Elisa Kronish - Top 10 Chicago

Guarded by iconic lions, and up a flight of grand stone steps (a favorite local meeting place) is the Midwests largest, and one of the USAs best art museums. Housed in a massive Beaux Arts edifice with an impressive Modern Wing by Renzo Piano, the Institute has some 260,000 works from around the globe, and is famous for its Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works and touring shows. 111 S. Michigan Ave. L Station: Adams (Green, Orange, Purple, Brown & Pink lines). Monroe (Blue & Red lines) 312 443 3600 www.artic.edu Open 10:30am5pm MonFri (to 8pm Thu); 10:30am5pm Sat & Sun Adm: adults $18; students, seniors and children 14 yrs and older $12; under 14 yrs free; free adm 1st and 2nd Wed of month, 58pm Thu, 59pm summer, and Feb DA

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Massive and mesmerizing, this painting took Georges Seurat two years to complete. The scene is created from dots of color, based on his study of optical theory, later known as pointillism.

Acrobats at the Cirque Fernando

Children were often the subjects of Renoirs sunny paintings: this luminous 1879 work shows a circus owners daughters taking a bow after their act.

At the Moulin Rouge

Unlike many of his fellow Impressionists who painted serene, often natural scenes, Toulouse-Lautrec was drawn to the exuberant night- and lowlife of Paris. This dramatic composition (1892) celebrates the famous Moulin Rouge cabaret.

Stacks of Wheat series

From 189091, Monet painted 30 views of the haystacks that stood outside his house at Giverny in France. This museum has six of them, which illustrate the basic Impressionist doctrine of capturing fleeting moments in nature.

America Windows

Unveiled at the Art Institute in 1977, Marc Chagalls stunning stained-glass windows were a gift to the city he loved. The six vibrant panels depict the US as a place of cultural and religious freedom.

Nighthawks

One of the best-known images in 20th-century American Art, this 1942 painting by Realist Edward Hopper has a melancholy quality. It cleverly depicts fluorescent lighting, at the time a recent introduction to US cities.

The Childs Bath

The only American to exhibit in Paris with the Impressionists, Mary Cassatt is known for using then-unconventional techniques such as elevated vantage points. She often portrayed women and children as in this, her most famous painting (1893).

The Old Guitarist

A 22-year-old, struggling Picasso painted this tortured 1903 portrait during his Blue Period. This reflected his grief over a friends suicide and was a precursor to his own style of Cubism.

The Herring Net

Winslow Homer honed his realist skills as an illustrator for magazines and later for the Union during the Civil War. After moving to Maine, he created a series of images, including this one (1885), depicting mans complex relationship with the sea.

American Gothic

Grant Wood borrowed from the detailed style of Flemish Renaissance art to create this much-parodied painting (1930). Though perceived by many as satirical, the painting celebrates rural American values.

Museum Guide

Including its stunning Modern Wing, the Art Institute is now the second-largest art museum in the US. The locations of works and the accessibility of specific galleries are subject to change, so if there is a particular work you would like to see, please check in advance of your visit to ensure it is on view.

Tip: Terzo Piano, in the Modern Wing, is a must-stop for a fine-dining lunch with stunning city views, or cross over to Cosi, 116 S. Michigan Ave. for great sandwiches.

Tip: Join a free, hour-long introductory tour. Meet in gallery 100 (noon daily, plus 2pm Tue, Wed, and Fri).

Tip: Dont miss the reconstruction of the 1893 Stock Exchange Trading Room.

Collections

European Paintings

Arranged chronologically, and spanning the Middle Age through 1950, this prodigious collection includes a significant array of Renaissance and Baroque art and sculpture. However, its main draw is a body of nearly 400 Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings. Instrumental in its creation was Bertha Honor Palmer who acquired over 40 Impressionist works (largely ignored in France at the time) for the 1893 Worlds Columbian Exposition.

American Arts

This impressive holding contains some 5,500 paintings and sculptures dating from the colonial period to 1950. In addition, paintings and works on paper are on loan from the Terra collection, and there is a range of decorative arts, including furniture, glass, and ceramics from the 18th century through to the present. The silver collection is especially noteworthy.

Architecture

Given the citys strong architectural heritage and focus, it is not surprising that Chicagos Art Institute boasts an architecture and design department, one of only a few in the US. Sketches and drawings are accessible by appointment, and changing public displays feature models, drawings, and architectural pieces, such as a stained-glass window by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Modern & Contemporary Art

This important collection represents the significant arts movements in Europe and the US from 1950 to the present day, including a strong body of Surrealist works, and notable paintings by Picasso, Matisse, and Kandinsky, as well as showing how American artists, such as Georgia OKeeffe, interpreted European Modernism.