Search Results

This past year, a tremendous variety of new objects joined the Art Institute’s holdings, each with its own unique story. Here’s a look at some of the notable works acquired in 2022 that enable us to share a more expansive history of art.

Have some of our most popular works resonated with you? Would you like to explore further? If so, our curators are happy to suggest some lesser known works they think you might like.

The museum’s galleries are continually changing as newly acquired works and loaned objects join our spaces and expand the perspectives and stories that we share.

Responding to disproportionate racial and gender representation within Chicago’s modern and contemporary art scene in the 20th century, women seized the gap by forging their own spaces throughout the city. Learn about the history of placemaking in Chicago art spaces through selections from the Research Center’s Libraries and Archives. 

Food is a necessity and one of our greatest pleasures.

Every year we grow our collection with works that expand and deepen the stories we tell and the perspectives we share—across geographies, periods and cultures. Enjoy a few highlights of this past year’s additions.

Hundreds of artworks entered the museum’s collection last year, each one broadening and deepening the stories we can share. Get to know some of our most notable new works below.

In celebration of our longtime partner the Chicago Public Library and their 150 years of extraordinary service, we had eight museum staff members highlight artworks in the collection that tell unique stories about the people, culture, and artists of our city. We invite you to join this self-guided tour and experience these story-filled works in the museum—maybe it’s an occasion to create your own Chicago stories. 

The ancient Mediterranean, and Greece in particular, was home to a great variety of artistic communities. Over 3,000 years ago, these makers used natural resources like stone, clay, and metals to create new forms, styles, and techniques that remain iconic to this day. Explore a few highlights from the Art Institute’s collection of ancient Greek art here.

Join in a civic celebration with this tour featuring works by Chicago artists as well as works intrinsically linked to our city.

The Art Institute boasts an outstanding collection of American Art—fitting for a classic American city. Find some of the icons below.

From celebratory statues to intricate mosaic panels, art was created for a wide variety of functions and contexts during the centuries that the Roman Empire reigned. Explore a few highlights from the Art Institute’s collection of ancient Roman art here.

The Art Institute acquired its first work by a black artist—Henry Ossawa Tanner’s The Two Disciples at the Tomb—in 1906, the same year it was made.

The Obamas not only selected two groundbreaking contemporary artists, Kehinde Wiley and Amy Sherald, to paint their portraits, but as president and first lady, they also showcased an inclusive art collection while at the White House.

Explore the ways LGBTQ+ artists have expressed gender, sexuality, and identity in the vast world of queer culture.

The Art Institute’s holdings of late 19th-century French art are among the largest and finest in the world and feature some of the most well-known and well-loved works in the museum. The works included here are highlights from our wide-ranging collection.

The Language of Beauty in African Art includes over 250 objects from the continent across millennia—but how have contemporary artists in particular responded to those objects and traditions?

Communicating new perspectives, questioning the status quo, speaking out about beliefs, and inspiring others to take action—art and activism often share some of the same underlying motivations.

Cities—centers of human activity, growth, and creativity—have long incited imaginative responses from artists across time and place.

Chicago has long been a city that fosters and inspires artists, from students who are just starting their careers to acclaimed painters and sculptors. And the present day is no exception—the contemporary artists who call Chicago home make the city a vibrant community that welcomes creativity and big ideas. This tour, featuring a rotating selection of works created since 1990, showcases just a few of the many contemporary Chicago artists whose works are in the museum’s collection.