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Exhibition-Related Articles

  • A black-and-white print shows an abstracted human figure facing the viewer, its eyes wide, its mouth open in a scream, and its hands at either cheek. The gaunt figure stands on a bridge with two dark figures receding in the background and a lake and hills in the distance.
    Symbolist Geographies
    by Jay A. Clarke

    Navigate the mysterious Symbolist movement with this guide to the many styles and themes that emerged across Europe.
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    Meet Elizabeth Catlett in 11 Facts
  • An embroidered textile in shiny green and brown thread shows a gravesite with a rectangular stone topped with two unlike structures. Two plaques on the stone are embroidered with text, much of it missing. Willow trees and their leaves fill the background.
    Following the Threads
    by Isaac Facio
  • A color photograph of three hands intertwined as they play the piano. One hand has red nail polish; the other pair is unadorned.
    “Share Everything”: Music with Pixy and Moro
    by ⁠Yechen Zhao
  • A painting shows a cat-headed figure and a large brown bear in a the branches of a pine tree. The hybrid figure gestures toward a flock of bird birds darting about the blue sky.
    An Offering to Beauty: Raqib Shaw on Paradise Lost
    by ⁠Raqib Shaw
    • Explore Our Stories

    Got a favorite genre of art or topic? Or looking to hear directly from artists and curators? Browse our categories to find articles and videos that speak to your interest.
    Conservation Exhibitions Perspectives From the Curator Staff Picks Contemporary Art Impressionism Japanese Prints Ancient Art Chicago New Acquisition From the Artist

    Staff Picks

    The creativity of our staff, whether writing about animals, eyes, and first encounters with artworks, wholly befits a world-class art museum.

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    Six Ways of Looking at Yellow
    by Ryan M. Pfeiffer, Christina Warzecha, Veronica Cajigas, Nicholas Barron, Anna Triska, and William FitzPatrick

    Our staff finds whole worlds in the heart of this primary color.
  • 1911 31 The Home Of The Heron
    Birdwatching in the Museum
    by Dan Meyer, Sizhao Yi, Violet Jaffe, Paul Jones, and Ryan M. Pfeiffer
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    Unleashed: Dogs in Art
    by Elizabeth Benge, Elizabeth Pope, Robby Sexton, Emily Lew Fry, and Chelsea Southwood
  • Eyes in Art
    by Ashley F. Arico, Ian Gordon, Katherine Greenleaf, Ryan M. Pfeiffer, and Giovanni Verri
  • Painting of a crowd of figures carrying candles and wearing white bonnets through which a woman is led on horseback holding a small, bundled child. The woman's dark-blue dress contrasts against a pale-pink sky. The figures stand so closely together that their hats form a sea of white. Many bonnets are illuminated like lanterns.
    First Encounters with Works of Art
    by Rachel Joy Echiverri Rowland, Lisa Kucharski, Ginia Sweeney, Kloie Rush-Spratt, Che d‘Arte Shines, and Christine Stringer

    • Videos

  • Frey 2016 Blue Urchin Detail 04 Press 300ppi 3000px Srgb Jpeg Video
    Artist Conversation: Jeremy Frey
    40:47 November 4, 2025
  • Hartwellmemorialwindow Thumbnail Video
    The Hartwell Memorial Window | Artwork Spotlight
    5:44 July 1, 2021
  • A sculpture against a gray background shows a female figure with conical breasts and elongated arms holding a drum on her head and sitting on a stool. The drum is almost twice the woman's height and has figures of animals and geometric shapes carved around its middle. A stretched piece of hide forms the top of the drum. Video
    Female Caryatid Drum (Pinge) | Art Institute Essentials Tour
    4:23 April 1, 2024
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    From Sketch to Stone | Canova: Sketching in Clay
    12:30 January 9, 2024
  • Three consecutive panels of peach, each containing a silhouette of a woman's face. The faces are featureless and composed of multiple cut swaths of brightly colored geometric and floral fabrics. The central figure wears her hair in Bantu knots. Video
    Gio Swaby: Fresh Up | Exhibition Stories
    4:38
  • Photograph of numerous figures in blue uniforms surrounding and touching the white frame of Seurat's "La Grande Jatte" on all sides, some on ladders, a red machine at center. Video
    Reframing “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte—1884” | Artwork Spotlight June 1, 2022

    • Conservation Spotlight

    Go behind the scenes with conservators and conservation scientists to uncover secrets about artists’ materials, practices, and even works thought to be lost.

    Conservation
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    Sea Change: Uncovering Whistler’s Violet and Silver
    by Kimberley Muir and Annelise K. Madsen

    A conservation treatment brings one of Whistler’s paintings much closer to the work the artist intended.
  • Photograph shows Cecile Webster, a Black woman with medium-toned skin, a wide smile, and short gray-white hair, in a dark jacket and yellow shirt. She stands facing the viewer in the Franke Reading Room, a book-lined space with wood shelves, green walls, and large wood tables with brass lamps that have green glass shades.
    Cecile Webster, Conservation Technician, Books, Conservation and Science
    by Cecile Webster and James Iska
  • A charcoal drawing on brown paper of an older woman with dark hair and light skin in profile, facing right. The background is bisected in two, shaded dark at left and light at right.
    The Subtle Power of Paper: Conserving Paula Modersohn-Becker
    by María Cristina Rivera Ramos
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    Preserving the Transcendental within Charles Burchfield’s Frame
    by Mardy Sears
  • Statueofyoungdionysosdetail
    An Ancient Survivor

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    Museum History
  • If Carousel Horse
    Conserving a Carousel Horse
    by ⁠Cybele Tom
  • A decorative plate shows a blue-winged figure with the white body of a horse and the head of a man flying off a cliff's edge. A mostly nude woman clings onto the figure by the neck, red fabric in the wind. The overall color of the plate is a cloudy swirl of deep teal blue.
    Year in Review: 2024 Additions to the Collection
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    Love Story in a Porcelain Box
    by Sizhao Yi
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    Food in Art
  • Photograph in a gray art gallery of a large glass case with two large vessels in orange and black inside it, a podium with an iPad display at right.
    What’s in a Case?
    by Lorien Yonker
  • An ancient portrait bust of a young man.
    A Portrait in Two Parts
  • Early photo of two guard dogs and handler outside in the yard
    A Museum’s Best Friend: Guard Dogs at the Art Institute
    by Robby Sexton
  • Black and white photograph of a cow skull hanging on a brick wall. A woman leans against the wall, holding its snout in her right hand, her nose pressed against its side.
    12 Things to Know about Georgia O’Keeffe

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