I had the opportunity to visit the Art Institute of Chicago a week ago after I had my passport renewed at the Philippine Consulate. The Art Institute (Museum) and the Consulate office are both located on the same street, Michigan Avenue, and only a couple of blocks away from each other. The first time I was in Chicago last year, I never had the chance to see what's inside the Institute. Finally, I had the time to be awed by its collection of arts.
The First level has the Ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Etruscan Collections. It also has the American Collection of Paintings from 1700 to 1955, the American Sculpture, Decorative Arts, Furniture and American Modernism. Everything about Asia (Chinese, Japanese, South Asian, Southeast Asian, Himalayan, Korean) is also in the first level.
The Second level houses the European galleries, Prints and Drawings (Northern European, Southern European, French, British).
As much as I enjoyed the ancient collections, I also admired the modern art, which includes nearly 1,000 works of art by artists from Europe and the Americas. There were Picasso's Old Guitarist, Matisse's Bathers by a River, Lachaise's Woman (Elevation), Brancusi's Golden Bird, O'Keeffe's Black Cross, New Mexico, Orozco's Zapata, Wood's American Gothic, Magritte's Time Transfixed, Hopper's Nighthawks, and Ivan Albright's Picture of Dorian Gray.
Masks and figural sculpture from Africa were very impressive. The Art Institute’s collection of over 80 African ceramics is the largest in an American art museum.
The visit was worth it. I took some photos inside the museum (oh, I was actually approached by one of the guards for taking pictures with the flash on). Taking photos is allowed but without the flash. I apologized for not reading the rules.
Here are few of the photos of the collection:
Labels: USA Blogging, World Travels
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