Art Institute of Chicago
111 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, IL
Chicago, IL
A world-class art museum guarded by two bronze lions, holding American Gothic, a room of Monets, and Hopper's Nighthawks under one roof on Michigan Avenue.
The Art Institute of Chicago is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the United States, an encyclopedic collection that runs from ancient bronzes and Japanese prints to the icons of American and European painting. It is the kind of museum where you turn a corner and find yourself in front of a picture you have known your whole life, from Grant Wood's American Gothic to Edward Hopper's Nighthawks.
Founded in 1879 and settled into its landmark Michigan Avenue home for the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, the museum is guarded by two bronze lions that have become a symbol of the city. Its holdings of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting are among the deepest anywhere, and a soaring Modern Wing added in 2009 links the galleries by footbridge to Millennium Park next door.
What Guests Love
- Standing before American Gothic, Nighthawks, and A Sunday on La Grande Jatte in person
- Losing an afternoon in one of the finest Impressionist collections outside Paris
- The pair of bronze lions flanking the Michigan Avenue steps, a Chicago icon
- The light-filled Modern Wing and its bridge linking the museum to Millennium Park
Worth Knowing
- The collection is vast, so pick a few galleries rather than trying to see it all in one visit
- It connects to Millennium Park by the Nichols Bridgeway, making the two an easy pair
- Weekday mornings tend to be calmer than weekend afternoons in the marquee galleries
- The building spans historic and modern wings, so allow time to move between them
Details
Chicago, IL
Learn about Art Institute of Chicago
A museum born of the World's Fair
The Art Institute grew out of an art school and museum founded in 1879, and it came into its own with the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, the great fair that remade Chicago's image after the fire of 1871. The Beaux-Arts building on Michigan Avenue was raised for that fair and became the museum's permanent home, its grand staircase and lion-flanked entrance an enduring emblem of the city.
Chicago itself rose on the homelands of the Potawatomi, along with the Ojibwe and Odawa peoples of the Council of Three Fires, and other nations of the region, whose presence on this land long predates the city. The museum that stands here today has grown across more than a century into one of the world's leading collections, expanding wing by wing to hold the art of many cultures and eras.
The icons on the walls
Certain paintings have made the museum famous. Grant Wood's American Gothic, the stern farmer and his daughter before a white farmhouse, is here, as is Edward Hopper's Nighthawks, the late-night diner glowing on an empty corner, and Georges Seurat's vast, pointillist A Sunday on La Grande Jatte. To stand before these in person, after a lifetime of reproductions, is a small revelation.
The Impressionist and Post-Impressionist galleries are the museum's crown, with rooms of Monet, including a series of his haystacks, alongside Renoir, Degas, Caillebotte, van Gogh, and Cezanne. It is a concentration of that revolutionary moment in painting that rivals the great European collections.
Beyond the paintings
The Art Institute is truly encyclopedic, and its galleries reach far past European painting. There are deep collections of Asian art, including Japanese woodblock prints, ancient art of the Mediterranean and the Americas, arms and armor, textiles, and photography, along with the celebrated Thorne Miniature Rooms, a set of tiny, exquisitely furnished interiors that delight children and adults alike.
American art is a particular strength, and the museum holds a rich record of the country's painters and craftspeople. Architecture and design have a home here too, fitting for a city that helped invent the skyscraper, with fragments and drawings that trace Chicago's outsized role in modern building.
The Modern Wing and Millennium Park
In 2009 the museum opened the Modern Wing, a luminous glass-and-steel addition that gave its twentieth and twenty-first century art a home flooded with natural light. Its top-floor galleries and terrace look out over the city, and the wing houses modern and contemporary painting, sculpture, photography, and design.
A pedestrian bridge, the Nichols Bridgeway, arcs from the Modern Wing directly into Millennium Park, so a visit to the museum flows naturally out to Cloud Gate, the great mirrored sculpture Chicagoans call the Bean, and the lakefront beyond. The two together make one of the finest afternoons in the city.
Closest Boutels
The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.
Things to Do Near Chicago
Cloud Gate and Millennium Park
Across the street
The mirrored bean sculpture, an outdoor concert pavilion, and gardens, linked to the museum by a footbridge.
Chicago Riverwalk
About half a mile north
A landscaped walkway along the Chicago River lined with cafes, boat tours, and skyline views.
Grant Park and Buckingham Fountain
About half a mile
The city's front-yard park along the lakefront, home to the ornate Buckingham Fountain and open lawns.
Museum Campus
About 1 mile south
A lakefront cluster of the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium, and Adler Planetarium on a peninsula into Lake Michigan.