensified since the Oct. 7 attack. “Mobs of pro-Hamas students and faculty have marched by the hundreds through Harvard’s campus, shouting vile antisemitic slogans and calling for death to Jews and Israel,” according to the lawsuit. “Those mobs have occupied buildings, classrooms, libraries, student lounges, plazas, and study halls, often for days or weeks at a time, promoting violence against Jews.” It was unclear what the reference to mobs in the lawsuit refers to, but the university has been rattled …