The Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago will open to the public on Saturday.
Matt Spector/The Daily Northwestern
On Saturday, Chicago will formally welcome the much-anticipated Modern Wing to its most famous art museum. The new wing at once shows its reverence to Chicago’s history, acknowledges its vibrant present and tips its hat to the city’s future, all while holding one of the most comprehensive collections of contemporary and modern art in the entire world.
The Art Institute of Chicago’s public opening of the Renzo Piano-designed Modern Wing, will, at 1 million square feet, be the second largest art museum in the United States behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
“Overnight it becomes obvious that the Art Institute has this major collection of 20th century art that you couldn’t even see before,” said Northwestern Art History Prof. S. Hollis Clayson. “There’s more of it up on the walls, and they’ve done so much restoration and new research – it’s like you’ve never seen it before.”
The Art Institute will celebrate the opening of the wing with free admission to the entirety of the art museum from May 16-22. It will also hold a food drive in conjunction with the Greater Chicago Food Depository during the week.
The wing allows the Art Institute to reassert its commitment to “the art of the past and the art of our time,” said James Cuno, president and director of the Art Institute and an adjunct professor in NU’s Art History Department.
“We have, we think, the greatest collection of modern contemporary works of art in any encyclopedic museum in the country,” he said.
Clayson said the Art Institute has always been known for its “very important” collection of 19th century art. Now its 20th century collection is going to make it “a real competitor,” she added.
Cuno highlighted how the new wing enabled the Art Institute to reassess its current collections as well as its role in the Chicago community.
“The Modern Wing has allowed us to bring our modern and contemporary collections together under one roof and in conditions better than they’ve been before, more spacious than before and with greater coherence than before,” Cuno said. “It’s allowed us to rethink those collections and how the visitors experience them.”
The Institute will also offer discounted admissions price to allow easier access for visitors and Chicago residents, he said. Tickets are $12 for students and $10 for Chicago students.
“These collections have been built over generations by Chicagoans for Chicagoans,” Cuno said. “We want to make it possible for as many Chicagoans who can come do come to take advantage of these great resources that are held in trust for them.”
Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and Modern Wing architect Piano will be on hand for the civic dedication of the building Saturday.
The Pritzker Prize-winning architect is best known as the creator of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the new New York Times Building at 42nd Street in Manhattan. As an architect known for creating artistic spaces with “elegance,” Piano created a display “nourished by natural light for the human experience,” Cuno said.
Architecture and design curator Joe Rosa described the museum’s approach to design as “the everyday; part of every aspect of how we exist.”
He said the wing’s design space attempts to capture “acts of invention, not perfection.”
The structure, however, with its chrome exterior and strikingly modern angles, will likely elicit “divided opinion,” Clayson said.
“From the inside – it’s such a better building than it is from the outside,” she said. “The galleries, the spaces, the layout, the way the light works, the way the views out the window frame the city…it’s absolutely extraordinary from the inside.”
The building’s windows frame views of Millennium Park, including the Frank Gehry-designed Pritzker Pavilion, creating a “dialogue” between the wing and the cityscape, Clayson said.
“It makes the Pritzker Pavilion look better than it has ever looked,” she said. “The joke of the building will be that Renzo Piano has done an incredible favor for Frank Gehry.”
Cuno said visitors should expect a one-of-a-kind art experience.
“This is a museum that has always been both attuned to the art of the past and the art of the present to build an encyclopedic collection that represents all of the history of human cultural and artistic achievement – photography, film, video, architecture, design, sculpture and painting as you’ve never seen them before,” Cuno said.
