The first publication to focus on the Art Institute's outstanding collection of American modernism, this volume includes over 175 important paintings, sculptures, decorative-art objects, and works on paper made in North America between World War II and 1955. Together they fully reflect the history of American art in these decades, including examples of early modernism, Social Realism, Surrealism, and Abstract Expressionism. Among the paintings are such iconic works as Hopper's Nighthawks and Wood's American Gothic, along with notable pieces by Davis, De Kooning, Hartley, Lawrence, Marin, O'Keeffe, Pollock, and Sheeler. Among the sculptors represented are Calder, Cornell, and Noguchi. Spectacular decorative artwork by the Eameses, Grotell, Neutra, Saarinen, F. L. Wright, and Zeisel are also featured. Reproduced in full color, each work is accompanied by an accessible and up-to-date text, complete with comparative illustrations. The introduction traces the formation of this important collection by a number of noted curators, collectors, and patrons. Distributed for the Art Institute of Chicago
Chicago’s fine arts have long languished in the shadow of the city’s architectural riches, but their time has finally come, most prominently as the focus of the final major exhibition at Chicago’s Terra Museum of American Art. The attendant catalog of the Terra Museum’s fall 2004 exhibition, "Chicago Modern, 1893-1945: Pursuit of the New", is the first-ever survey by a major art museum of early American modernist works created by Chicago artists. At the opening of the twentieth century, Chicago was regarded as the quintessential modern city that would provide fertile soil for a new national art. The debut of impressionism at the World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 bore early witness to this expectation as it marked the arrival of modern art in Chicago. In the midst of great local controversy, and echoing debates raging at the time in New York and Paris, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago incorporated modernism into its curriculum, a move that led Chicago-trained artists to experiment in and reinterpret the prominent art movements of their time. Here, for the first time, this work is showcased. This volume focuses on the rich body of artistic work produced during the city’s artistic “golden age,” the period from the 1893 Exposition through the end of World War II. Noted art scholars contribute to the volume with essays that explore how Chicago painters created a unique niche in these transformative international art movements—from the impressionism of the 1800s to the social realism and surrealism of the 1930s and 1940s—and forged a regional consciousness through experimental means. This detailed and lavishly illustrated catalog examines the larger issues and concerns that shaped art in Chicago during this period, offering a new and valuable addition to regional American art scholarship and a fitting farewell for one of Chicago’s most beloved art museums. Contributors: Wendy Greenhouse Elizabeth Kennedy Daniel Schulman Susan Weininger
The history of American silver offers invaluable insights into the economic and cultural history of the nation itself. Published here for the first time, the Art Institute of Chicago's superb collection embodies innovation and beauty from the colonial era to the present. In the 17th century, silversmiths brought the fashions of their homelands to the colonies, and in the early 18th, new forms arose as technology diversified production. Demand increased in the 19th century as the Industrial Revolution took hold. In the 20th, modernism changed the shape of silver inside and outside the home. This beautifully illustrated volume presents highlights from the collection with stunning photography and entries from leading specialists. In-depth essays relate a fascinating story about eating, drinking, and entertaining that spans the history of the Republic and trace the development of the Art Institute's holdings of American silver over nearly a century.
This exhibition catalog highlights a recent gift of works on paper to the Art Institute of Chicago from the Gecht family, longtime Chicago collectors. The catalog comprises 135 drawings, prints, and sculptures from the collection, all of which embody a broad definition of Modernism. The book spans two centuries and contains artists such as Cezanne and Van Gogh as well as Mark Rothko and Philip Guston. Toulouse-Lautrec, Matisse, and Picasso form the backbone of the collection with nearly 30 works of art apiece. Suzanne Folds McCullagh (curator of prints & drawings, Art Inst. of Chicago) provides a short introductory essay that tracks the evolution of the collection. Authored by a bevy of contributors, the well-written entries maintain a consistent tone and quality and strike a good balance between biographical information and interpretations of the work of art itself. While the Gecht collection is certainly quite a boon for the institute, it is not comprehensive enough in itself to make the catalog essential for all art libraries. It does, however, belong on library shelves with strong modern art and graphics collections.-Kraig A. Binkowski, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington 135 colour illustrations
This book depicts a group of Chicago patrons who sought to shape the city's identity and foster a uniquely American style, by supporting local artists who depicted the West.
