The Art Institute of Chicago
By Jonathan Berohn
Of the country’s great art museums, the Art Institute of Chicago is probably the most often overlooked. While the Art Institute certainly is dwarfed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. in terms of scope, to mistake its smaller scale for inferiority would be a serious mistake.
Logistics
The Art Institute of Chicago is located right n the heart of downtown Chicago on Michigan Avenue. Getting there is easy. There’s always the cab option, of course, but it’s a quick one-block walk from the El (Chicago’s elevated train/subway).
Admission is also something that is quite painless. Tickets are $12 for adults and $7 for seniors, students, and children over 5 (5 and under are free). Like the Met in New York, these prices are suggestions. You can pay less to meet a budget, but even full fare is a great deal for what you get to see. For those with a little flexibility in their schedules, Tuesdays are free for everyone. You can buy tickets in advance through the web site or at the door.
The Exhibits
Like any great museum, the variety of art in The Art Institute of Chicago is easily impressive enough to sustain a full day of wandering around. In particular, the armor installation, the pre-Columbian art, and the modern/contemporary collections all merit significant attention. The modern art, in particular, with its collection of Warhols, Pollacks, and Lichtensteins, just to name a few is particularly impressive.
Of all the major collections, though, the Impressionist and Postimpressionist works are perhaps the most outstanding. The Art Institute has numerous Picassos that let you trace the evolution of his work. The Monet collection is also quite large and diverse—again giving you far more insight into the artist than a few isolated works. Perhaps the best—at least the most interesting—single work is the gigantic Sunday in the Park by Seurat. This pointillist masterpiece is something not to be missed—and almost worth the price of admission on its own. In any case, it serves as the perfect capstone for a museum experience that easily ranks up there with the best art museums in the country.
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