Van Gogh's Bedrooms

February 14, 2016–May 10, 2016
http://www.artic.edu/

Vincent van Gogh’s bedroom in Arles is arguably the most famous chambre in the history of art. It also held special significance for the artist, who created three distinct paintings of this intimate space from 1888 to 1889. This exhibition—presented only at the Art Institute of Chicago—brings together all three versions of The Bedroom for the first time in North America, offering a pioneering and in-depth study of their making and meaning to Van Gogh in his relentless quest for home.

Van Gogh painted his first Bedroom just after moving into his beloved “Yellow House” in Arles, France, in 1888. He was so enamored with the work, now in the collection of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, that after water damage threatened its stability, he became determined to preserve the composition by painting a second version while at an asylum in Saint-Rémy in 1889. Identical in scale and yet distinct from the original, that second work is now one of the icons of the Art Institute’s permanent collection. Van Gogh created a smaller third version, now at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, as a gift for his mother and sister a few weeks after making the second. While the three paintings at first appear almost identical, when examined closely, each reveals distinct and unique details.

The New Contemporary

Opening December 13, 2015


Iconic contemporary masterpieces by artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jasper Johns are among the 44 new works that transform the presentation of our contemporary collection.

This December, we reopen our galleries of contemporary art, unveiling the largest gift in the Art Institute’s 136-year history: 44 iconic works by artists such as Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jasper Johns. Generously donated by Chicago collectors Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson, these 44 paintings, sculptures, and photographs transform the museum’s presentation of contemporary art, bringing new depth and perspective to the Art Institute’s already strong holdings and making this collection the strongest of any encyclopedic art museum in the world.

Making Place: The Architecture of David Adjaye

September 19, 2015–January 3, 2016
http://www.artic.edu/

With over 50 built projects across the world, David Adjaye is rapidly emerging as a major international figure in architecture and design. Rather than advancing a signature architectural style, Adjaye’s structures address local concerns and conditions through both a historical understanding of context and a global understanding of modernism. This mid-career survey—the first devoted to Adjaye—offers an in-depth overview of the architect’s distinct approach and visual language with a dynamic installation design conceived by Adjaye Associates.

While Adjaye has never adhered to a discrete style, his projects coalesce around certain ideas. Often set in cities struggling with diversity and difference, his public buildings provide spaces that foster links among people and explore how neighborhoods evolve, how new communities are created, and how unexpected junctures weave diverse urban identities and experiences into the tapestry of multiculturalism. Rethinking conventions, his designs speak to the specific time and place in which they were made. These ideas are expressed in important recent projects, such as the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) on the mall in Washington, D.C., a building that faces history head on, bringing together references from across Africa and America in a visually and physically evocative design.

Gates of the Lord: The Tradition of Krishna Paintings

September 13, 2015–January 3, 2016
http://www.artic.edu/

This fall, the Art Institute of Chicago offers a glimpse of one of the world’s most intimate and private religious traditions. Bringing together over 100 artworks from private and public collections in India and the United States, Gates of the Lord: The Tradition of Krishna Paintings is the first major U.S. exhibition to explore the unique visual culture of the Pushtimarg, a Hindu denomination from Western India.

The exhibition takes its visitors through a year in Nathdwara, in which the daily worship of Shrinathji is characterized by the changing of seasons and a bustling festival calendar. Gallery by gallery, the viewer is introduced to the pichvais used as backdrops for Shrinathji in his shrine, each uniquely suited to a particular season or festival. The accompanying miniature paintings offer further insight into the Pushtimarg sect: its mode of veneration, history, and important priests and patron families, while festival and devotional music, a shrine reconstruction, and touchscreen kiosks that allow visitors to page through religious manuscripts, an artist sketchbook, and a historic photo album enhance the experience of the Pushtimarg’s rich culture. The exhibition ends with an exploration of the works, sketches, and observations of prominent 20th- and 21st-century Nathdwara artists who have kept the painting tradition flourishing through the present day.

Kesa: Japanese Buddhist Monks’ Vestments

August 21, 2015– January 2016
http://www.artic.edu/

The Art Institute’s Department of Textiles is fortunate to own a large collection, some 200 in all, of kesa, the rectangular or trapezoidal outer garment traditionally worn by Buddhist monks and priests in Japan. The textiles have been mostly acquired over the years by donations from various private collectors, but the largest group and many of the most significant pieces came from the collection of Ralph and Mary Hays in 2004. Although a few examples of our kesa have been displayed in the past, this is the first exhibition at the Art Institute to present an overview of this distinctive group of textiles.

Often described as a mantle or robe, the kesa is worn draped diagonally over the left shoulder and under the right armpit. The Japanese term kesa derives from the Sanskrit word kasaya (or turbulence, an allusion to the dyeing process) and indicates the garment’s Indian origin. Indeed, as a reminder of this origin and the historical Buddha’s own simple patched garment, kesa are formed from many fragments of the same cloth. Within each garment, the fragments are typically organized in a series of columns framed by a border with mitered corners. The number of columns, ranging from five to 25 but most often seven, indicates both the specific function of that garment and also the rank of the wearer within the religious hierarchy. Many examples are adorned with six added squares, usually from a different fabric, that reinforced points of stress from wear but have assumed symbolic value as well. Attached rinds, loops, and cords helped hold the garments in place when worn.

Although there are earlier examples, particularly in Japanese temple collections, most surviving kesa date from the Edo period (1615–1868) and the Meiji period (1868–1912). The fabrics used during these periods are often highly patterned and made of sumptuous materials, in aristocratic defiance of the garments’ humble beginnings. Some of the fabrics are reused garments—Noh theatrical robes, kimonos, even Chinese robes—donated to temples by wealthy devotees. This selection of 23 kesa shows both the range and exquisite intricacy of this beautiful and historically rich garment.

Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926–1938

June 24 - October 13, 2014
http://www.artic.edu

Seeking to make “everyday objects shriek aloud,” or make the familiar unfamiliar, Belgian artist René Magritte created some of the 20th century’s most extraordinary—and indelible—images. This exhibition, the first major museum show to focus on the artist’s most profoundly inventive and experimental years, features over 100 paintings, collages, drawings, and objects, along with a selection of photographs, periodicals, and early commercial work, that trace the birth of the themes and strategies Magritte would go on to use throughout his long, productive career—and which make his paintings so unforgettable today.

The exhibition concludes with a remarkable group of works Magritte made in London and in Brussels between 1937 and 1938, with a particular emphasis on the commissions he completed for the eccentric British collector Edward James, including the Art Institute’s own Time Transfixed. The show’s chronological endpoint, 1938, marks both a historically and biographically significant moment: it was just before the outbreak of World War II and the year Magritte delivered an important retrospective account of what had made him a Surrealist painter.