" Food has always been an important source of knowledge about culture and society. Art and Appetite takes a fascinating new look at depictions of food in American art, demonstrating that the artists' representations of edibles offer thoughtful reflection on the cultural, political, economic, and social moments in which they were created. Using food as an emblem, artists were able to both celebrate and critique their society, expressing ideas relating to politics, race, class, gender, and commerce. Focusing on the late 18th century through the Pop artists of the 20th century, this lively publication investigates the many meanings and interpretations of eating in America. Richly illustrated, Art and Appetite features still life and trompe l'oeil painting, sculpture, and other works by such celebrated artists as William Merritt Chase, John Singleton Copley, Elizabeth Paxton, Norman Bel Geddes, Stuart Davis, Edward Hopper, Alice Neel, Wayne Thiebaud, Roy Lichtenstein, and many more. Essays by leading experts address topics including the horticultural and botanical underpinnings of still-life paintings, the history of alcohol consumption in the United States, Thanksgiving, and food in the world of Pop art. In addition to the images and essays, this book includes a selection of 18th- and 19th-century recipes for all-American dishes including molasses cake, stewed terrapin, rice blancmange, and roast calf's head. "--
An expansive take on American Art Deco that explores Chicago's pivotal role in developing the architecture, graphic design, and product design that came to define middle-class style in the twentieth century Frank Lloyd Wright’s lost Midway Gardens, the iconic Sunbeam Mixmaster, and Marshall Field’s famed window displays: despite the differences in scale and medium, each belongs to the broad current of an Art Deco style that developed in Chicago in the first half of the twentieth century. This ambitious overview of the city’s architectural, product, industrial, and graphic design between 1910 and 1950 offers a fresh perspective on a style that would come to represent the dominant mode of modernism for the American middle class. Lavishly illustrated with 325 images, the book narrates Art Deco’s evolution in 101 key works, carefully curated and chronologically organized to tell the story of not just a style but a set of sensibilities. Critical essays from leading figures in the field discuss the ways in which Art Deco created an entire visual universe that extended to architecture, advertising, household objects, clothing, and even food design. Through this comprehensive approach to one of the 20th century’s most pervasive modes of expression in America, Art Deco Chicago provides an essential overview of both this influential style and the metropolis that came to embody it.
Featuring 140 color illustrations, the catalogue Archibald Motley: Jazz Age Modernist accompanies the first full-scale survey of the work of the American painter and master colorist Archibald Motley (1891-1981).
The Arts and Crafts movement in architecture, interior design and decorative arts reached its peak between 1880 and 1910 in Britain and North America. This text presents outstanding examples by the movement's British orginators, including William Morris, as well as its greatest American practitioners, including Frank Lloyd Wright.
For decades now, the story of art in America has been dominated by New York. It gets the majority of attention, the stories of its schools and movements and masterpieces the stuff of pop culture legend. Chicago, on the other hand . . . well, people here just get on with the work of making art. Now that art is getting its due. Art in Chicago is a magisterial account of the long history of Chicago art, from the rupture of the Great Fire in 1871 to the present, Manierre Dawson, László Moholy-Nagy, and Ivan Albright to Chris Ware, Anne Wilson, and Theaster Gates. The first single-volume history of art and artists in Chicago, the book—in recognition of the complexity of the story it tells—doesn’t follow a single continuous trajectory. Rather, it presents an overlapping sequence of interrelated narratives that together tell a full and nuanced, yet wholly accessible history of visual art in the city. From the temptingly blank canvas left by the Fire, we loop back to the 1830s and on up through the 1860s, tracing the beginnings of the city’s institutional and professional art world and community. From there, we travel in chronological order through the decades to the present. Familiar developments—such as the founding of the Art Institute, the Armory Show, and the arrival of the Bauhaus—are given a fresh look, while less well-known aspects of the story, like the contributions of African American artists dating back to the 1860s or the long history of activist art, finally get suitable recognition. The six chapters, each written by an expert in the period, brilliantly mix narrative and image, weaving in oral histories from artists and critics reflecting on their work in the city, and setting new movements and key works in historical context. The final chapter, comprised of interviews and conversations with contemporary artists, brings the story up to the present, offering a look at the vibrant art being created in the city now and addressing ongoing debates about what it means to identify as—or resist identifying as—a Chicago artist today. The result is an unprecedentedly inclusive and rich tapestry, one that reveals Chicago art in all its variety and vigor—and one that will surprise and enlighten even the most dedicated fan of the city’s artistic heritage. Part of the Terra Foundation for American Art’s year-long Art Design Chicago initiative, which will bring major arts events to venues throughout Chicago in 2018, Art in Chicago is a landmark publication, a book that will be the standard account of Chicago art for decades to come. No art fan—regardless of their city—will want to miss it.
